AB2WK

Thank you for taking the time to reply.The ms affects the 8th nerve in my brain which has to do with balance and hearing and the neuro said my back and leg problems are not due to ms. She also thinks my ms is service connected and she told me if I find a medical report showing any ms symptoms between 1977 and 1984 she will give me sc for it. The dr I was going to back then purged my medical records so I'm not able to prove it yet. I'm just hopeing and praying I get 60% or more so I can get IU. In the last c&p the dr said I can bend over 70 degrees. I don't know what he was smoking, but I would be screaming in pain if I did that. In this exam he asked me to bend over as far as I could and I told him that it hurts just standing here and the more I bend the more it hurts. He told me not to do it if it causes pain so I didn't. I didn't refuse to do it though. I'm just in shock about how nice they were, I'm not used to that from the VA.

I had a c&p this week and the doc asked me if my back injury is 80% of my disability. I was lowballed with a 20% rating last year for degenerative disk disease. I applied for voc rehab and they told me I was unemployable and put me in the independent living program. I also have ms but I'm not service connected for it. In the last decision they claimed ms was the problem, not my back. At this exam he hardly mentioned ms and at the end he said " is your back injury 80% of your disability?" I told him yes. He then said "how about 70%" So I told him between 70 and 80. He shook his head yes and started typing and sent me to my next appt with a neurologist. She did a quick check of my reflexes and said she was giving me radialculpathy and leg drop for my left leg and said I should get paid for having to wear an ankle brace and using a cane. She then said my claim will only take a couple of weeks to finish and told me to stop worrying about it. My question is - can a dr give me 70% and how do they know it will be done in a couple of weeks? I was never treated so good like that before

I got the shaft from an epva rep. I filed a claim for a low back injury in 2002. I was told by other vets that it's best to have a service officer to make sure things are done right. So the epva rep finds out I have ms and he makes that the primary claim. I told him I can't prove I had it within 7 years because the records no longer exist from 1977. The va decision was made on Sept 24 denying ms and lower back. They sent me the decision on Dec 24 2003-Christmas eve! He told me I can't get anything for my back so I dropped him and fought them by myself. Last year I got 20% for my back injury. Since then I found a rep in my county va office who knows how to play the game. 6 months ago he filed for an increase because I was low balled. I found out today I have a c&p exam in 3 weeks. It took me almost 4 years to get a c&p exam on my own. It does matter who you have representing you.