stillhere

Well finally got a rating back on my last claim, the denied everything except for the NP in my hands. Even that was only granted to Feb. 08. I asked for that in an recosideration in April 07. I have filed an NOD with a DRO review requested. 1. I am asking for a EED of April 07 because that was when I first filed for it. 2. An increase for DB2 and for my heart disease because of limited activities clearly noted in my exam by the QTC CP. 3. Now on the hearing loss I have a moderate to severe in LE and same in the RE. I sent in a statement from my audiologist stating that my hearing loss was consistent with noise truama that occured in service. I am requestiing my audiologist to beef up the statement to "more likely than not" I am hoping to finally get this to be SC and will go in my grave appealing if I have to!! Any comments or suggestions welcomed, the VA has givin me thirty days to supply them any more support before they start the DRO review!

John, Just read your first post on this subject but I would like to add you are dead on about the VA docs and the care. I have been fighting with them for 2 months now over a knee situtation and the ortho doc after an xray and a MRI looked at me and said "I have never seen anything like this in the 55 years I have been practices"! What a quack I am going to the VAMC tomorrow and get all my pictures and going to an outside guy. My wife is really pissed I even deal with the VA except to get my meds! The other thing you are right about don't trust the VA pcp to help you with your claims and tell you this is caused by DB2 or secondary to it, mine blows everything off as you are getting older. Yeah right and I am going to die soon too. I thought they were there to help vets it sure seems like the other way around to me. OH, well thanks for letting me vent on your post but wanted you to know that you are not alone in this battle for better care and proper compensation from the VA.

hey Tom, When I finally got a copy of my c-file which if you have not gotten you should. On my discharge papers they had normal audiogram on discharge. BUT, it also said in the comments part by the same doc it has the box checked Hearing loss. And goes on to say hearing loss unilateral high frequency. I filed in 84 and was denied even though my exam was stamped in bold letters "Adequate for rating" I am appealing right now and have not heard anything yet but I truly believe we have to challenge them on their grounds and what they write down. Your argument is good and I believe you will win this stay on them. Thank you for your service and may your ears keep hearing the music!

Ditto on the congrats Danang stay on them and get all you deserve. Stillhere

I like the newspaper and news shows like J says. maybe you can get on that cable show with that Beck guy. Truly though it seems they did not bother to read your claim. How this got to the raters desk is totally beyond me. the iris or call the 800# is the route to go again like J said and straighten them out. Good Grief Charlie Brown they get bigger and dumber every minute!

Good luck Ricky and congrats! I hope this gets cleared up real quick for you.

NO Promises But an associate of mine at work is actually good friends with one of the BVA judges so he says (they play golf together)I think I'll ask him what kind of friend is this guy. Any bumpping up of claims allowed. Again NO preomises!

Ricky, That is making no sence at all if I were you and lived close to the RO I would beating on their damn door right now. Something is really screwd up here. Are you positive the award or whatever it is that you have has your social and name correct. They only other thing I can think of is that it is a big retro check and the need the extra sigs. Very strange let us know how this turns out. By the way which RO are you referring to?

well called the 800# twice in the past month and told both times that my claim is at the rating board as of august 4th both times so I kinda guess that is correct. still have no idea what essential hypertension but plan on taking my C&P write up with me to my next cardio appt. and see what I doc thinks. Also had an appointment at VAMC yesterday with my audiologist and she said the VA had not requested any of my records from her but I am sure anything in my file there was sent. Still wonder why no c&P for the hearing and tinitus but guess I will be finding out soon. Thanks for all the help here this go around and if anyone has anything to add please let me know.

had a reading of 185/110 and freaked and went to my cardio doc and he had me at 160/90 They doubled up on my meds and it has been holding pretty steadty around 120/80 The day of the c&p I think was like 135/85 but like I said I would have to stay off the meds for a number of days to get the numbers up higher and I don't feel comfortable doing that. If the denie again and I NOD I plan on stating just that, but thanks for the replies. Makes you wonder if they want to compensate you and keep you alive or compensate and hope you die! Oh well having a bad day I guess. Take care.

nOT TO MUDDY THE WATER BUT i WAS GRANTED WAY BACK WHEN I first claim increase for DB2 the said noncompensable hypertension. Now they go on to say has progressed and call it essential hypertension. I have cad sc to DB2 and the heart DX sc to DB2 so how can they say no clear cut reason for hypertension when both of these DX go hand and hand with hypertension. They are really confusing me now. Guess I will have my heart doc write something to coneect my heart and hypertension. That should do it right??

I am sc for usual db2 issues and CAD also hypertension with no rating I am in the process for a claim increase and just got a copy of my C&P have not got the decision yet but wanted to see if any heard of this. Dx with pernicious anema and esstenial hypertension. It goes on to say progessed to DB2 with hypertension, cad. Are they going to compensate me for hypertentsion? They call it essential hypertension, anyone got a rating for this?

I guess I have to agree with this on the general claim were everything is already to go before we send it in but. On the claims that require IOM or buddy letters or whatever the vet should have the right to extend the time. I mean come on the VA has jerked us around for the last 40 years and now because we say that claims take to long they cut our time to participate in our claims! Makes me wonder which country did we fight for? The best of both worlds I think would be give the vet the option to send in a request for extending tim if need be to gather his/her evidence.

Maybe I live in a shell but I go to DCMC for some of my treatment and I work around the city. I have not seen anything yet. Good idea even if it only saves one vet. I did notice when I called the 800# the last time that I told them I was irratated and they told me to calm down and actually toke the extra time with me.

I think so too. Why not tell us a little bit more about it and maybe we can help.

I have a copy of my c-file and have been through it with a fine tooth comb and actually is one of the reasons I filed for one of my conditions. Seems a temp VSO has been arranged with the county I may try and get into him next week. His assistant say if the VA does not send me a letter asking for new evidence or for anything I want to add then they have all they need. Any thoughts on why they would be asking for treatment records from 2000-2004 when I did not go to the VA at that time and this claim is has a date of April 07 on it?

They have asigned another county VSO as a temp I guess until they hire someone else. I am most concerned as to why they are asking for records from 2000-2004 when I did not start using the VA until 2005 and they have my private doc records from my initial claim in my c-file (which I have a copy of) I just don't get this stalling action at all!!

I have had a claim increase in since April 07 and made adjustments and refiled in Feb 08 per the instructions of my new VSO. Everything was going along fine and then when I had not heard anything from anybody I called the VSO office and got a recording telling me he is gone! Well I then sent a Iris to the VA asking what was the status of my claim? They sent me back an answer that they were waiting for the QTC exam of April 17th and also the files from the DCVAMC for 2000-2004! My claim for increase was dated 4/2007! Why do they need records from 2000-2004!!! I went by the VAMC today FOIO and the nice lady told me all the information had been sent to the VA in answer to their first request. I got a copy for them anyhow and when I got back to my computer emailed them telling them I had the papers they needed and would be sending them out today. The VA went on to tell me that is fine BUT I should not use the Iris as a forum to email back and forth communication I should use my POA! WEll that would be nice but ain't nobody home there! This is just getting to be really stupid and sometimes like I said above makes me wonder if ANYBODY IS HOME! I am seriously thinging of take the trip to the RO and ask to speak to the head lunatic?! Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated and I will not use your should I have to something unthinkable!

Maxwell, I was told by email the the Iris was not a forum for back and forth answers and to contact my POA VSO? Well if they would do their job we would not have to worry about that. I am about ready to drive the 6 hours to the VARO and I am not sure what I will take with me!

Good luck and hang in there, would be great if you could get an opportunity to testifie at the BVA if they allow that.

I agree with rental on this. Send in everything you have and if you get new stuff while they are playing around with your claim send that in as well. On one of my claims I sent in material a little late and when I got my decision I noticed that they did not reference it, well I called 800# and they blew me off and said "oh well the rater probably did not need it"! BS! I send in an Iris asked how come it was not mentioned in my decision paper work and thats when they said "oh we received that stuff from you but did not know what it was for" Yea like a rats ass. I NOD and it was included and I got approved. Point is KEEP a copy of EVERYTHING you send in and when and check and double check that it shows in there paragraph "what we used to come to our decision" or something like that.

I also would also question their term "whie moderately impaired" what are they talking about. Where did that come from? There is where I think you will find the reason for the denial.

Did it say at the rater? I would question them as to why a decision has not been made since it has been there so long. It does not hurt to ask a follow up question to get a little bit more clarity on where your claim status stands. The Iris responce I have felt are better than the 800# but sometimes I Iris and call and get to totally different answers so I go fishing.

by the way who at VA told you your claim was at the rater? Iris, 800# or did you actually go to the VARO, just wondering on this because a lot of time we vets get the wrong kind of info from some of the sources VA has us use.

I sent an Iris to my local RO and they sent me back where to send the request. Make sure you ask for a COMPLETE copy of your c-file before you file any claims so it will not slow them down anymore than they are. It took mine about 45 days but depends on how busy your particular RO is. I did my first claims by myself and did pretty good but I am using an VSO now that works for the county he seems to be OK but I still stay on top of it and read here quite a bit. Good luck on your claim and thank you for your service.