pwrslm

Hi pwrslm, Thank you for your donation of $25.00. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks Veterans Affairs Disability Compensation Benefits Forums - HadIt.com Veterans

Do you have an EBenefits account? If not, you should do that first. You need to see enrollment at the VA to get ID verified to get an advanced account the allows you access to claims and appeals info. NOD should not take longer than 13/14 months. They are strange, sometimes they are done in 3, others much longer. to get up to date info on the NOD call 800-827-1000 for claims info

New law would pay off the residents school debt @ 200k over 5 years if they stick around. That is a big incentive.

"The president made the announcement during remarks at a summit on prison reform at the White House." Prison reform? Go figure....

Go to Google scholar and find some studies that relate migrainess to PTSD (stress and anxiety attacks etc). Here are 2 I found right off the bat. ptsd and migraine association2.pdf Published in Health Psychology in 2017, authored by 6 professors who are prominent in US Universities, copyright by the APA. ptsd and migraine relation.pdf Published in the Journal of Behavioral Medications in 2016. authored by another 6 specialists in behavioral medicine. This is how you discredit the examiner, because he cited medical literature but failed to identify any. You can, very easily, show that he has no clue.

The new system promises that if a VSO submits the claim, its 30 days to completion. Alternatively, the EB website is 125 +/-....(+++++). Bottom line is do ya trust your evidence and the VSO? EB you are in control, w/VSO they say they are but sometimes are under a huge workload and cannot give you the attention your cliam needs.

All the secondary conditions caused by Rhinityis and sinus problems are also ratable as SC conditions. Make a full list of symptoms and look to see if they are pyramiding or separate from the cause, IE...headache is not pyramiding if it is caused by the SC condition..if it causes pain and no other symptom, it is rated at the lowest level for headaches. If you have sinus headaches that are severe enough to be eligible for a rating, then they can be rated under the VASRD Code for migraine headaches, since that is the condition that is closest to your condition, and would be expected to cause a similar degree of disability.

H.R.5674 - VA MISSION Act of 2018 This is huge, read it when you have a lot of spare time!! I like it so far. Requires the VA to pay for walkin care for vets at non-VA providers.

"VA signs contract with Cerner for an electronic health record system " For 10 billion, the Govt could become their own Microsoft/Google/Facebook. They gotta be idiots to ignore that self determination.

Like everything else, you are your best advocate with VA Health care. I hate to say it, but I am having similar issues. PCP's are swamped, some have over 2k patients to deal with. I am stuck with a resident, the PCP seems to have forgot her job! I research everything I can, when I catch them making errors, I document my convo w/healthevet secure email (copy paste/download to a file on my computer). Just keep your eyes open. If they respond to your communications, you are ahead of the game.

I think there needs to be a massive effort by veterans protesting the low quality employees in the VA. Name them by name and location, raise stink until someone at the top of the ladder does something about it. If all we do is complain here, nothing will be done. Write congress critters, grab the attention of the press...heck...even organize a march on DC if that's what is needed. Use gofundme to get bus money for low income vets to show!!

I found that getting a nexus letter from a VA Doc is like yanking a leg off and donating to the red cross. Pointless and ineffective!! I do seem to have good results getting them to list the etiology of my condition, including the cause, in my medical file. Just get him to attribute the pain meds that you use for your SC condition to the GERD/BE and its just as good as a nexus. Your lay statements are sufficient to document that you take the OTC meds for your SC condition. Your Doc doesnt need to say that. You are competent to make that point.

Bertha is 100% correct on this. I was SC for Scoliosis only because my STR showed it after they said I had lumbar strain. Since scoliosis is a sub specialty in orthopedic I went to a scoliosis specialist for an IMO. Without that IMO I probably could not have gotten SC. Its going to be hard to prove that there was progression of your condition beyond what would naturally have occurred without a specialists IMO. The tech in 74/75 was primitive compared to today. No MRI avail until 93 in the majority of US Hospitals, so they only had x rays. Did you get xrays in service? They are kept separate from the STR's, and you have to ask specifically for the xrays from St Louis archives. Helps if you ID the hospital, and month and year they were taken. If they exist its 3-4 months before you see copies, so jump on that fast. Get on the phone and call every scoliosis center in your region, ask for IMO based on a review of records and an examination. Provide a concise analysis of the records, and bookmark everything so the specialist can go right to the info you give him in both STR and private treatment records. Make it easy for them and they may be kinder to you. The IMO needs to state that your work in active duty did aggravate and make worse the scoliosis, and if possible, to what degree beyond what would be considered natural progression based on known medical literature. Make sure you add your own statement about what you have experienced with the Scoliosis, as well as spouse and family that are familiar with your trek. Parents statements describing back problems and your history would also be strong. If its done right, the VBA will take one look at it and give you what you ask for. I know scoliosis usually does not progress much at all unless the curve is beyond a certain degree. If you entered with a slight 12 Degree curve, your spec should state that it would have been very unlikely to progress on its own, if at all. The amount of progression should be well documented for this claim because it was identified when you were given your entrance exams.

Your Parents could give lay statements. They could testify that when you left for Iraq, you had 2 legs, and both were missing when you came home!! This is something they can see. If your brother was the only one you told about being raped in the barracks during boot camp, his lay statement is viable because he can testify that you reported the incident to him. If that corroborates with medical records referring to treatment for STD's around the same time, it is probative and sufficient evidence. There are many ways to use lay statements from family, friends as well as statements from people who you served with on active duty to shore up a claim. The only wrong lay statements are the ones you failed to get because you didnt think it would count. Just stay honest.

Lay evidence is generally afforded probative value if it is provided by a person who has knowledge of facts or circumstances and conveys matters that can be observed and described by a lay person. A medically-untrained individual is not usually competent to offer a medical opinion regarding the etiology of disorders and such an opinion is generally assigned little probative weight. (111.iv.5.A.6.b. When to use lay evidence)