Captain D

Thank you Berta for your response. The C&P WAS done at a VAMC. Once she has compiled all of the info and submitted it, I will attach it here. I will also check ebenefits next week to see if it is there. The second transplant was not done at the VA. It was done at Miami Transplant Institute. I may try to have my nephrologist give me an indepent IMO as well. I tried to apply ofr SSDI but they said I did not qualify because I did not have enough credits within the last 5 years.

Hello everyone, I am new here. Thank you for all of the valuable information. Here is my case. I was in the Marine Corps and then the Army. When I came back on active duty for the Army it was found out that I had some kidney issues. I was finally diagnosed with an autoimmune disease known as FSGS. I was subsequently discharged later that year in 1999. I received disability rating from the Army at 80%. I filed with the VA and received 100% IU. Early 2002 I was put on dialysis. Later that year I received a kidney transplant from my older brother(also a Marine) from the National Institutes of Health. The VA never scheduled me for any exams. In 2009 I moved and never received the financial form that you have to fill out for Individual Unemployability. They stop my benefits and I contacted them and they told me why. I even drove hundreds of miles to the regional office in Florida. I finally reovered my 100% rating later that year. In 2013 I had a baby. My current wife and I were not married at the time, but subsuqsequently go married about a year later in 2014. I filed with the VA for dependant benifits for my daughter back to her birth in 2013 and for my wife and stepson from the date of marriage. Unfortunately, I started going into end stage renal failure again due to the same disease, FSGS. So I decided in March of 2015 to file for Permanent and Total Disability, so that i could get Champ VA for my family. I filed all the claims thru ebenfits. I recently received another kidney tranplant in Feb of this year (about 2 months ago). I also recevied a letter from the VA compensationa and penison that I was scheduled for a evalution which I went to on 3/28/16. After reading all of your comments, I am unsure if I did the right thing by filing for P&T. I do not want to get reduced to 30%. As one gentlemen put it, A transplant is not an imporovement of End stage renal failure. My kidneys apparently don't work, and now I have 2 in my adominal area. My claim was based on the recurring FSGS and that now that it came back and has caused ESKD again it has shown it is unlikely to improve. I also am thinking to open up a claim for hypertension since that is normally what you always have after ESKD. My question is how do I get a protected rating so I don't have to go thru this crap with the VA anymore? Also, are there any other claims I should put in post transplant, like side effects from medicines so if they reduce me I could somehow have a combined 100% rating for P&T? I currently take 2 immunosuprresants and prednisone for anti rejection. I have not been able to sleep due to the prednisone. Have been severely dehydrated becasue kidney is over producing urine, night sweats, tremors due to high dose of prograf, etc. Thank you.