Tdiguy

From what i remember the gi bill gives you a straight allowance for being in school. Chapter 31 gives ( or at least back in 2010 gave ) about 500$ a month, but they pay for nearly everything. If it was in the syllabus as being required for the course the VA covered it.

I was able to use voc rehab when i was only 20% service connected myself. If i remember correctly one of the major deciding factors was basically the need for re-training into a different job. For me before the USCG most of my work was security which involves prolonged periods of standing. My knee was injured in the USCG to the point where prolonged standing is very painful. I think one thing that will be important for you will be for you to look into different career arena's and try to find one that will likely work best with you to minimize the issues that you have. It seems in many ways that a job that allows you to primarily work from home would be the way to steer. You know you best though, i would simply say to build a case on a career field that will play to your strengths the most and look into what degree path will be best. You can also explore possible certifications. I went into networking myself. So I got a bachelors in networking and to make myself more competitive i got a network + a security + and a ccna cert. It helped me get the job i currently have in networking.

The way i found out my new rating before i got the official letter in the mail was by going to the disabilities section on e-benefits and i saw the increase when they upped my depression rating. For something like this though i dont think it would show up there.. Maybe under the benefits section? Best of luck to you. It sounds like you really have your hands full trying to take care of 2 children. If you live in MA i know there are also state programs that you might qualify for to help with affordable healthcare and paying for affordable healthcare.

I guess I am in luck there. I was diagnosed with depression while i was in the military. I would be over on bmi but well under for fat% never had a neck that big and nobody has measured my tongue so i might just be in luck.

This next visit will only be my 3rd visit to this psychologist. I am already considering asking for a different psychologist. Somehow despite putting on the intake form that i absolutely have no desire to talk about religion last meeting she insisted on talking about god and how i need him in my life. I was extremely upset, and when she saw this she decided to push a bit more on religion. I have been so annoyed by it that its something i have thought about multiple times since my visit with her almost a week ago. You should have seen though how fast she was to dismiss depression causing sleep apnea. If she brings up religion in next weeks session i am going to request a different therapist for certain.

I am no expert of course, but it sounds like you really have your bases covered. Perhaps there is a quick decision because of the lack of research the VA has to do in the claim. I will also say from my experiences that the process now is much quicker than it was back in 2007. My VSO put in for several increases for me about 3 months ago. About 2 weeks after the claims were put in i was called to have a c&p exam. Then about 4 weeks after that i saw the claim as completed online. Good Luck!

Well I spoke with my psychologist, ( a va psychologist ) I am not sure honestly how straightforward she was with her answer. She said there is a connection of sleep apnea causing depression but not of depression causing sleep apnea. I am not sure if i should proceed with this simply because i feel they are likely to say its not service related and i hear appealing is more difficult. On that note the VA psychologist had also asked me why my VSO was trying to get sleep apnea as service connected when i have a few other problems ( but they are truly not service related which i told her ) and said it seemed like they were fishing. That along with what i have read online ( which yes i know not the best source of information ) makes me wonder. I am wondering if i should hire a private psychologist to evaluate and form an opinion or if the va would not care much for their opinion.

There seems to be a wealth of information on this forum with a lot of knowledgeable people that have been through the comp and pen exams a lot more than i have. I hate the exams a lot myself and prefer to subject myself to them as little as possible. I have had un-treated sleep apnea for many years. I finally urged my VA dr to have me checked out by a sleep specialist after dealing with this for at least 8 years. After the in facility sleep study I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and given an automatically adjusting cpap machine ( starts at 4 and will go up to 16 ). So the VA has me as diagnosed with sleep apnea. I recently was re-evaluated by the VA for my depression my rating was re-adjusted to be 30%. One thing that really stood out to me on the decision notice was a little block that says basically they came to this evaluation based on chronic sleep impairment. To me this seems obvious that i should ask to have sleep apnea as a secondary condition for depression, the way its worded it seems like the VA all but said it to me. What are your thoughts? Also has anyone been recently service connected for sleep apnea? I saw some older information from 2016 saying that people service connected for sleep apnea with a breathing device like a cpap or similar are 50% rated.