Navyguy2013

Looks like I had posted this in the wrong section so I am re-posting here. I have a couple of questions I was hoping I could get some help on. Background: While on active duty, my PSA was elevated, it was 5.7, then later it was 5.8. (High number is above 4). Other than PSA tests, only digital exams on my prostate was done while in the military. (This data is in my military medical record along with seeing a urologist while on active duty). No diagnosis was determined. I retired in 2013, and my PSA has been elevated ever since I retired. About 7 months ago, I had a biopsy and no Cancer was detected, I also had a MRI of the prostate and no cancer was detected, just a few areas of interest were detected. Now, 7 months after this biopsy, my PSA is 28 (Joy). I have not had another biopsy yet, but my next appointment for this is next week, I am sure a biopsy is in my near future. I have never been diagnosed with cancer, but statistically speaking, this PSA # coupled with my history of increasing PSA, and a family history, it probably equates to me having cancer. So with all of that said. Question 1: If (Hopefully not) it ends up being prostate cancer, is the fact I had an elevated PSA while on active duty, and I have continued to have an elevated PSA ever sense, satisfy the nexus requirement for service connection for a new VA disability claim for prostate cancer? Question 2: I am currently at 90% for VA disability. If I submit a new VA disability claim, with the VA revisit all/some of my current disabilities? NOTE: I am still under the “5 year rule”. Effective date for these disabilities is 3/25/2018. Thank you in advance for any words of wisdom you can provide!

Hello everyone, it’s been awhile since I have posted to this site. I have a couple of questions I was hoping I could get some help on. Background: While on active duty, my PSA was elevated, it was 5.7, then later it was 5.8. (High number is above 4). Other than PSA tests, only digital exams on my prostate was done while in the military. (This data is in my military medical record along with seeing a urologist while on active duty). No diagnosis was determined. I retired in 2013, and my PSA has been elevated ever since I retired. About 7 months ago, I had a biopsy and no Cancer was detected, I also had a MRI of the prostate and no cancer was detected, just a few areas of interest were detected. Now, 7 months after this biopsy, my PSA is 28 (Joy). I have not had another biopsy yet, but my next appointment for this is next week, I am sure a biopsy is in my near future. I have never been diagnosed with cancer, but statistically speaking, this PSA # coupled with my history of increasing PSA, and a family history, it probably equates to me having cancer. So with all of that said. Question 1: If (Hopefully not) it ends up being prostate cancer, is the fact I had an elevated PSA while on active duty, and I have continued to have an elevated PSA ever sense, satisfy the nexus requirement for service connection for a new VA disability claim for prostate cancer? Question 2: I am currently at 90% for VA disability. If I submit a new VA disability claim, with the VA revisit all/some of my current disabilities? NOTE: I am still under the “5 year rule”. Effective date for these disabilities is 3/25/2018. Thank you in advance for any words of wisdom you can provide!

Allan, Thanks for the feedback. Good idea, I think I will give my credit union a heads up, just in case. I figured it would take a few months for it to clear the system. Hopefully the hard part is over and no additional snags come around. I have been waiting for over 4 years, so a few more months should be easy. Most of this will go to pay off bills, and the rest to savings.

How long does it take for VA disability Back pay to be deposited into my bank? It should be around 80k. They also have to adjust my retirement pay as I was at 10%, now 90%, so they have been reducing my retirement pay by $133 per month for about a year. I received my 90% decision letter a week ago.

Vync, Thanks!

I got married while I was active duty, my marriage was/is in my military records, I retired in 2013. I am still married, I am supposed to be receiving back pay on several VA disability claims back to 2013. But I according to the paperwork I got from the VA, this back pay will only be for me being single, not for being married. How can I get this changed to reflect I have been married all this time, and so my back pay reflects that I should be receiving back pay for having a dependent?

Thank you all for your replies I am waiting on a NOD for my Sleep apnea. I replace my CPAP equipment every 30 days. I use my private insurance for my CPAP and doctor because I am waiting on my NOD. I have sent all of my sleep apnea test results to the VA, I also send all of my CPAP supply invoices to the VA intake center. I receive replacement parts for my CPAP every 30 days. I use my private insurance for this. I use John Hopkins for my CPAP supplies, they require a valid prescription for my CPAP supplies. My C&P exam from JAN2017 for my sleep apnea show a service connection, a Nexus, a chronic condition with the medical requirement for a CPAP machine.

How often is medical evaluation needed? I have a pending disability claim (4.5 years old) for Sleep Apnea requiring the use of a CPAP. I have not needed to see my doctor for my sleep apnea over the past 3 years for this. I use me CPAP every night. My CPAP supplier and insurance provider require a valid prescription for my CPAP supplies. I send in a copy of my CPAP supplies invoice to the VA intake center every time I get my CPAP supplies. How often do I need to be medically evaluated, or have a follow up with my CPAP doctor for my claim to stay valid?

jfrei, Thank you, that sounds like a good idea. I will be calling that number come tuesday. I will share what I learn.

I have a stupid and vague question. I have had a NOD appeal at the VA for several years. I got a phone message today from the DAV (Unfortunately my VA rep) telling me the VA has several questions about my appeals. I called them back, but never got a hold of them. I know the VA could be asking me all kinds of things. And the fact that they have finally started to look at my appeals may be a good thing. But, with all of you that may have had this happen to you, did it turn out work in your favor? I am asking this group, do you think this is a good sign, or a bad sign that my appeal will go in my favor.

Berta, thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately I have no way to prove that I was never contacted by the VA for my C&P exams. After I was denied for my original claims, I submitted my NOD, stating that I was never informed of any C&P exams, and that is why I did not appear at the C&P exams. Back in January of this year, the VA scheduled me for all of my C&P exams. I made it to all of these exams, one was even over 4 hours travel time away from my house. These exams were not performed by the VA, they were contracted out to a VA contractor (LHI). I have copies of these exams, and I have posted these to this site as soon as I got them. I am still waiting on my C-file, apparently it takes years for this to actually show up to me. That is a good example of the sad state of affairs if it take years for your own historical information to be delivered to me.

I have several pending NOD’s (890 days and counting). How often do I need medical documentation of my conditions? My conditions are chronic and other than surgery or medications (both I do not want yet) the doctors cannot do much for my conditions. Pending NOD’s include: Tinnitus, hearing loss, Sleep Apnea with CPAP, Degenerative disk disease cervical T spine, bilateral radiculopathy upper and lower extremities. All of these conditions positively documented on C&P exams of being service connected with Nexus. Thanks!

My claims are sitting at the NOD level, so no BVA level yet. My claims were originally denied for failure to show up for VA exams. Too bad they never notified me of any pending exams. I guess the VA was able to clear out some of their backlog by not telling me anything about my exams, then they could just deny my claims and move on to screwing the next veteran. About 3 months ago, I have also emailed Shulkin, I eventually did get a response, it was basically, "We are overloaded, wait your turn".

I am thinking about calling the White House Hotline to see about several NOD's that are well over 900 days old. I am second guessing myself as I do not want the VA to retaliate against my claims because I am rocking the boat. The RO keeps telling me there are about 700 claims in front of me. That has not changed in over 6 months. I know many NOD's are older than mine. It would be nice to have some forward movement in my place in line. Has anyone heard that the VA retaliates against veterans for calling the White House Hot Line? Does calling the hotline yield any positive results?

Gastone, I sure do have the US Mail Cert Mail-Return Receipts for all of my Evidence submissions. Sad thing is, I spoke with a local VA employee months after I got this receipt for evidence submissions, and he told me this data was not in my record. So I resubmitted. Then later on, I went to my C&P exams for these NOD’s, the nurse practitioner also told me she did not see this data in my file. I filed a NOD via a "de novo" review by a Decision Review Officer (DRO) back in 2015. My original claims were submitted back in FEB2013. I have submitted my FOIA request for my C-file about a year ago, so far nothing has come from this. My VSR is the DAV. The DAV has been of NO help to me,… ever. I am concerned about the VA’s receipt of my evidence because of what I said in the above statement, and every time I ask the VA about this data, I get different answers, they have it, they don’t have it, they have some of it, they are waiting on it… From what I understand (And hope) my NOD’s have been assigned to a RO at the Providence RI office for rating purposes. I get cryptic answers from the Providence RI RO concerning my claim data I have submitted to the VA. They have it, they don’t have it, and they are waiting on it. I have sent my data to the VA intake center several times, and have FAXed it to them several times. Yet I still don’t know if this info has really been entered into my file. (Reasons I have already stated). This is why I am wondering if I should send this info to the VA office that is handling my NOD’s. If it disappears again I have lost nothing as I have already submitted this info to the official intake center. I don’t think sending another copy to the VA intake center will solve anything. What do you think?

I have several NOD’s at the Providence RI RO. When I am able to contact this regional office to ask about my NOD’s, they tell me a variety of tales about my NOD’s. Sometimes they say they have all the data, then other times they say they are missing data, things like medical records, C&P exams… I have already sent in all of my claim data to the VA’s Claims intake center, I just don’t have any proof that that data has made it into my VA records. Should I also send my claim data to the Providence RI Regional Office?

bleggett29, I do have access to PAX. I will give also give Newell Quinton a try. Thanks again.

bleggett29, I do live in SO MD. I know exactly where you are talking about! Do you know if Ed Flynn good to work with? Thank you for the info!

Berta, All of my claims were denied for failure to report to C&P exams. Ebenefits does not show any data on my NOD other then when it was filed. I do have the denial letter from the VA, it just says all of my claimed disabilities were denied due to failure to report to VA examinations for no valid reason.

I filed a NOD via a "de novo" review by a Decision Review Officer (DRO). My NOD was filed because all of my claims from 2013 were denied for failure to show up for the C&P exams. I never was told when or where my exams were, so I never went to them. Years after I filed my NOD I was scheduled for and went to my C&P exams. As I get them, I send in my current medical records of treatment and tests to the VA intake center. I do this via fax and by certified USPS mail. But I have no way to see if this data is being logged into my records. I have sent in a FOIA for my C-File, but I figure that should take about 10 years to show up. I have representation by the DAV, if you can call what they have provided me so far as representation. They are useless, I have had to do everything myself. They have done NOTHING for me and my claims. I cannot get a hold of them, I cannot even get in touch with them to make an appointment. Their office is over 2 hours away in the bowels of Baltimore MD so it’s not like I can just show up at their office. I would drop them as my representation if I could figure out how to do that. I realize many other NOD’s are just as old, or older than mine. I am trying to be the squeaky wheel here. To me, the amount of time the VA screws around with all of our claims, and appeals is unsat.

I just wanted to share. So far it seems my email to the VA secretary about my 4 year old NOD has produced no actual results. I emailed the VA secretary about my NOD over 2 months ago. I got a call from the RO office about a month after that. The guy on the phone was pleasant. He told me I was getting the call from him because of my email to the VA secretary and that my claim was pretty old. He had already assigned my claims to a female claims officer and they had most of my C&P exams. He also told me to expect results in about 30 days as this was a VA Secretary Inquiry case. After the phone call I faxed in all of my C&P exams. Fast forward 40 days, I get another phone call from the same guy, going through a carbon copy of what he said the first time, almost word for word. I did not interrupt him as I wanted to see if this was another BS session. He said they would assign a claims officer soon, and that they had gotten all of my C&P exams. Odd that they got all of my exams on the same day I had to send them to them. These exams are in the VA system, yet it seems they cannot get them all by themselves. I reminded him of our first conversation, and asked him what happened to the first claims officer that was assigned to my claims. He gave me no good answer. So, I am not very confident that my email to the VA secretary really did anything. I think the RO office is just going to call me every so often giving me a BS story, and my NOD will just languish as it would have without my email being sent. Well, at least the VA is consistent…

My recent DBQ for tinnitus and hearing loss is confusing. The audiologist performing my DBQ states my tinnitus is “At least as likely as not (50% probability or greater) caused by or a result of military noise exposure. Rationale: The veteran was exposed to excessive noise exposure (acoustic trauma) during service. Excessive noise exposure (acoustic trauma) is known to cause tinnitus; therefore the tinnitus is at least as likely as not a result of military noise exposure. So that part is good. But then, in the same test, by the same audiologist, my hearing test which is listed as permanent positive threshold shift for both ears with a 70% score (both ears) for the speech discrimination score (Maryland CNC word list) is denied for SC. The rationale the audiologist states for being denied SC for this is: According to the American College of Occupational Medicine Nose and Hearing Conservation Committee, “a noise induced hearing loss will not progress once it is stopped” therefore it is my opinion the veteran’s current hearing loss is less likely than not related to military noise exposure/acoustic trauma.” What does this group think the VA will award me for this DBQ, and is this a good case for CUE? HEARING LOSS AND TINNITUS DBQ.pdf

OK, here is my best guess for what this DBQ equates to in VA terms. I think this claim would come out to a 30% disability. Does this make sense? - Nexus established. - Lumbar Degenerative Disk disease limited ROM 10% Lumbar Spondylolisthesis Thoracic Degenerative Disk disease - Mild Bilateral Lumbar Radiculopathy Left 10% Right 10% Cumulative Disability (using Rounded Bilateral %) 30%

I am still waiting on the VA to decide on my disability claim. It is currently sitting at a DRO review. No reliable timeline for completion. Using my attached C&P exam, what do you think will be decided on my Back T-Spine VA claim? It’s been over 4 years so far, I am kind of anxious to see what the outcome will be. Original VA Claim: Back Condition (Claimed as pinched nerve in back) Thanks for any insight you can provide! BACK T-SPINE DBQ.pdf

I have been trying to figure out a way to determine what my C&P hearing exam results equates to in VA disability terms and I stumbled across a set of excel VA disability calculators. I tested them and they seem to be accurate when compared to other calculators I have seen mentioned on this site. The Hearing calculator I cannot comment on its accuracy as this is the first one I have come across. Calculators for Combining VA Disability Ratings & Rating Hearing Loss http://sites.google.com/site/hutskysdesk/