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HCV behaves differently in each of us. Some folks get it, and can fight it off, clear it out of their system, and only leave an antibody to show it was there. Cured, permanently. Others can have it for life, with only minor affect. Still others get liver failure. I had it for well over 20 years. Nobody has a clue how long, but the liver biopsy showed lvl 2 stage 2 damage, half way to cirrhosis more or less. VA got me treated with the new drugs, now they say its undetectable. Probably get retested again In a year or so to validate that, but hope that my liver gets better now.

Garnishment and asset seizures vary state to state. Fed Law protects your disability from most everything except the Fed Govt more or less. It does not stop them from taking assets you bought or are buying with those funds, but only protects the funds in your account. It also doesn't protect you from child support enforcement, I am not sure about alimony payments. Do your research for the state you live in. If the state or a third party has a garnishment order under your name, and you share an account with a spouse, its also under her name and most states will not allow the attachment of that account. Same thing with real estate and other property. Look into the garnishment. Walk into the courthouse, the Clerk of the Court normally has a place that you can review the case file, and usually get copies of documents inside of the case file that you want. What you need to study up on is asset protection laws in the state you live in, and the state your assets are in, if its not the same state. If you don't have a lawyer, most of the time you can get free legal advice on this issue as well. You can normally get great info when you use the free advice advertised when you shop for an attorney. You don't "have" to hire them, but if you can, do so with a bit of education behind you so that you are capable of making a good choice when you do hire the attorney. Some places can throw pro-bono lawyers at you as well, if your income qualifies. Now, for the time being, if there is a garnishment in the state court for your assets, don't wait for them to act. Write a letter ( as in now, yesterday it should have been done) informing the Judge in the case where your money is coming from, cite the USC jbasser posted above in that letter, and attach copies of the bank statements from that account showing the deposits from VACP TREAS 310 XXVA BENEF that verify the source of the income and the amount. Based on that, the Judge is basically obligated to protect that account from any creditors not authorized to seize the funds in that account under Federal law. No matter how that account is held, it is protected via US Code. Take your letter directly to the courthouse. The Clerk of the court should post this letter into the case file free of charge ( in florida its free, check local rules for your state). Once that is there, you have given legal notice to the Court that the bank account should not be touched.

Check the med board %. IF the VA rated you to low, you might be able to reopen the old rating if you can show an error. Have you requested your C File yet?

I called to find someone that I wanted to see, then asked them if they were in the Medicare system. Most of them are. I explained to them that I am covered under the VA Choice program, and asked them if they would sign up for the Health net program so they could see me (it literally pays the same as Medicare). It really wasn't a problem after that, Health net will fax info that needs to be signed, and an agreement for services, and then I had an appointment at the provider that I wanted to go to. If you wait for the Choice program to do its job, it takes forever. Being proactive and going out to get what you want is the answer. https://www.hnfs.com/content/hnfs/home/va/home.html At this web site, you can look up the specialist that you want to visit, to see if they already registered for the VA. If not, this is where they need to be signed up at so they are able to start.

Radiculopathy is not a diagnostic code. It is a medical condition affecting the nerves. They have to ID which nerve is affected, and rate the condition based on the DC that applies. Typically, they rate L2 to S1 nerve impingement as sciatic nerve problems. Depending on the level, it can also be rated as the femoral nerve as well. Your issue looks like sciatic nerve impingement. Levels of disability depend on the severity of the condition. Paralysis/partial paralysis is listed as; Mild (10%) to moderate (20%) are typically nothing but sensory issues. Mild are just subjective symptoms alone, where the vet reports numbness, tingling/burning sciatic pain. Moderate is mostly sensory as well, with objective evidence (medical examination, EMG/NCV tests). Moderately severe (40%)is a step up that would include motor sensory deficit, abnormal gait, weakness, atrophy would be mild at this level. Severe (60%) would be the worse than just moderate. Finally, complete paralysis (80%) would be that the nerve is not functioning at all, you couldn't walk with this condition, atrophy and circulation issues would exist. Below paralysis, is neuritis and neuralgia. Both of these are also staged from 10% up.

Big help would be for non VA MD's to complete DBQ's for claims. Disability questionnaires are used to document disabilities. VA made them so that any medical professional can complete a DBQ, so they don't need to specialize in any given specialty to fill them out. You can find a complete list of DBQ's on the VA web sites.

va national formulary has the list of drugs (etc) that the VA can give out http://www.pbm.va.gov/nationalformulary.asp

M21-1 III I 3 Sec B details the reasons for subsequent removal/exclusion of FDC's from the the program. http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/M21_1MR3.asp

If you can, scan all the evidence into a PDF file and then upload it to ebanefits. You can still snail mail it, but if you upload it, they have it and that saves lots of time.

1. call peggy....ask who what when where and why...on everything...get a session ID or employee#....WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN WITH DATE AND TIME..your record is good as long as you are consistent (I have a special notebook now for peggy) 2. 12 Dec is 30 days from date of request, they probably mailed the stuff...snail mail....if it doesn't show up in 10 days (22 Dec) call peggy...refer to 1 above....request they fill out a 27-0820 on this...should show up in unsolicited documents in 3 days. 3. when you get everything in...they usually want forms filled out...GOOGLE the form numbers...get digital copies and upload them on EBenefits...its usually a PDF file (save to desktop so you can find it)....it will show up in the section that shows submitted documents....call peggy to verify receipt the next working day...refer to 1 above remember...they are taking up to 1 month to get snail mail scanned into the system...peggy will submit a 27-0820 (report of general information) to notify the rater that you put in forms via ebenefits...those come up in unsolicitied documents...off the upload section...when you see them all...you know the rater has the info he asked for...and should move the case up

Pull up any similar case that you can find in the CAVC on the subject matter. Note how extensive they are, and how direct and to the point their decisions are. They don't cite paragraphs of other case law unless it is absolutely needed, only a sentences most of the time, that directly apply to the current case. Same thing with BVA cases. Use enough that nobody can question what the meaning is, brevity is courtesy. 30 or 40 pages would need be a very complex case with a long history. Figure on a format. Always use names, dates and times whenever you can. Copy and paste their own words at every opportunity, as brief as possible. 1. What they did. 2. What was wrong and why. Cite violations here. 3. What is right, with citations showing what should have been done according to USC/CFR/M21. 4. How you want it corrected, and why. Same format, for every topical issue you want corrected.

Until they start acting like a military organization instead of a unionized cartel, it wont get any better. Government should never be unionized.

Living Vets get a free stack of hot cakes with red strawberries, blue berries, and white whipped cream at IHOP all day today, 0700 to 1900 hrs. Yum!

dermatome and myetome are the "maps" of the nerves dermatome is the sensory nerves, and myetome is the motor nerves ringing can be caused by many things, but the tingling is dermatome....c2 and c3 affect your face/neck area

But they wrote it and published it. No FOIA required. Their tool, their power supply, beyond that its an open field. If its not valid, it sure is a huge waste of Government resources. Let THEM tell folks it aint' so.

My Prayers and Condolences to Carlie's family. When I follow her, I hope to be remembered in the light that is shed on her life here.

My Recon is due to CUE ( In ref to ASKNOD above), the facts are distinct, clear and unmistakable. The VBA failed to apply CFR, and M21 guidelines that should be followed in every claim they process. I left out the term CUE, but documented the whole issue, to include the Colvin violation, in detail, so I could submit additional examinations as new evidence to prove that my condition before and after the rating decision was the same. If they don't act on this by 1 Dec, I will withdraw that and submit an NOD based on CUE. Why? Because 23 Nov I have back surgery and the new claim will be for 100% convalescent UI for 3 months, then they will need to reevaluate my condition. I am giving them the grace period out of courtesy. If they have any dispute as to my condition, they have until then to validate their points, beyond that it becomes moot and they must rely on the existing records. So far, they have blown it. The complete disregard of the M21 evidence guides and rating instruction in my claim decision tells me a lot. If it takes them more than just a short time to jump on this issue, and correct it, I am going to document the whole thing and present it to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, there is absolutely no excuse that this type of work ever comes out of the VBA with its multi-billion dollar budget. My case is a classic example of top sheeting decisions, and this type of behavior by the VBA is the cause of a huge amount of appeals, ands a huge waste of resources by the US Government.

If there is a reason for the MD to suspect that you would exaggerate an illness, it would be reasonable to expect that question. There is a history here. A patient with a problem may do this subconsciously, not even realizing that the effect is a result of him/her wanting to be found suffering from this condition as a means to insure the litigation is successful. Some VA MD's might consider this effect if you have a claim in for disability benefits. It is a valid psychological issue. With the integrated medical system, the question could actually be a process of elimination designed into the software program that the MD needs to complete to finish the exam.

The fact that the car had a defect is well established. The fact that you had no business driving the car is also well established. One does not contribute to the other, so you cant say that if the car you should not have been driving was not defective, that the willful misconduct that occurred did not occur. The only way to resolve this is to go after what ever caused your suspension. Remove the suspended license, and your misconduct goes away. The defective car then becomes something beyond your control, and for a VA claim for disability, would be moot at that point

Have you tried traction yet? Sometimes that can give some relief. G'luck w/ MRI. If your spondylosis is this bad, you might be a prime candidate for decompression (more likely it is stenosis of the spinal canal because it affects your lower peripheral nerves). Like Talon said, fusion should be the last choice, but if you can find someone that can do the minimally invasive surgery, your recovery might be much faster. Decompression in the cervical spine is a very dangerous surgery so find the best neurosurgeon in your region if you go that route. I don't think that the Pharmacy could deny you Abilify (generic-"aripiprazole" is listed in VA Formulary) if it has access to it. Your provider would have to prescribe it to you. The primary concern I think is if it is registered for chronic pain. If it is, then your provider should be ok with it, the addictive issue with oxycodone alone is justification. (While there might be some evidence that it contributes to pain relief, I didn't see anything in the registry for this application for anything but mental conditions.) It would probably be off label use, and that is up to the provider. http://www.otsuka-us.com/Documents/Abilify.PI.pdf

Don't think you can have more than a few steroid/cortisone shots per year (that's normally what they give you). Use the time it gives you working on exercises. Are you in therapy? You should be.

Good that you are safe. One step at a time. Keep comin' back.

Whats that tell me about my Dr....hmmm.

That is an abuse of power.

I had never made a claim and they had lost 9 months of my records out of the middle of my file. Cant understand how they did it, but I am not surprised. They should have put it all on microfiche, then they could have had a semi-automated system of putting them into a digital or jpg format for access.