SameOldSong

Which does bring up the question, why aren't the vets records electronic already? If they were, they could be accessible by the vet. Not subject to a manhunt in a warehouse of paper every time you need a record.

I think I got the number of searches backed up wrong. It's 100,000, I think. But for the last 13 months, the NPRC has not been accepting any requests for records, so that 100,000 number is going to be a much larger number. In their defense, they have paper records they are searching which means people running around in a warehouse of boxes of paper. During COVID, you just couldn't do that.

Dr Brett Valette has been knowledgeable and writes a good argument. You'll need a full sleep study with someone monitoring you all night, not the WatchPat sleep study where they send you home with a device. If you are in the Maryland area (you did say Baltimore), Sleep Services of Maryland will do the sleep study. It's pricey at $750 if you don't have insurance that handles it. I would talk to Dr. Valette's staff first. VeteranPsychEvaluations.com They may be able to help you wade through what you will need to prove the claim. He and his staff are very good at writing a compelling argument. It will cost you about $1500 for that IMO. One of my docs did write that the medication prescribed for over 10 years for me causes weight gain. So does depression. Weight gain is an opening argument for sleep apnea, diabetes, hypertension.

The big question is "Have the National Archives opened?" They've been closed down and not serving up Service Medical Records or any other doc since Covid started. There are 500,000 claims backlogged waiting for those documents and like 3 file clerks serving them a couple of months back.

Sounds like it did go in but call the VA and ask if those records are in your file. They should be able to see them. Buy yourself some cheap insurance from the USPS next time. Walk down to the post office, send your documents in yourself, certified mail, return receipt requested. Keep those receipts forever with the copies of your documents. Never give anyone your originals. Make a note in a file that you sent this on this date and what it was. Don't bother sending them via your VSO, it will only clutter the file. Mail to: DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS CLAIMS INTAKE CENTER PO BOX 4444 JANESVILLE, WI 53547-4444 You may want to put your name, case number, and page # of ##, on every page. Makes it harder to lose one in the mix.

Michvetinfla, the psych diagnosis won't help your case at this time. The case is your feet, and then spinal degeneration. I know that it has created mental issues for you, but filing psychological issues like depression without first having a service connected disability is going to kill your case outright. The VA looks at "kitchen sink" cases and then backburners them like my 10-year fight to get my own issue dealt with. It's going to be tough to pull this together, but I would start with your feet. First, ask your Dad if he knows any chiropractors in the area that can give you an examination and look at your x-rays and the military evidence and see what they think. Believe me, having a friendly chiropractor that has a current license is going to be half the battle. You see, many of the chiropractors in our area are seeing patients forwarded to them by the VA. The chiropractors are the ones doing spinal and skeletal issue DBQs for the VA. And if they are doing those forms for the VA, they have zero interest in doing one directly for you even if you pay them to do the same exam. Why? Because they are on the VA payroll by virtue of having a steady stream of referrals and don't want to tick off the VA. And now with the DBQs gone, you need an exam from a competent outside doc that can give you an equivalent to a C&P exam examination. I haven't been able to find one yet in my area, though I did get a physical therapist to finally give me a spinal ROM and am combining that with a spine surgeon's report. Second, that examination has to be equivalent to a VA C&P exam. You need the DBQ exam without the DBQ. Or use the DBQ form anyway. I'm including the one for Foot Conditions (21-0960M-6), but it may take me a bit more to find 21-0960M-5 which is the Pes Planus one. Then, you'll need nexus to connect the service injuries to your current injuries. This needs to be done by a podiatrist or a chiropractor or someone with specialty in spines or feet and skeletal conditions. The VA wants the exams to be done by someone in person, but the nexus can be a reviewer that takes your records and looks at them. That reviewer needs to be a specialist that I mentioned above, or the VA will simply toss it. Your Dad can put his discussion of your case in a short letter that you submit. As he does not have his medical license now, he can't be your medical exam or nexus. But he CAN be Lay Evidence and submit a buddy letter on your behalf. The fact that he was a licensed chiropractor should have some weight. Get the feet done first, then go after the spinal degeneration. If you try to go after feet, knees, hips, spine, psychological damage and all the rest, the VA will just trash it and it will be hard to get a C&P. Now, you were military, get your records from the National Records Center, both military and medical, then apply for Veteran Health Benefits. You qualify with at least a day in Active Duty service. Ask for an appointment. Get the VA doc to examine your feet. That may get the ball rolling alone. VHA (the Health group) and VBA (the Benefits group) are not the same and the VA docs are often human. Last piece of advice in this message: send the forms in on paper to the VA Evidence Intake Center as certified mail, return receipt requested. That decreases the "lost records". Keep copies of every paper you send them AND those mailing receipts. When they send you stuff, keep the paperwork and their envelope. Twice now I've had to prove an effective date based off the letter and envelope the VA sent me and my mailing receipts by taking pics and sending my rebuttal in with these pics. They will still deny you the first time and basically want you to get a VSO immediately. I've never had one, and I did win my first 30% on my own (PTSD, which is really difficult to do and moreso because it was non-combat and I'm female). It takes years to get through this system. Years. Every denial or setback takes another 3-4 year waiting period. If they think you are one of the "file everything and I'm faking it" crowd, they'll wait you to death. I'm at the point where I realize that I can't go further without a lawyer or advocate. And I'm close. Really really close. VBA-21 - Foot conditions DBQ form.pdf

It's hard for me to go over posts, but I try to support where I can. I try not to be really angry with the VA, but that's incredibly hard. I've been in this slog with the VA since 2010. I filed it, they denied it, I appealed it, they denied again, I appealed it and pointed out that the first denial improperly closed half of my claim (the stronger one, actually), just got a DRO appointment and he signed a document acknowledging the CUE and brought those parts of my claim back into play. I filed documents with him in that appt in early March, but I don't know if they made it to my file or not. Covid-19 shut everything down the next week and I still don't see those docs filed. Time to send them via certified mail, return receipt requested just in case that "broken scanner" turned into "there are no documents that were filed at that time."

And I just realized that the Form 149 to correct your military service record is unreachable now for some new versions of Adobe Acrobat. I'll try to find the form and post it here. This is the form that is listed on this page: https://www.afpc.af.mil/Career-Management/Military-Personnel-Records/ Under "Records Correction" and the highlighted words "DD Form 149" which is a link to a forms site that is giving this error: Please wait... If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document. You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows®, Mac, or Linux® by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/reader_download. For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/go/acrreader. Windows is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Mac is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Update: WE GOT DAD'S DD-214 CREATED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE!!!!!! Yesterday, May 14, 2020, Mom got an encrypted email from the Department of the Air Force. The attached encrypted PDF was Dad's DD-214!!!! It's got his Title 10 service listed under Record of Service. There are only 6 days of Active Service, but even one day counts. And a note in the Remarks section of: Item 18: Member has completed first full term of service. Member called to active duty in accordance with DOD Directive 5105.2 and Executive Order No. 11405 "Providing for the restoration of law and order in the State of Maryland". Issued in response to <and then it's the Docket number for Dad's case>, 16 APR 2020. Ohmigoodness! This is HUGE!! Now we can apply for VA Health Benefits for Dad. He'll be in Priority 8 with copays, but he's on the queue. Dad is 81 now. We have some insurance, but not medications and hearing aids. It took roughly 8 months to get the DD-214, but it arrived.

Thank you all for your answers. Is it even possible to be rated for a TBI from a fall that happened in 1986? I have hospital records that show that I was unconscious when found and from the records, I was probably out for about 30 minutes.

I had a fall in the military that resulted in a C2 cervical spinal fracture. Years later, after complaining of headaches for 30 years, an MRI showed that the C2 dens is still broken and flexes a bit too much. I have a rating for headaches and tinnitus, and in the process of the evaluation for my vertigo a brain lesion was found on my temporal lobe near my sinuses that looks like trauma damage. The lesion hasn't been seen before because this is one of the first MRIs that I've done with a contrast. The neurologists think this is related to the C2 fracture nonunion as the vertigo has been a constant element for 30 years also. It's still in evaluation. But, if they pin this on that lesion, I'm wondering if it will reduce my 50% headaches and 10% tinnitus down to 40% TBI subjective symptom residual based on pyramiding. Does anyone have any experience with this that they could share? (One of my military friends was diagnosed with "fibromyalgia" from his Iraqi combat. It started after his Humvee hit an IED and rolled while everyone was wearing 70 lbs of armor and gear. The VA has capped him at 40% despite massive headaches and other residuals that combined could rate higher as part of fibromyalgia symptoms. He's been fighting it for 15 years now.)

@bellrungboxer No, I absolutely believe it. You had done the work and actually gotten competent doctors to test you and review. You put in the info. I do believe that they moved to decision without your information on the first time. The second time they had the private evidence in place and moved to decision within days. It's just that a fully developed claim is a slam dunk easy thing for them to do. It seems to come down to whether the decision is an easy one to make or whether they have to wade through inches deep stacks of documentation to render a decision (hint: they won't do it. those are the ones that get delayed for years). Congratulations!! Now use that BiPap regularly, and I DO hope it helps you with your breathing.

@bellrungboxer It takes roughly 2-3 weeks for submitted information to make it to your file. Don't bother filing an appeal at this time, just get one more test/piece of paper opinion, and submit it again as a new claim. If you appeal it will be 4 years or greater and there's no backpay issue here right now. You need new evidence to file a new claim on a denied issue.

Thank you, militarynurse! It's another possible line of questioning for me. I snapped my neck while in service, and have a cervical nonunion. I'm lucky because I'm still walking. Since the injury, I stopped sweating in the face/head, my urination frequency is far too frequent, and my constipation went off the charts (as well as almost constant headaches, vertigo incidents, and tinnitus). I've checked TSH, but several of the endocrine issues listed in one of the articles have not been checked and are worth a look. The constipation appears to be some sort of intestinal sluggishness. I've tried every recommendation by the gastroenterologist, but it doesn't seem to be anything simple. I drink water constantly because I also urinate about every 2 hours. In trying to nail down the vertigo issues, I recently had a brain MRI with contrast that revealed a small lesion on the brain that the private neurologist and private psychiatrist think is related to the broken neck. It's near my sinuses in the left temporal lobe, so it may be why the vertigo bothers me. Bluntly, there's probably almost no way to get that brain injury service connected because it would be as a TBI and that's almost impossible to do. Especially 30+ years after the fact. But since there is that brain lesion, and we know at least two of my cranial nerves are partially paralyzed dating back to the military accident, it's possible that there may be pituitary involvement. There's no good answer to the no sweating in the face or the constant urination issues. I do need to find an answer. My gastroenterologist wants to do surgery to deal with the ongoing worsening rectal tone due to constant constipation events. But, surgery for repair when the underlying issue is still unknown may just end up with less options in the future.