Wico1337

Any advice appreciated. Do I actually have a valid claim? I suck at this stuff and want honest advice. I was a Loadmaster who experienced frequent tears in my right knee since 2012. I stepped on a roller wrong and something popped, knee swolled up and couldnt put much weight on it for a week. This usually happens every other month. Seperated in 2014. I usually just rested for a week or so as it healed up and I would usually just shift my weight on my left leg and hobble around. At my date of seperation, I went to the VA and put down my Right Knee as an issue. "Right Knee Instability". In 2014, seen the VA rater and they asked me how I could use it. I was blatantly honest. Looking back, they were trying to find reasons not to service connect me. Being honest, I told them that I could technically run on the knee, but it would randomly "pop" if I stepped on it wrong and swell up, and be unusable many times throughout the year, each year since 2012. So on their rating decision, they said because I had the ability to run, they completely denied my claim. So I did not do an appeal. Fast Forward to 2023, it just feels normal to use my left leg more dominantly for everything. Well, I stepped sideways wrong on my left knee and came crashing to the ground. Went to the doctor. Fully torn ACL. I had surgery to have a brand new Cadaver/ACL put into my knee. Just now finishing up Physical Therapy. I have no medical evidence while in the USAF other than the day I left, filing the claim and making statements with there being an issue. Does anyone have advice on how to proceed? I still have Meniscus tears on my right knee. Am still somewhat primarily using my left knee with my new ACL as my more dominant knee out of habit, and somewhat because I am scared to rip my Meniscus. I am still in my late 30s, so I just feel like having knee issues since my 20s is not a normal thing.

Sorry for the lengthy post. I just wanted to give a COMPLETE timeline so you can fully understand the situation and give your best judgement on what is happened. This is a complicated issue. Feedback on thoughts is appreciated. Rated for Hypertension around 5 years ago at 10%. Blood pressure randomly spikes up to Diastolic 130 during Service connected issues (Frequent Kidney Stones and Mental Health). But on most days, the diastolic has been floating around 110+ for a few years. Decide 1 year ago to file VA Increase Claim for Hypertension 5 Months pass - 2022 November - Called in for appointment with VES. Letter sent about VES Doctor states that it is in his first year of being Doctor and also working with VA. The whole visit just seemed weird. He said a few narcissistic things that set off red flags. I come into the appointment with 3 different day blood pressure readings. He tells me that is not how VA ratings work for Hypertension and denies to put the readings on file. He tells me that Hypertension readings are in accordance to what your BP readings have been for the past year. My readings were literally all 3 from VA appointments over the past year. Never was my reading below 105 Diastolic during the past year. He said "Someone with consistent Diastolic over 110 would only have 6 months to live." I just nodded my head and try to be as respectful as possible. Fast forward 2 months of silence. I get a letter from the VA saying that VES was going to schedule a second appointment with me on my hypertension. I heard nothing from VES. A month later I get a letter in the mail from the VA saying that my rating was reduced from 10% to 0% for hypertension. The doctors reasoning was... "Upon entering service, during MEPS, Veteran had a Diastolic of 85. Last medical appointment during seperation in 2014, Veterans Diastolic was at 89. One year later in 2015, the veterans diastolic was at 105. This can be seen as natural progression and Veterans hypertension should not be linked with his service." You read that right. This VES doctor for some reason was trying to disconnect my service connection. Luckily the VA only decreased me to 0% and did not remove my connection. That decision letter was 4 months ago. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago where I have another Primary care doctor visit. Doctor sees my blood pressure is around 175/115 on average of 5 readings. He asks me if this was normal. I tell him I felt pretty good and that is a normal BP for me. Told him that sometimes I get really stressed out at home and can get really high.. Around 200/130. He tells me not to go back to work, and instead go to the VA hospital to pick up a new prescription. So now I am in a weird position. If I file an appeal right now. And this Blood Pressure medicine does help my blood pressure. Then I feel like there will be no retroactive rating for the past years that my Hypertension has been horrible. My blood pressure has been xxxxxx up for years. I get a VES Doctor who was having a bad day. And now if this Blood Pressure medication does help me lower the numbers, will the VA not consider the fact that there was malpractice in my rating last year? According to the VA, you can only get an Increase in Blood Pressure rating if you have shown consistent high blood pressure for years. Would they not do the same when rating if my blood pressure was fixed for less than a year? This whole system is frustrating and messed up.

Honestly I figured theres gotta be some way to do this. This examiner was really bogus. He made so many dumbfounded statements that did not seem to fall in like with how C&P should operate. I almost think hes scamming the system. What would you suggest? Should I just open a Supplemental claim and describe how the examiner did not follow any of the standard procedures for rating etc? Or is there some way to like outright just challenge the examiners credentials? On another note, to tie more suspicion to all of this. I had my evaluation around 4 months ago. Well, 2 months ago the VA sent me a letter that VES scheduled another exam with me and was going to send me the info. That info never came from Mail, email or phone. Which is how the 1st one was scheduled. VES never reached out for a second exam. Its almost like they charged the VA for a second seperate exam and nothing happened except them collecting more money from the VA.

I know this will sound very bizarre. I just want to be honest and upfront about the situation as I want the honest answer about what I can do to fight this. I had a VA Claim appointment with a VES Doctor about 4 months ago. I had like 7 conditions I was claiming. The Doctor's information was sent to me, he has 0 years of experience working with VA and 1 year as a doctor. My VES appointment for all 7 conditions lasted about 20 minutes. This is how it went. - 4 he outright threw out. - Sinusitis - He service connected me with a 30% rating. - Headaches - Gave me the bogus rating of 0%. But at least service connected me. Already filed supplemental claim. - Hypertension... - decreased from 10% to 0%. But still service connected. - This is where it gets interesting. Let me give full details. I was service connection for hypertension in 2018. I was given a 10% then. My blood pressure Diastolic has had many times been above 110. So I figured I would file the claim for a raise. During this examination, he hooked my arm up to a blood pressure reader and took my blood pressure 3 times back to back. He then insisted to ask me if I took my blood pressure medicine the night before, saying that "some people" dont take their blood pressure medicine and think that making their blood pressure higher for the examination would give them a higher rating, and it wont. I knew this, this is pretty obvious. But the way he was asking me and telling me about it was him acting like I had faked it or some crap. I was pretty xxxxxxx nervous because ive heard horror stories of stuff like this happening where these assholes drop ratings for no reason. Anyway, I then tried to hand him a paper saying that I wanted to turn in 3 recent blood pressure readings that show I have consistent high blood pressure. Ironically, all of these 3 readings were from recent VA Visitations. He refused the documents saying that the Evaluation has nothing to do with recent blood pressure readings. He stated that 3 individual readings does not indicate anything about how the VA rated blood pressure. That the VA only cares about the entire last years trend of your blood pressure readings. He then cherry picked times that my diastolic went below 100. He then proceeds to blatantly outright tell me that "I have done thousands of these claims, and the VA simply does not rate anyone above 10% unless they are months away from dying." Yes, you heard that right. He has experienced thousands of results from BP claims while hes been doing this less than a year. He said that the only way that someone can have a 110 consistent diastolic to meet the requirements for the VA rating is if they are on the brink of death and the doctor has given them months to live. This whole thing is so crazy to me, because I have seen everywhere that the blood pressure evaluation is based on 3 seperate readings. I merely was using 3 VA readings, not that he knew, he didnt care who did the readings or what they even were. Its like he had something out for me? In the VA Decision Letter, he treated the entire thing as if he was denying my claim outright and trying to Un-service connect me for Hypertension. his reasining for the rating decision was to type out a huge thing summarizing the following. "Veteran had blood pressure of 156/74 and 150/85 the year before entering service (at MEPS)." He did not reveal the 3rd reading. I got a nurse to take tests outside of MEPS because I was freaking nervous there. They accepted me saying that I had white coat syndrome which increased BP. Continue to list readings during military service of my BP being 150/85. Sometimes it spiked higher, but the military would have me "retake" until it dropped from Hypertension to Prehypertension. I seperate in 2014. My blood pressure is was still Prehypertension. Skip to 2017, I am on many more meds, VES evaluator puts "The BP 2017 showed 149/113. This appears to be a nature progression of the vets BP was aggrivated beyond its natural progression by the military service during service. Therefore, it is my medical opinion that the vet's current diagnosis of HTN is less likely than not (Less than 50 percent probability) aggravated beyond its natural progression by an in-service ilness event or injury". So he is saying that in 3 years, it is normal progression for my Diastolic to rise from 85 to 113. The rest of the Decision letter reads that I am still service connected, but just now at 0%. I checked benefits.va.gov and it shows I am service connected at 0%. The VA decision letter end says "A Higher valuation of 10 percent is not warranted for hypertensive vascular disease unless the evidence shows: * A history of diastolic pressure predominantly 100% or more and there is a requirement for continuous medication for control: or, * Diastolic pressure predominantly 100 or more; or, * Systolic pressure predominantly 160 or more. (38 CFR 4.104) Maybe I am taking this all in wrong? I am hoping that you guys can decipher where I went wrong here. I feel like I just have had so much bad luck with evaluators man. What do I do in this situation from here? Thank you all for all you do on giving us novices advice on this complicated stuff.

Hey Shrek, I completely understand the rating schedule. I am already SC and Rated for Rhinitus at 0% but plan to appeal as they never evaluated if I have pollups or obstruction. My problem is that while I have clear symptoms and I am 100% sure I have sinusitis and would easily be rated 30% for it. Nexus being Burn Pits. My problem is that I have never been officially diagnosed by a doctor for Sinusitis. I am seeing what the best path to getting a "confirmed" diagnosis of Sinusitis would be. The VA doctor refuse to give me a diagnosis for it while everywhere I have read points to it being Sinusitis. Even nurses I know that I have spoken to says its sinusitis. I am asking if people know of the easiest route to get an "offocial" diagnosis on record for a diagnosis of Sinutisis. Again, the symptoms have existed for years. I take the medication to prevent sinusitis. But they never gave me the actual "diagnosis". The anti-allergy medicine for my sinus issues were given with the exuse by the doctor that my sinus issues are Rhinitus.

Thank you for the response Shrek. I apologize for not being more clear in my initial post. I already have a VA Service Connection to Rhinitus due to Burn Pits. My problem is that for years I have suffered extreme headaches, ear pain, chronic cough and other things due to my Sinus issues which are now resolved via Allergy Meds. Sinusitis is what casuses all of these conditions, not Rhinitus. But a VA doctor is not giving me a proper diagnosis for Sinusitis. If I had a diagnosis, I will be considered to be "presumptive" a being service connected for Sinusitis due to Burn Pit Exposure. That is why they are drawing back diagnosing people with it. So now I just need to find someone who will look at my records and give me an evaluation if I honestly do or do not have Sinusitis. From what I have read though, there is no dispute that I have sinusitis. I am looking for a private doctor who can put that on paper for the VA.

Hello all, I have tried to use the VA for this, but they have failed me. I have had about 8 years on record with VA of chronic coughing, headaches/pain, ear pain, sinus issues. At beginning of year, all of these were resolved via allergy medicine prescribed by my Primary Care physician. An ENT doctor called me over the phone, without seeing me in person, diagnosed me with Allergic Rhinitus. I think they purposely refused to give diagnosis for Sinusitis because it typically gives Benefits where Rhinitus barely does only if Polyps exist, which I dont have any. I then scheduled another ENT clinic exam. The ENT specialist told me flat out that since I had not been prescribed Antibiotics for my Sinuses, he will not diagnose me with Sinusitis. He said that he does not recognize Allergy Medicine as preventing Sinus issues and could not give me Diagnosis. So now I am stuck. Does anyone know of a reasonable doctor that I can call/email and they provide a diagnosis for Sinusitis? Can anyone give advice on Do's/Don't for getting an outside of VA diagnosis for a condition?

Oh my god. I never knew this feature existed. This is so awesome, I just now sent a message to my primary care. I can indirectly ask questions that can later be used as evidence. I am extremely un-confrontational in person, so this is perfect for me. I REALLY wish I had known about this feature years ago, noone has ever told me about this.

Sorry, I misspoke, I actually meant to say that I have been diagnosed by the VA for chronic headaches.

Also to answer your questions. 1. They have technically rated me for "Chronic Headaches with light sensitivity and nausea/fatigue." I was told since the rating schedule for all headaches and migraines are the same. It does not matter for the purpose of rating if someone has by definition headaches or migraines. 2. Filed for presumptive Allergic Rhinitis about a month ago and was told that it should be passed in a week. I for sure will not file until after the presumptive condition kicks in. I know that it is ALWAYS better to err on the safe side of things. But I have never gotten a Nexus letter and find it extremely stressful and have no idea how to approach a doctor for it. In the past, all of my rating appointments have created the nexuses for me. Heck, for blood pressure, I just pointed to an nih.gov website abstract/conclusion in which it referenced how there is a connection between my medication for Anxiety and high blood pressure. They approved that too. Any info on combatting my concerns and the easiest/best way to request a nexus letter would be appreciated.

I appreciate it... How do I go around asking a professional in the field to make a medical opinion? Like I am willing to pay a doctor for their time and all. But there are guidances on how they need to word their nexus letter. Do I coach them on how to phrase it? (IE - "please be sure to add "at least likely as not"") For the best route, do I just need to call each local clinic and ask "Hello, I am needing a professional medical opinion and am willing to pay a doctor for their time. Would a physician at this facility be interested in reviewing my medical conditions and then typing their honest medical opinion for me?" I have been rated for 5 things using a similar system as described in original post, but I got a feeling that this one may recieve pushback. Ratings just seem to get harder and harder.

Hello all, below is what I plan on filing with my VA claim. Do you think it will suffice? I was sure to point out I have a current diagnosis by the VA. A convincing nexus along with how the condition has already been acknowledged as being secondary to my current rated condition. Backed by citation of another veterans review. And finally, criteria of my condition and how it falls in line with the 50% rating for headaches. Beginning of claim "Headache Claim With a recent suggestion of my VA Primary Care physician to include daily intake of Zyrtec and Flonase to ease my Allergic Rhinitis symptoms, my headaches have began to occur less frequently and less severe since taking the Medications suggested by the VA. This has made it apparent that my Allergic Rhinitis has caused my Headaches for many years. The ENT specialist at the VA diagnosed me with Allergic Rhinitis and prescribed me medication so I do not need to continue buying Zyrtec and Flonase. The VA has already ruled that there is a direct nexus between Allergic Rhinitis and Headaches. According to VA Citation Nr: 1048433 https://www.va.gov/vetapp10/files6/1048433.txt Quote “Service connection for migraine headaches as secondary to allergic rhinitis is granted.” All headaches, including Migraine Headaches, fall under the same category of ratings which is 38 CFR 8100. I have a diagnosis of Chronic Headaches from the VA Primary Care physician on file. The following VA Finding means that while I am describing my symptoms, I will refer to my symptoms for my condition as unmedicated, as medication is not mentioned in the rating schedule for Headaches. In Jones v. Shinseki, 26 Vet.App. 56, 63 (2012), the Court held that the veteran is entitled to a rating based upon his unmedicated condition – that is, the higher disability evaluation – if the effects of medication are not explicitly mentioned under the applicable diagnostic code of the rating schedule. My condition for Headaches occur very frequently, forcing me to assume the prostrating position which is where I need to lay down in a dark area and rest my body and mind. This can last anywhere from hours to days. This has caused severe economic inadaptability. Causing me to cancel meetings with people, miss hours or a day of work, miss spending time with wife, miss participating in my things in life. All because of the extreme head pain and overall extreme body exhaustion that my headaches cause." End of claim. With all of the information above. How should I present my symptoms to the examiner? The examiner will be asking how frequently headaches occur. Should I follow the guidelines of pre-medication? Or when they ask me questions about how often I get headaches, should I answer them how I feel currently with medication? If I answer with how I feel while medicated, I have a feeling that the Rater will see the symptoms as a 30% rating. And I would have to appeal for a 50% rating as I should have been rated for 50%. What would be the best way to approach? And do you have any feedback on my claim statement above?

Hello, I was SC/rated for Kidney Stones 8 years ago at 30%. I was SC/rated for High Blood Pressure last year at 10%. During my evaluation for HBP claim last year, the rater told me I should have had my blood pressure checked days before. But noone briefed me on this. So the nurse decided to take my blood pressure 3 times and gave me the 10% rating. I brought up to the rater that I frequently pass Kidney Stones. Probably around 5-6 per year. During that time, my blood pressure sky-rockets. Last time I went to the VA emergency room for kidney stones, my blood pressure was at 192/123 for multiple readings. I told the rater this information, but she didnt seem to care. According to the 192/123 blood pressure, I should have had a 40% rating for High Blood pressure if they considered the circumstances. I guess my question is, does the VA consider intermittent guaranteed pain levels in accordance with service connected conditions that are causing the pain? I feel like since the VA is forced to rate veterans at a rating of their symptoms pre-medication. That they should also be rating veterans who have drastically higher blood pressure while medicated with high blood pressure pills and in severe pain that happens many times throughout the year... Is this how it is supposed to work? Do you think this would be worth filing a claim to increase my VA rating for blood pressure for? Or would it be a waste?

First, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone in this thread for the amazing information. Dustoff11, I really think you have a lot of convincing points here and I really appreciate the in depth response. From your knowledge and/or experience, would you suggest I file two separate claims? One claiming headaches with all "headache" terminology and one other separate claim for Migraines while only using the word Migraine and migraine terminology? Is there any downside or upside to doing that? I feel like it may be able to double up on my raters, until I get lucky enough to have one correctly rate me?

I feel like VA doctors refuse to give a proper diagnosis on anything. From my standpoint, I feel like I get migraines. The pain only occurs like once a month, but when it hits, I feel such extreme pain all around my head and am so fatigued that I literally have to lay down until it disappates or take Migraine Medicine. However, my doctor listed me as having "Chronic headaches with nausea and fatigue, involving light sensitivity". My question is... If I file a VA claim for Migraines and this information is presented to a VA decision/rater, would they recognize it as Migraines? Or do I need a clinical official diagnosis for Migraines? I feel like any person who is being reasonable would look at the text written and safely assume they are describing migraines without saying it.

Hello all, Ever since the desert, I have had weird migraines and extreme pressure/pain in ears about once every month-2 months. I have been to the VA doctor many times for this and they tell me my ears just have wax, or that I have an ear infection. After 2-3 days the issue always goes away. Their water blasting my ears and medications never help with the ear pain. I also get Migraines with the classification of "prostrating" where I am in extreme pain and I have to lay down in darkness. Finally comes the issue of coughing and clearing throat. For the past 8 years, I have been in a constant state of feeling like i have to cough up stuff, but nothing ever comes up. I had lung tests done long ago and my doctor told me that since the test results for breahting/lungs didnt reveal anything, theres nothing she can do and its probably my weight that is causing the issue. Fast forward 8 years of this happening and my VA doc not caring, I get a new doctor. I tell her my frustration of the coughing and ear issues/headaches. She tells me to start taking Zyrtec and Flonase. After one week, I noticed that my throat issues and coughing are gone. I also no longer have ear pain. I still have slight migraines but they are not nearly as severe. My new doctor also scheduled me for an ENT exam where the ENT specialist called me and asked me of my symptoms and such. I told him that the zyrtec/flonase has fixed all of my issues. He immediately diagnosed me with Allergic Rhinitis. Pretty cool, I hear that thats some sort of presumptive condition. So I filed for that one. My question is... Now that Migraines have been improved with the medication, do I not get rated for the prostrating condition of my Migraines? The ear pain has subsided with the meds, so I dont think I would qualify for a VA rating for the ears. But how does a rating work if taking medications for your VA service connected issue reduces the severity of a condition? Would the Rater rate you at your condition with the improvement from meds? Or would they rate you at your condition which forces you to take meds at the severity of not taking the meds? Does this mean that if you have a condition and take meds, which fully fix your condition, do you get rated at the lowest severity of the condition regardless of the extreme severity before?

If I am diagnosed with Sinusitis, which is connected as Presumptive condition due to Burn Pit exposures. Can I also link associated Migraines with the Sinusitis episodes? If I take Zyrtec and Flonase to compat Sinusitis conditions, so Migraines no longer appear as servere, does that decrease my rating for Sinusitis and Migraines? Or, do you get rated on Migraines/Sinusitis based on your symptoms as if you were not on medications? I guess the real question I am having is... If symptoms are reduced by taking medication, do you recieve a leower VA rating than if you were not taking the medications or the medications were not effective? Also, would migraines appear as a secondary to Sinusitis? Or would it just be included within the Sinusitis rating?

Maybe this will give others ideas, or maybe someone will enlighten me on the likelihood that my claim will or will not be approved? I have had my sleep apnea claim denied twice. I solely tried linking it as a secondary to Mental Health/Adjustment Disorder w/ Anxiety. The VA does not acknowledge that my 100 pounds gained during my last year or service and year after was due to my mental health service connection. I did not have any proof that I had sleep apnea during service from a doctor. I never had any appointment. Never had anyone sleep with me while I was in service, so noone had ever told me I was choking in my sleep. I made a 3rd claim, as a disagreement with their decision. I was told that this one will have to go in front of a judge. This entire time, I had been researching all of my medical documents that pointed toward me having sleep apnea while I was in service. I couldnt find anything. However, I just realised that a few things happened outside of the doctors office. I fell asleep at the wheel and rear ended someone while driving during that last year of service. I fell asleep in my squadron while sitting at the training desk and got in trouble. At my first job outside of the military, I fell asleep all the time in my car outside of buildings (I travelled between 10 buildings doing IT work) and my boss found out and told me that I needed to correct this. This is what caused me to finally go get a sleep test, along with my new wife telling me that I always snored extremely loud. I married quick, long story. Anyway, the last extra piece of evidence was on my last mental health evaluation while in service. A few question specifically asks how many days in the past two weeks I have felt "tired" "exhausted like I need to sleep" with my answer of "every single day". Does anyone here think its possible with all of this non-medical evidence and the last medical one, that it may be reasonable to assume that I might get service connected by the judge? As its pretty clear I had sleep apnea while in the service but it was undiagnosed?

I did not see my most recent decision denial letter in the mail. Anyone know where I can get ALL of my past denial letters and their reasonings for denying me? Also, is there a way to see all of my service connections and their wording on why they were able to service connect me? One reason I also want to know the reasons I am service connected to things is because I was recently approved for Hypertension. They denied me Sleep apnea in the past because of my weight. But I believe in this recent decision, I leveraged the fact that I gained weight due to my mental health service connection. And I was able to use that as a nexus for hypertension. I am now wanting to point toward that service connection approval and use it as an "It was recognized in my Hypertension claim that I gained weight from Anxiety/depression service connection. I am wanting to transfer that recognition to my reasoning for my service connection to sleep apnea. Since the VA had prior listed the reason that I have sleep apnea is due to my weight." Anyone know where I can get past approval and denial letters with details of connections?

Thank you for this one. I am wondering what your thoughts are on the 3rd party called "LHI" that they are sending me to for this "3rd party review"? I am hoping that it is the case that while the VA does not like to make ANY judgement call/IMO call that is not already documented. Do you think that these 3rd partys will be a little more reasonable about things that should be conceded as common medical knowledge? IE - depression/anxiety causing weight gain.

Current service connections Tinnitus - 10% Retained Renal Calculus (Kidney Stones) - 30% Adjustment Disorder (with anxiety and depression) - 50% I had filed for both Sleep Apnea and Hyptertension before, but got denied. Sleep Apnea they said that I got it from being obese. I tried arguing that I went from being fit to being obese the year I seperated from the military. While honorable, I had a lot of bad stuff happen due to the military to me. All stuff out of my control, just bad luck. Affected mental health and gained like 100 pounds in first year out. Down 40 now, a lot to go. Anyway, the C&P doctor said that she did not see any link from Depression and anxiety and it causing weight gain/obesity. So claim was denied. That was a few years ago. I am giving it another shot and made a new claim in October. They randomly closed it two month later. I called to ask why, they have no idea why. They reopened it, closed it again, then reopened it again. This time saying that they found a lot of errors in how it was handled and are sending me to a 3rd party to get an official outside opinion as a Higher Level Review. A couple of points I plan on making for the claims. Sleep apnea nexus - Been using Bi-pap for 3 years now provided by the VA. Sleep study provided by VA which is what got me it. - .gov and .edu website publications on studies that link depression and anxiety to weight gain. - .gov and .edu website publications on studies that link Effexor (Venlafaxine) (my med) to weight gain. - History of sleeping issues with report of extreme exhaustion during my last 4 months of service when mental health declined. Same time I sought mental health assistance in Military and was prescribed stuff. (I did not get my Bi-pap until after 2 years of being out... When my wife first started sleeping in same bed as me and told me it sounded like I was choking at night. I never slept with anyone for years before due to wife being from Philippines. So noone ever told me this fact.) - I am registered in the VA as someone who spent half a year in close proximity of burn pit. In Burn Pit Registry. Squadron sleeping quarters in deployed base was right on other side of wall of a base burn pit. Which could be causing the breathing issues. Hypertension nexus - Been prescribed high blood pressure pills for 3 years now. - .gov and .edu website publications on studies that link depression and anxiety to weight gain which is associated with high blood pressure. - .gov and .edu website publications on studies that link Effexor (Venlafaxine) (my med) to weight gain which is associated with high blood pressure. - I am going to connect it to my current Service Connection of Retained Renal Calculus. I pass 5-6 Kidney stones per year. Probably 1-2 per year I have to go to ER it seems due to extreme pains. Last month I was sick and dehydrated and passed one. One week later, I am passing a second one. Too painful, had to go to ER. Pass it next day. Week later pass a 3rd. It takes a week to pass, bringing me to hospital twice for it. On final visit, I was calm. 1 Hour prior it was moving and I was screaming in pain. So while I was calm after it had stopped moving for an hour, they took my blood pressure and it was at like 210/140. My argument is that I had gone nearly an entire month with this extreme pain due to VA service connection with this high of Blood Pressure. Does it sound like I am approaching this ok? Does anyone have any advice on things I may need to do to strengthen my case or does this all sound sufficient?