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Andyman73
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Posts posted by Andyman73
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Thanks, Berta, Buck, Navy04, and Texas Marine. I have never mentioned this to them, because I don't want them to say I owe them. I only thought maybe an honest heart felt thank you wouldn't be too much to ask for, or expect, no reward or public mention.
After he passed, and I helped her move, and assembled metal storage shelves, for her, m-i-l said she would have offered me money, but I had some unpaid debt to work off. Apparantly she and my wife had some deal, and my labor was the repayment. I never even asked for anything more than a drink of water, while working for her. She's always buying the wife and kids clothes and taking them out...perhaps that's how I end up owing. It certainly isn't because I ask for anything. Been 12-14 years since I last made that mistake. And that took over 5 years to work off.
I guess it's just my burden/cross to bear.
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Not sure how this relates to anything, but I have to get this off my chest,
November 21st is the 1yr anniversary of my dearly departed Father-in-Law. It is also roughly the 2 yr anniversary of when I saved his life(even tho he died a year later anyway). My problem is this, I feel like what I did (not heroic in any sense of the word) was treated as if I hadn't been there at all. I had taken him for his weekly blood test, and was helping him back into the house, when he collapsed. I was able to keep him from hitting the garage floor, despite him being 5 inches taller and 45 lbs heavier. Once I had him laid out I saw he wasn't breathing, and I remembered he had told me that he can't sleep laying flat because he can't catch his breath. So I pulled him up in my lap, so his head and chest were elevated, and patted his cheek, after 20-25 seconds over all, he started breathing again.
My Mother-in-law is only 5'2", and would not have been able to catch him as he fell, nor would have been able to elevate his upper body, if she would have noticed him not breathing.
Since that time, the closest thing that she said that may come close to thanks, was "I don't know what I would have done with out you". I've done as much as I could, over the past 10 years before, as his health began to decline. My wife, she never even acknowledged that I did anything at all. His siblings, same, they appreciate my being there for my M-I-L, over the time from that day, till his death a year later.
Maybe it's just me, but maybe they never said thank you because he died anyway, and no body thinks I did anything...................maybe I didn't.
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Buck,
Hopefully you highlighted and or circled the dates and the specific comments to draw their attention to it. When I mail stuff, it usually runs around 11$ and change. I do realize that this may be a burden for some, but, I'm too afraid to not spend that postage money.
As for the page count, more is better than less, especially if it all points to SC PTSD.
Semper Fi.
Andyman
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Or they ask you why are you even here, or why now, why not before? And say things like "I don't see any service connecting records in the STR. Even tho it was SC by a VARO 17 years earlier!!!! One guy in particular is a Navy Vet, but must not have any issues, and while he comes across as friendly, once the exam begins...out comes the non-exam related questions. And then when you read his notes on your exam...snide comments and such. I complained about him.
Andyman
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Vync,
If you keep in mind that the raters deny just because it's Taco Tuesday, or because it is NOT Taco Tuesady...then it all begins to fall into place.
gossjl04,
Don't mean to make light of your situation, but having been denied for reasons as realistic as the Taco Tuesday reference, like so many others here, it's about the only thing we really can do, to make any sense of their nonsense!
Semper Fi,
Andyman
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Green,
Ya gonna go insane in the brain, if you become an ebennies junkie! I must fight the urge everyday, to check my account as well, and it's driving me crazy, both the checking and the not checking! LOL!
Semper Fi.
Andyman
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BroncoVet,
What is pertaining to? I am a disabled Veteran child of a disabled Vietnam, combat injured, longevity retired Veteran. Not that it makes me special in any sense of the word, and my AO/spina bifida claim is buried somewhere on the back 40. But is this related only to that, or what? Thanks
Andyman
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Buck,
Ok, good job, I'll be praying for your claim to be decided in your favor with the evidence you submitted.
Andyman
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SoldierMedic,
I certainly know all about your last line, I mentioned to my MH C&P examiner that dealing with the VA is so overwhelming, mentally, that I just want to give up. He's like what do you mean, dealing with the VA? I said, that's exactly my point, instead of realizing that the VA is a huge monolith designed to be impenatrable by Vets, he wants to know why it's such a fight for us. Dang civilian!
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Thanks, pumibel, I kinda just went on to ebenefits and pushed the buttons, and there it was. I went through my STR and found 6 or seven entries...I guess that should be enough to make the SC, right? A few were from the medical side and the others were from the dental side. So, now I just have to get them together and write up a statement to support my claim, and off we go.
On a side note, I also filed a claim for "sleep disturbance issues" or something like that. There was a sleep apnea option, but I remember someone vastly superior to me in knowledge and experience(on here) say to not specify the ailment/contention, but let the VA do it. I could only find one reference to sleep issues in my STRs, on one of those health overviews that we filled out every so often. I sure hope that's enough.
Andy.
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Buck,
The only way to find out if they need more info is by sending what you do have and they request more. It's always a crapshoot every time anyway.
And you can always submit more evidence as you find it, especially after your C-file arrives.
Andyman
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IRIS is the program the VA uses when you click the "contact us" link on the va.gov website.
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I wish my contentions came with directives like that!
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SoldierMedic395,
I feel your pain and frustration. I feel like a salmon trying to get back up past the waterfall, and never making it...
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Gastone,
I had forgotten about the sworn affidavit approach. I would have used that, but don't have the funds to pay for it.
Buck,
That PTSD statement form is probably better than the 21-4138 anyway, since it is specifically for PTSD. Between that and the sworn affidavit, you should have a slam dunk case. "Should" being the operative term here.
But we all know that the VA does what ever the VA wants, and we have to prove our innocence or our evidence.
What about your local public library? Not sure about securing your info, but most of them have decent quality scanning equipment, and probably able bodied personnel that can walk you through it step by step. Just a thought.
Semper Fi.
Andyman
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Buck!!!!
My post from yesterday is gone due to the interruption mentioned by Tbird.
But in a nutshell, it was this;
Yes, get all your evidence together that you have now, write up your 21-4138 statement in support of claim, and get it out in the mail to your intake center in Janesville! Do the certified and return receipt(green card) mail. If you can get it out this morning, they will have it by Thursday at the latest, and if it takes you till Monday, they should still have it by Friday, which is several weeks before the deadline.
You will be good to go, for that 30 day window time frame.
Semper Fi.
Andyman
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Yeah, Andy. From what I remember about the VONAP claim, I could only choose left or right jaw condition. There was no specific entry for that one.
I did it! Got me freakin out, tho. I think the choices I saw were TMJ or "jaw condition". Since I don't want to screw myself by limiting it to only TMJ, and therefor they deny me because they say it's something else. Ahh, but maybe it won't make a difference anyway...
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After reading what everyone has been saying about sleep apnea and service connection....I will have to go the "sleep disturbance issues" route.
I do have at least 1 entry in my STR, from early in my enlistment, where I mention trouble sleeping. And I have been DXd by my private insurance Dr., since January of 2014, with SA. And I use a CPAP every night, since then.
My recent C&P for MH was pretty shady, from what the examiner wrote in his notes(blue button on myhealtheVet.), so unless the RO gives my evidence considerable weight, and gives my current DX from VA MH Dr. some real value...may well end up being the road to nowhere...
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Tbird,
I appreciate the heads up, however, I haven't the foggiest idea what I may have replied to, added on to, or even started...or what threads I even looked at. Oh well, all my pithy sayings....gone forever! Oh well...
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Good morning!
So I had a sleep test done on 27Oct15. I asked for the results of the test yesterday in "secure messaging" on myhealthevet. I get the reply that I need to come in for the overnight test there, with all the hookups. (I have heard from others that the "at home" test is pretty much inconclusive alot).
In my results below of the "at home" test, can anyone clarify things?
(bolded part is mine)
Unattended portable sleep recording was conducted 10/27/15 16:00. The study was performed with airflow, resp belts x2, position sensor, snore microphone, actigraphy, and pulse oximetry. This HST was requested in further assessment of symptoms of snoring, witnessed apneas, and excessive daytime somnolence.
Respiratory rate is typically 12 - 14/min Pulse data shows ~ 58 bpm total and 71 bpm supine.
Baseline SpO2: ~94.1%
Time in bed: 7 hrs 41 min.
AHI: 2.2 overall, 0 supine (% 1.7 of time supine)
Minimum SpO2: 88%
IMPRESSION: This study does not meet criteria for a dx of sleep disordered breathing. However, events which were recorded were primarily central events. The few obstructive upper respiratory events were not positional.
RECOMMENDATIONS: 1) In further assessment, recommend an overnight diagnostic sleep study within 2 weeks.
Corpsman,Ok, I am going to try to compare my ratings to yours, just for sh!#s and giggles;
No respiratory rate noted. Mean SpO2 of 93.4 for diagnostic part of study, w/min saturation of 76.0 and mean value of 93.2 for same period. O2 saturation was below 89% for 28.5 minutes of the time spend asleep.
AI of 19.8 per hour of sleep. HI of 42.8/hr. The overall AHI was 62.5 events/hr. AHI breakdown is as follows; supine 71.5/hr, right-side AHI N/A/hr, left side AHI 49.1/hr and prone N/A/hr. During this time there was 1 respiratory effort related arousal and 2 snoring arousals. The total repiratory disturbance index with arousals was 63.9 events/hr.
Heart rate peaked at 98 bpm, average during sleep was 70.5 and highest for same was 91. bpm. But during the treatment part of the study, the bpm peaked at 104, average during sleep was 75.3, with highest for same period was 93.
Strangely there were no recorded periodic limb movements.
Initial diagnostic portion indicated severe degree of OSA with AHI of 63.
Longest duration of CSA event was 10 seconds, and OSA was 48.7 seconds.
My SaO2 mean during wakeful sleep was 94.5, with min of 73. And same for during REM sleep was mean of 93.2 and min of 76.
My sleep efficiency before treatment was 85.6, and during treatment was 86.6%(huge increase!). Pretreatment supine was 78 minutes, and during treatment, supine was 0 minutes. I had 16 awakenings before treatment and 10 during treatment.
So there ya go, in a nutshell.
Andyman
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Andy,
I grind my teeth and the VA dental clinic made me a splint/night guard to wear. I chewed through several softer materials, so they got smart and made an extra thick one from acrylic. I got mine through the VA dental clinic because I am SC for TMJ, not related to SA.Vynce, I have tried to be aware of what my teeth and tongue were doing as I was relaxing to fall asleep, and I noticed that I put my tongue between my teeth, but don't bite down on it, as if I was subconciously doing that to keep from clenching or grinding. But during awake time, totally different experience. I will be filing for "jaw pain", very soon. I have half a dozen STR entries from Dr. and DDO trying to diagnose my painful jaw(TMJ) condition, that spanned over most of my 6 year enlistment.
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I have noticed this, as well. None of my claims from the past year or so, have the R&B in the letters. I did see that they were included with my claims from years past. And I noticed that some of the info in my C-File, relating to the decision letter, was not included in the paper copy I got in the mail. It seems that they just blew it off as not enough reduction of ROM, or not enough looseness or instability to be rated. Or something of that nature.
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Nothing in my STR because when I got caught attempting suicide, they didn't file a report, and they didn't send me to get a pysch eval or medical eval done.
And while my alcohol treatment eval from both the medical clinic and the substance abuse treatment intake process are in my STR, the examiner wasn't in the slightest bit interested.
He claimed that he reviewed my records, but then once we were in process, he didn't mention anything related to anything in my STR. Not for the pain, or anything else.
Pre 9-11 Marines and Non-combat PTSD
in PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Claims
Posted
Hey there Devil Dog!!! I feel your pain, really, I do! I was in from 11/92-11/98. Missed a field trip in 1994, in support of Rwanda, but made same in '96 in support of Liberia. Mostly flying into Freetown to pick up refugees coming outa Monrovia, via Phrogs and the 2/2 MEU. We ended up with a Presidential Unit Citation. I was a maintenance Marine with a KC-130 squadron.
But as we all know, field trips count for squat. My teeth are about half worn off. My dentist swears I'm a night time grinder, but not so. I do clench the crap out of them, though.
Nightmares, nightsweats, trouble sleeping, chronic pain from falling down stairs at MCRD San Diego. Oh yeah, and 1 alcohol related NJP too.
MARINEVET95, you came to the right place, these Vets here, they will guide you down the right path.
Semper Fi.
Andyman