Torvald

Sorry to hear about your headaches. Don't know what to say about that. However, due to the ringing in your ears, if you haven't done so yet, you should submit a claim for Tinnitus. It comes with a max rating of 10%, and is considered separately from hearing loss. Good Luck.

Here's a link to sending a message to your US Congressman: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Hi, Sorry to hear you're not able to attend more counseling sessions right now. Do they possibly have special evening or weekend hours available? Concerning your claim, I would say Yes, go ahead and request copies of the therapist's notes, as every bit of evidence will help. Here's hoping you have a good Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the reminder. I just finished watching it (2 hours long), and it was very interesting. Vice Admiral Dunn mentioned something unusual in the hearing, and I wonder if the VA will formally back him up on it. He said that if a Vet submitted original documents to the VA which got lost there, and the Vet did not have a backup copy to resubmit, the VA would accept a written statement from the Vet describing the contents of the records previously submitted. This is new and not part of their official "recovery" plan. We will have to wait and see if the VA will really accept a Vets' word as conclusive evidence.

Thanks for the info. I will give it a try this weekend. P.S. Got your PM, so will give you a call if the above method doesn't work (or if I'm too brain dead/fumble fingers to figure it out properly).

Hi everybody, I've gradually become pretty knowledgeable about Windows XP, but know very little (so far) about Windows Vista. Well, my daughter's laptop computer came with Windows Vista installed, and it has a harddisk drive problem she needs my help fixing. It seems she is unable to get the scandisk utility to run if she checks the box asking it to automatically fix errors that are found. It says it can't run a check while the diskdrive is busy, and will instead run it the next time Windows Vista restarts. However, when Windows Vista restarts, it says there is a problem with the harddrive and a disk scan is needed, then the scandisk program starts to run, and then it quits, with a message saying it was not able to run. No explanation why, though. Does anyone have an idea on how we could force scandisk to run with the boxes checked asking it to automatically correct errors and to search for & fix bad sectors? Thanks.

VA Confirms Employee Computer Tampering at New York City Regional VA Office: http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfnov08/nf111308-1.htm

I am puzzled about the VA wanting to set up a new, bureaucratic process to "carefully" screen what documents they're allowed to shred. It seems to me that a simpler & better approach would be to instead mail back to the veteran anything the VA thought was a duplicate/extra copy, with a cover sheet briefly describing what was being returned. That way, a copy of the cover sheet could also be placed in the vet's file, helping preserve a track record of evidence submitted to the VA. What do you think - is this a good idea or is letting the VA shred duplicate paperwork better?

Berta, Thanks for the quick reply. When I meet with my VSO next week, I will definitely press her on the issue of getting a VA date stamped copy of whatever paperwork they submitted to the VA on my behalf. After all, If I can't get that proof from her, it would defeat the main purpose of submitting my claims to the VA through her organization, instead of sending them directly to the VA myself. As far as the VCAA letter, the VA never sent me one for my September 2007 appeal for depression. (In fact, out of my most recent 2 claims and 3 appeals, they only sent me one VCAA letter total). Therefore, it looks like I will need to prompt them somehow into moving ahead now on my depression appeal, since the 2 other claims I just mentioned are listed as being secondary to depression. I'm now thinking it will need to be done via a letter request (sent directly this time instead of thru my VSO). I will definitely use a return receipt request - but for the letter, is it better to send that as certified mail or by registered mail?

Berta & Others, I'm still concerned about my situation, so could use some good advice. Although the VA has recently changed its story and now admits they did receive my appeal for depression back in September 2007, I've still got two worries. 1. First, the recent IRIS reply confirming they got my appeal in Sep 07 also contained a comment that they had received another claim from me (they didn't mention which one), so they would delay processing my appeal until after the separate claim got processed. Well, I really don't like that, since it will further delay my appeal for depression, plus I've submitted two other claims (for ED in Feb 2008 and for sleep apnea in Oct 2008) as being secondary to depression. Unless I'm mistaken, those claims will get denied unless the VA first agrees that my depression is service connected. How should I go about requesting the VA to go ahead and decide my depression appeal right away without waiting for anything else? Would a simple IRIS request do it, or should I do something more formal, like send a certified letter request to the VA? 2. Second, although the VA allowed me to fax them a replacment copy of my Jan 2008 appeal for hearing loss and my Feb 2008 claim for ED, I'm worried they will count them as having been received now instead of back in Jan & Feb. If they do that, then my Jan 2008 appeal won't have been submitted on time. My VSO with the Texas Veterans Commission (TVC) said they have internal log books showing my paperwork was submitted to the VA in Jan & Feb, but the VA already told me they won't accept that as proof. My VSO also said she has a VA date stamped copy of my paperwork in her files, but said she can't give me a copy. When I asked why not, she said the paperwork contained some internal TVC notations which made them not relasable to non-TVC people. Sounds like a strange explanation to me. I would really like to get my hands on the VA date stamped copies, as I could then force the VA to acknowledge my paperwork was submitted last winter. Do you have any ideas on how I could require the TVC to give me the VA date stamped copies? Thanks.

Ricky, Thanks for mentioning that when submitting the Form 9 we can also request a personal meeting with the DRO. I was not aware that could be done after receiving the SOC. You also mentioned possibly meeting with a VSCM. That term is not familiar to me - who or what is a VSCM? Thanks.

UPDATE Well, I've got some partially good news to report. I wasn't getting anywhere with the IRIS messages being exchanged with the Houston VARO. They simply ignored the copies of previous IRIS responses and a VA letter which I'd recently faxed them (the ones that had earlier acknowledged receipt of my appeal for depression in September 2007), and instead kept saying they had never received my appeal and the 12-month appeal period had now expired. Well, I upped the ante a little bit, and it seems to have partly worked. What I did was (1) submit an IRIS complaint asking how to contact Houston VARO senior managment and the VA IG to complain about Houston losing my appeal paperwork, and (2) I contacted my US Congressman and Senator and requested their assistance. Well, I never got any reply on how to contact senior VA managment or the VA IG, but voila, the day after my Congressman and Senator made an inquiry to the Houston VARO, I received a very nice phone call from a "Ms Lori". She said the VA had conducted a phsyical search of my claim file and were happy to report that they did in fact have my September 2007 appeal after all. That was great news to hear! (She also said they had no record of ever saying it hadn't been received. That was pure bogus, but it wasn't productive to argue with her, so I let it slide.) However, when I asked her to confirm the VA has also received my January 2008 appeal for Hearing Loss and my February 2008 claim for ED, well guess what? She said the VA had no record of receiving either of them. Sheesh! She was nice enough, though, to give me a fax number so I could send her a replacement set of paperwork, which I promptly did. Will now have to wait to find out if the VA will treat that faxed paperwork as beeing submitted last winter or will count it as being submitted right now. Well, two steps forward and one step backwards means I've still made a little progress, and I really appreciate my elected representatives with prompting the VA into fessing up that they really did have my September 2007 appeal paperwork after all. Hopefully they won't take too much longer now before the DRO acts on it. P.S. I will also be meeting with my VSO on Nov 19th to discuss all this, and maybe she will have some additional suggestions on how to help keep the VA straight. Bye for now.

Just a reminder - if you have any noticeable ringing, clicking or background static noises in your ears, please be sure to tell the hearing examiner. That's because, in addition to hearing loss, the VA can also separately rate you as having tinnitus. (The max rating for tinnitus is 10%) Best of Luck. P.S. I like your icon. Ha ha. :(

Heard back from the VA today. Unfortunately they now clearly claim to have never received my 100-plus page NOD appeal from last year, and have asked me to resubmit my evidence as a new claim. I contacted my local VSO today with the Texas Veterans Commission and asked her to contact the VA to help clear this matter up. Tomorrow I will also fax to the Houston VARO a copy of the VA letter and three VA IRIS responses that previously acknowledged receipt of my appeal. Two of those VA IRIS responses even mention the date (September 6, 2007) that the VA received my appeal. Perhaps that will cause them to reconsider and to look again for the missing appeal paperwork. Am feeling kinda stressed by all this, but am still hoping things will turn out well. Will try to keep you posted on how things progress. Bye for now.

Just received some bad news tonight from the VA, so wanted to vent a little. In January 2007 I submitted a claim to the VA for depression. On July 6, 2007 they denied my claim. Well, having lurked here and at VBN, I had learned a lot in the meantime about assembling claims and appeals, so was ready to quickly respond. I pulled together a much better set of medical records (over 100 pages) and this time obtained nexus letters from two different psychiatrists. I then submitted to the VA (thru the Texas Veterans Commission) on August 31, 2007 a NOD request for de novo review by a DRO, plus the 100-plus pages of new medical evidence. On 10/12/07 and on 12/27/07 I received IRIS replies confirming VA receipt of my appeal on September 6, 2007. On March 17, 2008 I received a VA letter acknowledging receipt of election for a DRO review. Also, on 06/23/08, i received another IRIS reply saying my "... appeal is with the Appeal Team for review ..." However, two weeks ago, I received a VA letter in response to a separate claim for sleep apnea which made a passing comment about me not filing a NOD in time on my depression claim. Puzzled by this, I sent off an IRIS request for clarification. Well, much to my surprise, I just received an IRIS reply tonight saying I had not submitted a NOD in time on my depression claim, and that it was now too late to appeal. I will definitely follow up tomorrow with the Texas Veteran Commision and ask them to contact the Houston VARO right away to find out what is happening. Hopefully the TVC will be able to help. REally do not understand how the VA could misplace the 100-plus pages of new medical evidence that I'd submitted, especially after they'd previously acknowledged receipt of it. Good thing for me that I've kept a duplicate copy of everything, so if it comes down to it, I can always submit them again. Please wish me luck tomorrow.

Berta, You should be able to print your Power Point presentation on a printer just like any other document. I do it all the time at work, in order to provide folks with handouts to keep after the presentation is over. Just a suggestion - if you plan to print out lots of pages, you might want to keep the background of your Power Point slides simple and uncluttered. Otherwise, if you use something like a dark colored background on your slides, it will use up tons of printer ink. You can also try printing just a page or two as a practice print to see what it will look like. Best Wishes.

I think he means you should describe the pain level you experience on one of your worst days, instead of trying to 'tough it out' and minimize your pain level.

Pete, This doesn't seem right. I don't know if there's a regulation against it, but it just seems downright unfair for a DRO to review a decision that they had issued earlier. The whole idea of having a DRO review is for a fresh set of eyes to look at your appeal and give you a second opinion. To be completely impartial, it would need to be someone who had not previously been involved. Not sure what the best process would be to object to what happened, but perhaps you could start with filing a written complaint via the IRIS system, along with a request that a second, impartial DRO be immediately assigned to re-review your appeal. If that doesn't work, you could write to the VARO Director with the same complaint, with a cc: copy sent to your local Congressperson.

I've been taking Effexor XR (extended release) for the past two years for depression. It works much better than the previous meds they had me on (Luvox & Cymbalta), but sometimes causes side effects. In my case, the side effects were big mood swings, but after they added a second med, Abilify, my mood swings went away. Wish there was a clear path to follow on which anti-depression meds to take, but it sounds like most folks have to try 2 or 3 before fiinding what works best. If your doctor recommends Effexor, try to at least get the XR variety, as it is supposed to have less severe side effects, since it releases more slowly over a longer period of time. >> Torvald <<

Pete, I also have another button on my lower right side that says "Multi+". If I click on it, it simply changes to Multi-, and if I click it again, it changes back to multi+. Other than the plus sign changing to a minus sign , and vice versa, I can't figure out what else this button does.

Pete, This might be slightly off topic, but I'd like your advice. I've figured out that clicking the "reply" button on the bottom right of a posting usually allows me to insert a quote in your reply. However, I cannot figure out how to use the "Multi+/-" button. ;) What does the "Multi+/-" button do? Thanks in advance.

You might want to slightly modify one of your sentences to say: "I am hereby requesting a “De Novo Review” by a Decision Review Officer (DRO)." This will get your appeal package looked at by a fresh set of eyes, and the DROs are supposed to be more experienced than the regular raters, so hopefully you will have a better chance of getting an approval. You might also want to consider adding something like the following: "As part of the DRO review, I respectfully request that you consider the information contained in the attachments to this letter. Please also provide me with a Statement of the Case (SOC). I hereby certify that the information I have given is true to the best of my knowledge and belief."

CMorgan, Try the following method and see if this works: 1. Use your left mouse button to highlight the text you're interested in. 2. Then right-click your mouse and choose "copy" from the menu that pops up. 3. Move your cursor to wherever you want the info copied to, right-click your mouse and choose "paste" from the menu that popos up. Good Luck.

geb, You've made the right decision in requesting a new doctor be assigned to your case. Particularly with depression, you need to be treated by someone you can completely trust and who can help ease your symptoms, not make them worse. I know a little of what you've just been through. I myself have been treated for major depression for about 12 years. About 18 months ago, my pyschiatrist recommended that I go to a therapist he knew. Things started out well enough, but the therapist seemed to have a fixation on getting me to agree that all problems were due to poor anger managment instead of depression. Finally, one day when I was feeling so depressed that I had my wife accompany me to the appointment, the therapist lost his cool and kept badgering me. He would not back off no matter how much my wife and I begged him. I finally couldn't take it any longer and left in tears, but he refused to let my wife leave his office to comfort me. As a result, I nearly committed suicide in the parking lot and only stopped because I saw my son waiting for us. Trust me - a bad, mean-spirited or overly fixated doctor can really mess up your head. For your own safety, you need to insist they assign somebody else to treat you for depression - somebody you can completely trust.

Need some advice, I've only recently been getting some meds from the VA, so don't have much experience yet knowing how soon to phone in for a monthly reorder. Have only had to reorder once so far, and it took eight days for my meds to arrive. Is that about the average amount of time? Also, if I wanted to order earlier just to be safe, like at the 2-week point, will the VA system let me do that? Thanks.