GBArmy

JohanathanAD You have an excellent chance at winning an appeal. Carpenter is good at what he does, also. Go with the flow: if they are hanging the reject on obesity, suggest to Carpenter looking at the obesity as an INTERIUM link between PTSD and OSA. PTSD meds cause weight gain. WG causes OSA. I am not a doctor but the argument is that there is doubt as to how much either factor, weight gain/obesity, or your original evidence of the MH condition, but since they are interconnected, they are service-connected. IMHO. As to whether you go HLR ,or go directly to BVA with additional evidence is your choice.

A1329 Why not call the VAMH you are closest to and ask to speak to the sleep study dept. and ask them for some reputable companies. Say you are not asking for the VA's recommendation, but would like to find out a few that have been used successfully in the past. They might tell you. Might. If not, ask what is the criteria for the study, like does it have to be from an "accredited" company, or performed using a certain standard. I don't think it is mentioned in the diagnostic code for sleep apnea.

Foxhound6 When the VA does a C&P, they are supposed to tell you the purpose of the exam. Sometimes they don't. Happened to me as well. I thought it was a routine check on my heart condition but it was for a C&P and didn't tell me. If you said something while a claim was open regarding a MH condition, the note in the file was caught and it generated the exam. Not a bad thing, but you should have been notified. If the exam results in a favorable finding for a disability for you, (sometimes) the VA will give you a rating for it. But sometimes you may have to submit a claim for it using the finding as evidence. I'm sure their M21-1 manual provides enough wiggle room that the VA can get by doing this even though it sounds un-profesional at the very least to the veteran. Wait and see what your decision letter says and go from there.

ShuMan Question: is that an Indy Colt's emblem on your header? Gotta warn ya, Buck52 is a BIG Dallis Cowboys fan. I'm just sayin'....

Welcome ShuMan Great to have you aboard. Additional set of eyes (and opinion) is always going to benefit everyone.

ApolloBolling It's what we call the Hamster Wheel. Bouncing back and forth between Review and Gathering. Happens frequently. You're really not going to get much of an explaination from Peggy. My guess is that the RO asked for the C&P examiner to get some specific info, and what they received back from LHI wasn't adequate. They could have missed something like some point for range of motion or put in a value that doesn't make sense. In any case, just do it; don't blow it off as you would be denied. You may get your decision before, but request a copy of the C&P exam after 30 days from the RO.

lhecker51 I assume you have used the crisis hotline 800-273-8255. I'd be on that constantly. The only other thing I would try that jumps out is the whitehouse hotline 855-948-2311; they may just refer back to the crisis hotline, I don't know. Don't give up! Keep at it.

Pacmanx1 I certainly agree that the CUE is a lot harder to get and I would chose HLR or Supplemental lane if at all possible for any of my appeals first.

No current problems here.

DDP There isn't going to be any magic bullet, but I admire your attitude. Here's a spit ball for you. You might not remember the names of the other recruits, but somebody in the training company does. Try to get the training company's training roster with all the names listed. Obviously not graduation, but rosters. Maybe the JAG office can tell you were their records went. Then start targeting those names. Maybe, if you haven't done so yet, put ads in the VFW, DAV's, etc. monthly pubs "looking for...".At lot of leg work, but good luck.

Cowboys? You mean those LUCKY Cowboys!

I agree with Foxhound 6. If you submitted the SSDI info, and they didn't acknowledge it in the evidence, I think it is a CUE. So make a big point of that; it is significant evidence. HLR would normally be the way to go if they miss evidence, but I'm not sure either because of the special nature of TDIU. Others should comment.

So I'm guessing you'd take Calif over Texas then. I've heard a lot of good stuff on Texas to. Is it just too hot in the summer? About where do you now live?

Buck Speaking of Calif, I've seen a bit of the good ole USA and for weather, San Diego is right there on top. Probably doesn't get much better, weather-wise. But it's wall to wall people, traffic is terrible, super expensive to live and the crime rate goes thru the roof. Other than than, it's great! But there really are a lot of great places to move to in the states if you don't have any family anchors and want better weather. You just have to get off your butt and start checking them out.

Combat eng Hiring a lawyer isn't a bad move at this point. You haven't posted your denial, but my guess is that you didn't have a strong nexus on getting connected for your right knee. If you have the medical evidence, you should get bilaterial on it. Rated 50% and 30% should have gotten you to a combined disability rating of 65 or rounded up to 70% ,which meets the rating criteria for TDIU. If you could get the bilaterial for your right knee, it would help. It may be the strategy of a lawyer to get your new knew approved first before going after TDIU again. There are several law firms to try that are used by many Hadit members: Perkins Studdard, Woods and Woods, CC&K, Berry Law, Attig Steele, and Bergmann and Moore. It seems it is easier to get SSDI first, then TDIU, than the other way around, but don't get discouraged. Your weak link in approval is more than likely your nexus/IMO from a doctor on your knee, so you need to shore that up.

Buck Texas is a very Veteran friendly state to live in; some very good state benefits. Much like Florida. But, you got to like the heat. Heat/humidity is easier on arthritis, but I can't handle it anyway. If I could, I'd move to either one in a heart beat.

Broncovet I'd take your estimate. Heck, I'd take any increase over 0%! We should be getting a firmer estimate from the Feds sometime next month for sure.

Drcracing87 Not sure what is going on either. The VA folks have standard clauses that they select and "cut and paste" stuff on our responses, so it is hard to tell if that is a mistake. I would suggest that you redact your personal info, name, ssn, etc. and attach it so we can see what is in your decision letter, so we can better evaluate.

Buck 51 said "Not many of us old dogs (Vietnam Vets) still around"... I saw this recently from the last census - 523 Vietnam Veterans die every day. Of 3.4 mm that served, only 300K left. And my friend, this is OLD data.

Doesn't seem that what the guy was talking about was right; no one seems to have heard of some rule that prevents. I think I'd agree that a supplement claim and maybe, depending on if you believe there was a obvious error maybe a HLR, then VBA. But, there could be some situations why you would want to keep trying at the lower level of appeal. Let's say a veteran is rated 30% for depression; he wants to get re-diagnosed to PTSD because he has another disability, say OSA he wants also to get approved. We know that OSA can be an easier route to connect as secondary to PTSD. He might chose to try an other route to get the PTSD change via supplement. But for most instances, it wouldn't make much sense to try a supplement after denial on HLR.

USMC_Vet I agree. But this was a talking head on a youtube channel and he made it sound like a veteran can only go twice on an appeal of a Mental Health decision (not other types of disabilities.) The third time he said you need to go BVA or higher. I've never heard of that restriction before. Hopefully he is misinformed.

I saw a comment on the internet that implies that you can only submit two appeals for any mental health condition as a supplemental or a HLR. After that, a third try you must go to the BVA for appeals. Does anyone know if this is correct and is there a reference we can look up?

dtoney2000 Sorry, but you have to provide a bit more info so we can help. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Do you already have a disability rating from the VA? Did you recently file a disability claim and haven't gotten a decision yet? Was it denied? If so, redact your name and other personal info in response and post it on this thread.

Confusedvet1 To add to that, you could show direct s-c condition if you went to medical while in the service. You need to get your strs/med files if that happened. You might be able to prove s-c if there is that type of notations. If you have prostrating symptoms, record your daily events if the headaches occur. Check out Migraine Buddy app and see if that will work for you.

Confusedvet1 Even though you have evidence of medical for headaches, you haven't shown that it meets the minimum requirement for compensation. If you google diagnostic code 8100, it shows migraines, which is the code the VA uses for all headaches. To get a minimum 10%, you would have to show evidence of prostrating at least once over a two month period. Prostrating means you are total incapacitated, can't do anything, have to retreat to a dark room and lie down for a few hours. A 0% is if you have them but the time between is more than 2 months. You need to document these episodes if the occur. The other thing is you didn't apply fora relaxed approval because you didn't apply within 1 year, I believe, of termination. So it won't be granted direct disability.