vetquest

Sounds like you need to reopen with new and material evidence.

Military vs non military might be a catch. If you were in the national guard and there were no military doctors available they sometimes send you to a civilian doctor. If that was the case these might be looked at as military records.

Please do that, looking at secondary's. If your TBI is SC than they will probably rate it to 2015 when you filed your claim. The reference you referred to in the relation of primaries and secondary's would be hard to use to get your EED moved to earlier. Not saying you should not try but I do not think they will go for it. The VA likes to use the excuse that the evidence available at the time of decision was what was used to determine disability. Meaning that even though you are now diagnosed with something different the VA does not have to look back and change a diagnosis. I fought that battle once and was denied outright.

@Buck52, I think Vync read it the same as I did. Did they start at 292,452 and lower to 96,350 with an additional claims of 770,571? Or Did they start with 292,452 and lower to 96,350 and then added 770,751?

VA instruction 1.33.ac. Due to restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

Good answer by broncovet. The question we can never answer is "when?". Some lucky people get approved the first time out within months and others spend ten years or more at the BVA and CAVC.

Congrats on your grant.

That is where you should be checking. Wait for the letter and they give you the information to appeal or continue on.

It is hard to get a C&P taken back once it is started. You can try to call the C&P office and ask what the exam is for and tell them you are already rated for flat feet. That is your best bet. Just remember to always show up for a C&P exam in that a failure to show is a sure ticket to denial, even if it is already rated.

It looks like they are saying you have a disability, ie sleep apnea but it is not service connected. This sounds like you got this and the allergies determined before the one year but they were not compensable during that one year time frame. This is delay and deny. File an HLR or a BVA appeal for sleep apnea. Before filing for the BVA appeal I would think of contacting a NOVA approved lawyer to see if they would be willing to represent you. If they are willing that means that they think they can win the case. BVA cases take a while but it appears that the VA is giving you the run around and an HLR would get you more of the same. I would also file for the allergies if you have not already and when you are denied see if they can roll this into the BVA case. I hate to point you to the BVA at this time but it seems the only way to get this straightened out. Over two thirds of cases at the BVA are remanded or overturned. It just takes some years to get there and get everything back. I wish there was another way but there is not that I can think of, I spent ten years going to the BVA and back. Yours should not take that long.

Congratulations, I guess you did win the "veterans lottery".

If you have an IMO I would go directly to the BVA. Your chances of a win there are better. Otherwise I would go with an HLR and see what falls out.

What type of claim are you using? NOD's are taking about two years for example. Is it legacy or AMA?

Thanks for the info Buck, it makes me feel a little better.

I am receiving 70% for PTSD and am still able to purchase a gun. I believe the gun prohibition that they were talking about for disabled veterans are the veterans with a conservator to handle their finances. Please have him apply.

Thanks Tbird, Buck52, and broncovet. I wish you were here thirty five years ago.

Effective dates are difficult to ascertain and interpret at times. If you have filed your claim within one year of separation your effective date should be the date of discharge. Otherwise your effective date will be the date you filed your claim or the date that facts show your disability to be determined. They can award your disability at the date filed, sometimes they will award your disability on the date of your C&P or date of decision. A good example of that is my SMC, they should (I contend) awarded me SMC on the date that I was awarded a new disability but instead made the date as the last C&P date on a ten year old TDIU claim. Therefore I contend that I am out five years of SMC.

Both shrek and GBArmy are correct. I would put together a package of your doctors notes and treatment records with tabs to mark the most important evidence. You can offer the doctor these copies and give these to the examiner, most will accept them. I once had a VA C&P doctor go through all of my records and pull out the most important facts, this is unusual. Most doctors are not given enough time to read all of your records and some of them do not. Be respectful and do not let the examiner upset you. If they allow; bring your spouse with you, if you have one.

Thanks for the post. The VA made mistakes 1,3,4, and 5 in my last claim. It took ten years to get everything straightened out and that does not include my EED appeal. Their most glaring error was claiming that civilian employer disability insurance was employment, even when it did not reach the poverty threshold. Check your award or denial carefully and see where their mistakes are and then appeal the decision if there are any mistakes. Most likely there will be mistakes and not appealing (don't rock the boat) is an entitlement to the VA to continue making mistakes. I truly wish they would keep track of RO errors and judge the RO's on the number of overturned and remanded decisions. I have never had a civilian job where I was not downrated on my errors.

It seems that VA errors never go in the veteran's favor. I would go with an HLR with the statement that the evidence might have been overlooked. You should see a list of the evidence they reviewed and your information should be on this list in your decision. If it is not, you know they did not consider it. If it is listed on the "evidence" portion of the letter then they may not have given it reasonable weight or ignored it. The BVA chastised the RO in my appeal when enough consideration was not given to lay evidence. This does not appear to be an isolated incident.

You have to love those error messages that tell you where your error is and how to fix it. Without looking at your application we cannot help much. Go through the document again and look to see if any of the required information is missing. It is tedious and time consuming but it is the only way to do it.

@shrekthetank1 As far as it being a handout, I went without benefits the first year I was disabled out of the military, it was hard, I sold my truck and my wife cried over doctors that I was not able to see because we did not have enough money. A friend loaned us about $30,000 which we paid back as soon as we could. The emotional stress on my family with me not being employed and not getting the medical care I needed was beyond comprehension. I once was told by a pharmacy tech that my medication was expensive and I should be thankful for the handout. I about lost it, he was a young man with a good job telling me when I was disabled out of service and I was told by a doctor that my disability would probably kill me before I was 25 I was getting a handout. Without benefits some of us disabled veterans would lose everything we have including our families. Military disability benefits are not a handout, they are solely to reimburse you for your loss and they do not make them easy to get.

They say to keep your enemies close and your friends closer. I had a good job and paid off my house before I was disabled from working. Very few people know that my house is paid for because people react funny about that also.

I was diagnosed with a condition that I suffered twenty-five years after service. It was neuropathy; a medical doctor wrote a medical opinion that heat injuries can cause neuropathy the same as cold injuries years following service. He supported his opinion with medical literature. I had the three Caluza events at that time.

Broncovet gives some very good advice. My TDIU claim took ten years, that seems to be unusual though. Saving up for this type of occurrence is a must. Also do you have long term disability insurance? You might not be able to get it now but it really saved me when I lost my job due to my disability.