Jay Johnson

Thanks, it sounds like a good program and I did some digging on it to see what it's about: Question 29: Can Hazlewood Act benefits be used for graduate school? Answer: Yes. Hazlewood Act benefits may be used for graduate studies, including law school or any other program of study at public institutions (other than non-funded continuing education) if the veteran has not already accumulated 150 credit hours using Hazlewood Act benefits since fall 1995. The only downside I can see is that it kinda screws guard members and doesn't extend benefits to spouses, but, other than that, it's a good bill. It sounds perfect for people who used Ch 35 for their BA and want to move on to a masters+......it appears that you have to exhaust your Ch 35 benefits before using the hazelwood act and there's a 150 credit limit, so it should be perfect in that instance.

Are you sure of this Pete? I have seen some fairly liberal education benefits for disabled vets, but I've never seen a program that covers any graduate work (not saying it isn't true; I've just never heard of it). Holli, Talk to the folks at your school (the VA folks in particular) and see what scholarships there are out there for you....given your status, you may have a leg up in qualifying for some of the grants available, but scholarships are a huge PITA, so you'll likely need help from someone qualified to direct you in that endeavor.

True, but tricare does suck in general:-) It's kind of the lesser of two evils really; on one hand, you can get the VA care (which is horrid), or, on the other hand, you get tricare to which most *good* doctors won't accept because they pay pennies on the dollar. We had to take my daughter to shriners for a growth on her finger because no pediatric orthopaedist in the greater portland area accepts tricare.....hell, they tried to send her to a sports medicine clinic and the doctor there laughed and said, "I'm not qualified to handle this....tricare sucks". Most doctors that I've spoken to about this tend to say, "I take tricare ONLY because I feel an obligation to help the military", which is sad imo....... Yet, our lovely government wants to cut back on tricare /sigh. BTW, I have tricare prime.....no idea how that factors into your equation, but I know we got a reduction in our yearly dues because they even gave us credit for the several months that she had been on medicare. Either way, the reduction does not cover the $93 month.

Yes, if you have SSD and tricare you MUST have part B (hospital coverage) and it does cost you $93/month; however, since we have dependents, our yearly tricare bill was reduced by about $100, or so, per year (still ends up costing a lot more mind you). It's just the government's way of slowly reducing that compensation check without doing it directly imo.....

Excellent news.....now go spend some money for some "me" time:-)

Except you're not factoring in workman's comp and, more importantly, civil litigating circumstances. Unlike the military, a civilian can actually sue his/her company for injuries, punative damages and/or pain/suffering; you, on the other hand, cannot. Honestly, I would MUCH rather have been able to sue the military for one large 7 figure settlement than have to play these compensation games for a life time. Do you honestly think that if microsoft put you in a position (purposely) to lose a leg, be raped, etc, that you wouldn't be looking at a HUGE lawsuite? This may not be for every disabled vet as some injuries are not *caused* by the military, but merely occur while serving, but the overwhelming majority of cases are *caused* by the armed forces and would, therefore, be subject to litigation. However, I do agree that some civilians end up with far less than what most disabled vets get, but those civilians also didn't have to endure the horrors of war and the crappy lifestyle in general that is military service......even in times of peace, families spend months/years apart from one-another and have to endure hardships that the overwhelming majority of civilians could not handle. Veterans have earned their pay imho.....

They need to implement COLA into the VA system, like yesterday. The 100% level can be an upper class paycheck to some folks in the midwest, while leaving folks on the west coast homeless.....this is a long standing disparity that should have been addressed years ago imo! With my wife's 100% + HB + SSD, we might be able to afford an appartment in the portland area without my income, which doesn't seem right given that, as an E5, I could go to school, while not working, on JUST her military salary and live on base in a nice 4 bedroom home....that just doesn't seem right!

The military is almost always going to retire people at 50%, I'm sure they've rated people higher, but I've never seen it.

It depends on which option you take...the AF pushed my wife HARD to take the lump sum payment rather than the retirement (which is ridiculous), but if the vet took the lump sum the VA would just offset. Even if he took retirement at 50% on a monthly basis the VA would just subtract the amount you were paid from the military in the retro they pay you (at least they did with the wife, but it was only 2 months worth...).

BTW, hammer the personality disorder HARD and NOW....with the backlash coming from congress over the recent issue with the army over-diagnosing personailty disorders and now is the best time to fight it. Without knowing a LOT more I can't say for sure, but I find the diagnosis HIGHLY suspect.....

Honestly, it really shouldn't matter. One is *presumed* healthy upon entering the military, so unless they noted those concern at MEPS, you should get service connection regardless of whether or not the VA can find a stressor. People get SC for all sorts of things that aren't caused by the military (cancer, arthritis, etc) all because those diseases manifested themselves while in service. With that said, the description given in your GAF is all VERY similar to PTSD symptoms and could easily be a misdiagnosis.....did you have anything occur while in service that could have warranted PTSD? As for bipolar: bipolar is the ADD of adult psychology......it is often over-diagnosed and improperly so. Although there is more than one type of bipolar, the most common of which is the one that is associated with periods of mania and depression. Do you have periods in which you feel extremely "high" followed by periods where you feel overly depressed? Do your words slur together when you speak when you're manic? Do you go on shopping sprees or do other reckless things whilst manic? These are typical signs of bipolar type 1. Either way, I would get a *good* civilian psych to evaluate you as well (maybe a couple), because more info is better than less and I have a sneaky suspicion you'll get a different result with s different doc. (reposting this here since there are two threads)

P&T is not based on the length of one's disability; rather, it's based on the prognosis. Having a disability for more time merely increases the chances that you will get a prognosis that says your condition is unlikely to improve. So, don't worry about how long you have been 100% TDIU, nor how long you have had SSD; the VA will ultimately make its decision based on whether or not your condition is likely to improve. My wife got P&T on her first C&P (after they initially found her 100% when leaving the AF), which was just 2.5 years after she was diagnosed with PTSD. So, P&T is based more on the likelihood of improvement than anything else; age and time are just added bonuses. P.S. - My wife was 26 at the time they found her P&T!

Most schools have a veteran's department (not affiliated with the VA btw)....I would contact the school your child plans on attending and see what benefits the school/state offer. Until recently, the law in washington state was for 50% tuition but was NOT mandatory; however, a new 100% tuition waiver goes into affect this semester, which is binding on all schools in the state. On top of state laws, some schools offer their own benefits for vets, so give the vet people at your school a call and they'll have the best info.

Yes, you can collect a pell grant with your Ch 35 benefits...I'm not sure if you can collect all three though (pell+ch35+GI). My first year back in school was just as I had quit nursing (to be with the wife) and started investing online instead, so that year's tax returns (for me) were low...this qualified us for the pell and I was getting Ch 35. On top of that, I got free tuition through the state, so I was banking all of the Ch35 and most of the pell grant.

I think you are confusing terms. "UI" is TDIU, so you already have 100% TDIU...you can ask for P&T so there are no future exams, but the award amount would not change.

I'm not sure on kids, but my wife's CH 35 benefits are paid directly to me via a monthly check (they won't direct deposit). As for scholarships: I'm not aware of any 100% vet only scholarships, but many states have tuition benefits for college.....my state, WA, just recently passed a law making college 100% free(just tuition mind you) for your first BA (plus you still collect CH 35). Depending on what your family earns, you may qualify for a pell grant though......try applying here. Good luck!

Finally, a VA screw up that seems to benefit veterans:-) (BTW, I'm refering to the fact that the VA lumps all "mental" conditions together)

The hereditary portion isn't really a big issue, the reason I included it is because the study(s) was worded that way because they only tested people, in the study, who had relatives with the disease. The problem with doing a study on alzheimers (and many progressive diseases) is that by the time you see symptoms you've already had the disease for quite some time, so they focused on those most likely to have the disease so they could detect it as early as possible. Basically, I think it's safe to say that your husband falls well within the age range for alzheimers, but I too think it is not likely (though should be tested regardless). The one thing you don't want to do is try to push the practitioners in any given direction too much....if you go in and say, "I think it's XXXX" they may only test for XXXX, so keep it broad (IE - he has been having memory issues) and let them run a full battery of tests.....if you're not satisfied with their response (IE - they don't test for alzheimers, PTSD related memory loss, MID, etc) then start getting specific and demanding more tests. This has been the most effective way in dealing with doctors in my experience at least...... BTW, anger and, other issues, *could* be stemming from the frustration he's feeling with the memory problems and may be separate of the PTSD. If he's hiding the true extent of his problems (which isn't uncommon) it could be causing a great deal of angst that has to be directed at someone at some point. I spent 1.5 years in a retirement facility and anger was a common side effect of early cognitive issues......until people accept the cognitive issues they can be very difficult to deal with. A good psych will get that out of him though......

In hereditary alzheimer's it is common for people to get early signs of the disease between 45-55 (source...since someone will obviously question me it seems...: Berhardt, Seidler & Froelech, 2002; Khachaturian et al., 2004; Vickers et al., 2000)).

Seriously, I am growing tired of people questioning me without the background to do so....go HERE to confirm what I said....also, reread above as I have highlighted the relevenat errors in your rebuttal to my post! I do not make absolute statements regarding medical information (hence the ***SHOULD***), so don't call me "misleading". Also, there are different forms of MRIs and CT (fMRIs for example) which are newer, more accurate scanning techniques that you may not have been subjected to (and likely not, because the VA technology is a decade behind in most cases). Do not make this error again! P.S. - From an MRI company - Applications Include: Primary and secondary (metastatic) neoplasms such as tumors of the hemispheres, the posterior fossa, foramen magnum (craniovertebral junction), pituitary gland and cerebellopontine angle lesion (acoustic neuromas) Stroke (infarction) and other vascular lesions such as lacunar (hypertensive, small vessel) disease, posterior fossa-brainstem lesions, bland vs. hemorrhagic stroke, arteriovenous malformations (AVM), multi-infarct dementia (MID)

There's an eye blink test that can detect alzheimers very early on that I read in a study awhile back....I'll try to dig it up, but, in essence, it had to do with conditioned learning and showed memory issues far earlier than was previously detected by conventional alzheimer's testing means..... I did some digging and here's a link that somewhat describes the rationale - Eye Blink Test. It's not the paper I was hoping to find, but it'll do I suppose:-)

Berta, "Infarction" is just medical terminology for "death", so if there are multiple infarcts within one's brain it should be detectable via a brain MRI scan. But, we can go around in circles for days debating all of the potential causes of memory loss(which could, in fact, be due to nothing more than typical loss as one ages, with no physiological cause). The best thing to do is keep a log of the "mental lapses" and sit down with the veteran with said log to show him, exactly, how bad his memory is (plus it will help in a diagnosis down the road). At that point *hopefully* he'll see the severity of the issue and go in for a battery of tests.....I wouldn't play up the alzheimers thing though, because it carries a negative connotation with most people and it may scare him out of seeking the medical testing he needs....just let him know that it could be due to many things, including diabetes, low iron, anxiety, etc, etc.......if you start throwing out brain death, strokes, alzheimers and other nasty things you may just scare him out of testing all together!

You seem to want to debate something for the sake of debate and you are trying to play semantics with my words as a means towards that end. The phrase you are quoting here was not meant to be taken as an official VA statement in case law; it was exactly as I stated, a MEDICAL *opinion*. The veteran in this thread did not ask whether or not she could SC the mental disorders, she asked whether or not it could be due to the veteran's PTSD. However, if you want to continue this, then keep in mind that it won't matter either way in terms of the VA because the mental lapses would fall UNDER the PTSD, so it's a moot point. In other words, the veteran would need to put in for an increase in PTSD in general and there didn't appear to be evidence of that. I guess one could argue that a diminishing cognitive functioning ***if linked to the PTSD*** could warrant an increase in PTSD, which is why I said to pursue, but don't expect it.

I agree; there really wasn't anything to debate. My only point was that this veteran is rated at 30% for PTSD and seemed to have a sudden onset of memory problems apparently without any acute PTSD symptoms, which would make it unlikely, but not impossible, that there is a cause/effect relationship between the PTSD and the memory issues. You'll also note that I said to pursue the PTSD regardless and to take a battery of tests along with it to determine the proper cause. To me, the phrase, "are you an MD", in that context, was a touch condescending, but I'm a big boy and I can take it:-) However, you did ask for a link to back up the quote you highlighted, so I did....I can't see how that could be offensive, but if it was, I'm sorry...... I answered a question to the best of my ability; nothing more.....

WTH is with your attitude? She asked for a link and I provided one with a rationale for said link......my post did not even have a negative connotation to it; if anything, her's did. Learn to moderate and stop playing favorites! People tend to do "googles" and read, what appears to be, very well written articles, but they are a FAR cry from scientific research and peer reviewed studies. I can google PTSD and memory loss and get hundreds of hits, but most are not peer reviewed studies, which make them opinion at best. If someone wants to debate what I said than feel free to link a "peer reviewed" study that shows a longitudinal link between functional memory loss and PTSD that shows a "causal" relationship......I searched 3 data bases of peer reviewed literature and couldn't find one.......