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Jayg
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Posts posted by Jayg
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Meddac, I take you at your word. But be aware, you are one of the few, the very few.
Much of what you say is true. However, I question that applies to most of the people here. Most folks here are desperate to succeed and are interested in what they, we have to do to make the system work. Its when after we have done all we can do that the dirty tricks dept cmes in that we get griped.
My pet peeve is that it should take an IMO from an outside physician, costing maybe thousands of dollars an ailing vet can't afford to get what he deserves. If the C&P exam could be a blind honest test, then we wouldn't be here.
One example is that I have feet problems causing secondary conditions. I claimed secondary conditions. The C&P examiner was specifically instructed NOT to look at any secondary conditions. He examined my feet and feet only. But based on that, they denied everything.
I do not want to instigate anything here... Yes, there are numerous reasons for denial, and they do get used often.There are some that aren't listed, though, and they may not be popular:
1. Failure to report to multiple exams that we schedule.
2. Saying that you "want to claim PTSD", and then never sending us the 21-0781 or any kind of statement whatsoever.
3. Claiming exposure to chemicals that haven't been used in nearly 100 years.
4. Not sending in medical evidence at all.
5. Sending medical evidence that has absolutely nothing to do with your claimed conditions.
6. Being foolish, ending up in prison, then making claims.
7. Not having any diagnosis.
There are lots that cut both ways. You have to keep that in mind. I cannot speak for the entire VA, but I can speak for what I do: Send me the evidence, make the exam, and fill out the form... I WILL go to bat for you 100%. Yes, there are some bad apples (maybe more than just some), but I deal with faulty claims on a daily basis as well.
Heck, there are people that have never even been in the military that manufacture DD-214's and make claims. They take time away from the veterans who need assistance. They help drive timeliness through the roof.
BTW, I do not consider "5. "Award" you zero %, which is just a back door denial" to be a denial. Whan I applied for VA help, I only wanted someone to care for me. Thats all I got at first (0%). My condition was bad, and I was just happy that my family did not have to endure further medical costs. I didn't need money...I needed help, and I got it. That got my foot in the door.
Now I receive both. That's not denial to me. The picture in my profile will show you that the money wasn't important. Without free medical care for me, where would that boy be?
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Rewording your claim so it doesn't reflect anything you actually injured!
My SoC said "you claim service connection for the left knee and claim your right knee as secondary condition to your claimed Left knee" (near enough a quote)
L knee Denied. There is no record of injury to the left knee.
R Knee denied.
Of course there was no record of injury to my knee. I never hurt it in service. That's why I claimed both knees as secondary to an ankle and feet problems!
So then I had to file an NOD and go back into the shuffle. Since 2004 I've been shuffling. But I have 2, count 'em, 2, kick butt IMOs and I have a hearing in 2 weeks. I truly believe the lions share of my shuffling is about to come to an end.
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I'm balancing on the fence. I take 1000mg Naproxyn Sodium a day among other meds. My records repeatedly state "probable gerd." Unfortunately, my main area for which I take this med are my knees, which are not yet sc.
So no connexion for gerd.
But I'm going to a dro hearing next month with an IMO that says "more likely than not" for connexion. If I should rate connexion, that would go back to 2004. Would my knees then be considered sc for the period I've taken this med?
as far as testing goes, all they've done to date is the (yecchhh) Barium drink. <_<
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signal16,
All medical care, treatment, RX's, prosthetics,etc... with no co-pays.
If you fall off your roof, break half your bones, end up in a body cast
and need round the clock care for months - VA will handle these needs with
no co-pays from you.
Also,
Check your state veterans web site - you may have more benefits there,
like a reduction in property taxes.
carlie
By example, In Texas you get a property tax break at any rating from 10%. The major shift here comes from 60% though. I can't recall the specifics (only 40% so far but hope March's hearing will change that drastically) but generally, Car registration pennies on the dollar with option of a special disabled veteran's license plate, Hunting/fishing license like $5. things like that.
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I'm a chronic pain type and have some idea about how you feel. I've had to utter an apology a time or three myself. Less painful than holding in knowing we done wrong.
At home when I get crabby, I go down to my shop in the barn and maybe whittle, just sit and listen to the radio, or, now and then, yell my head off cursing all odd sods and gods where it'll do no harm. It's good to have a place to be alone sometimes.
Just don't stay there.
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Grenades? In presenting your claim, you want to be more ordinance specific. You say "training grenades" and nobody will accept a hearing loss argument from you. Those were just grenade bodies which about a 3/4" or 1" hole drilled in the bottom. The 'detonation' was nothing more than the blasting cap of the standard grenade fuse going off and that wasn't as loud as a firecracker.
you might consider they used an "artillery simulator." That would have given a shap whistle before going off and was pretty loud but still not bad. I just did a search "artillery simulators AND decibels." Got a lot of hits. A quick scan revealed numbers ranging between 84 to 165 db. To put that in perspective, a .22 cal. long rifle puts out about 99db. It takes approximately 100db to produce minimal permanent impact loss.
Not to be a nay sayer, but to put your claim chances in perspective, I spent 4 years in the artillery driving tactical vehicles and performing fire direction duties. Complained of tinnitus in service and got a PULHES P3 rating. Loss of records kept me in the arty 2 more years after that.
I am presently 10% tinnitus and 0% s/c bi-lat hearing loss and I don't rate a hearing aid.
your chances of getting a rating on one bivouac pyrotechnic exposure are not good. :D Any closeness to flight lines? Maintenence sheds running loud machinery?? In service illness and/or meds with risk to hearing???
I would think you should try to find a firmer contributing exposure.
I'm sorry not to have anytjhing more positive to add but felt you needed to hear this.
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Thanks. I did give the doc Strickland's sample and explained the wording. He did give me a "more likely than not" which is great. I just can't give the folks at Waco an excuse to chuck it.
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Berta, Meddac, thanks for the info. Concerning the didn't happens, I'll pass the info where needed. It's likely pointless. He can't remember exactly which year it was. Seems to recall everything else though.
As for my little to do, I'll keep it in consideration. I do tend to keep a watchful, on-guard attitude at all times. My wife has remarked on it. But I do not 'start at shadows.' If anything, it's probably a positive influence. I've lived longer than some folks I knew.
Thanks.
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OOOPS...forgot to mention, I like to whine and my wife gets tired of hearing me so I found this site. Feel free to tell me to take a hike or a long run off a short dock. It's ok.
Mike, I suspect you'd have a lot of company walking down that pier... ;)
Wings, many thanks for that link!
Thanks! :P
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PS-I diodnt really expain what I mean correctly-
an additional IMO should not be redundant nor cummulate to the first-
but obviously a second IMO doctor will prepare a different review of the evidence and word it in a different way.
When a vet submits a second IMO from a different doctor they should stress that the evidence they are enclosing cooraborates the opinion of the initial doctor,based on a distinct and separate review of all evidence available.
I follow you. Thanks, Berta. These two doctors are from different specialties.
Concerning that foot/ankle doctor's IMO I posted below... Any advice on tweaking it into a stronger letter? It's thin on the ground now.
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I got 10% tinnitus and 0% sc bilateral hearing with no medical records. I went on sick call for hearing in 1980. I had to leave my records with Division main hospital for assignment of a hearing profile. Bye Bye records. They were not seen by me again until 2005 when, after several requests to NARA, lo and behold they magically showed up in my mail box. VA still hasn't got a copy. Those records show I was granted a P3 profile for hearing. P4 would be considered 'legally deaf.' But, as noted, I had already won my award. That was because I was a 13E10 artilleryman. I had my DD214 and could prove that much. That was sufficient to get assignment of my rating.
Your problem is that you have to overcome that ETS test. Just focus on the factors in your specific service that inevitably cause hearing loss.
I don't know my numbers offhand to campare to yours, but in lay terms, my hearing level is the same as that provided by a hearing aid which is why they won't issue me one. Funny, they told me the same thing 10 years ago. In the meantime, my hearing got worse and hearing aids got better... oh well
You just have to load up your evidence side so much that the seperation test can be nothing but wrong. Like 'Sherlock Holmes' was given to 'say:' "Eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." The 'impossible' in this case must be that your hearng came out of service as indicated.
Good luck with your case.
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Most Docs won't mess with helping Veterans by doing IMO's. Its a time thing they make a lot more money being a Doctor.
I think that you were lucky it took me over 2 years to find a Doc who would write a Medical Opinion that overrulled a Hearing Officer in Waco.
Waco, huh. That's where I'm going. Well, this one is from a foot and ankle specialist. I'm getting another from a doctor of internal medicine with a background in occupational medicine.
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Yes SPCTruckdriver has excellent evidence.
I sure didn't mean to suggest that PTSD comes only from combat- any traumatic event,such as personal assaults and many non combat situations- could all lead to PTSD.
Just how much trauma is required to activate PTSD anyway. I was diagnosed with it but was never in action (duty in Cold War 1974-81). So never bothered to try to follow up on anything. Besides, I don't like to take those darn psyche drugs! I'm crazy enough with all the pain meds I'm on already.
Someone did take a shot at me and another track park guard one time. Surely that alone wouldn't do it. Besides, the only record I have of that is the letter I wrote home to Mom about it. Even therein I'm vague as to what actually happened as to whether or not someone was actually shooting at us. Tried to blame the blow against my back as static since the radio wasn't damaged. (that's what I wrote anyway. I seem to remember it a little differently)
Another silly question. In those days there were things that... didn't happen. When something was all over, they were debriefed, signed security forms and told "this never happened." Of course there are no records for the individuals caught in those events. ... What would a person who experienced something like that do?
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I've been disabled/unemployed since 2004. Had to go bankrupt last year. It didn't, hasn't, done me any good. ;)
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This was on another topic.
"There is one other thing that you can tell this veteran. When a veteran submits an SF-180 form to the National Personnel Records Center he only receives copies of his standard service records. He does not receive copies of any hospital reports. Those are held in a separate location in the National Personnel Records Center and have to be requested separately in a request that includes the name of the hospital the veteran was hospitalized at and the approximate dates of hospitalization. "
I thought it best to bring it to a new topic as concerns my problems. While at Ft. Knox, I was hospitalized for 1 week with "ARD"- Acute respiratory disease" I passed out in barracks with a high fever and a pal carried me to his car and thence to the hospital. I always called it pneumonia. As noted, I was hospitalized for days, released, coughed my lungs out first day out and went right back and they kept me a week. As part of my treatment, I had to spend 15-20 minutes a day breathing some kind of medicine from an air tank. I have no copies of those records.
Another thing from Ft. Knox. A fellow tried to rob me. Clotted me on top of the head with a sawed off entrenching tool handle. Bloody amateur. Had he belted me up the side of the head he'd have had me. But when I turned around to face him he dropped his jaw and his stick and ran faster than I ever could.
But.
About two hours later it caught up with me and I only just managed not to pass out. I had to go to the clinic there in 'splinter village' the next day. They X-rayed my head and pronounced I might have had a mild concussion and was lucky not to have a cracked skull. Any way, I have none of those records either. I've got records from NARA twice now and never yet got those.
So do we have to ask for those kind of records from a different location? And, does anybody recall the name of the hospital at Ft. Knox? Not the 'old brick hospital,' but the 'newer one, (newer in 1975/7)
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Howdy all. I found a doctor that gave me a 'more likely than not' on connecting my arthritis to my sc conditions (flat feet and ankle injury). I gave the good Dr. a copy of Strickland's sample letter and he tried to follow it but he didn't get it right in detail. I had fore warned him that VA was fussy as all get out and he told me to let him know if it needed altered so there's no problem on that end.
He gave me three lightly filled pages with information scattered about and omitted a lot of detail, providing mainly broad statements/impressions. Too, I hadn't brought the full battery of my records since at this first visit, I hadn't actually expected the letter. His office people really had no idea what I was asking of him so I just expected to explain what I wanted and to see if he would do it. He accepted the idea, looked at what I had brought and gave me an exam. then produced the 'letter.' It lacks comment about 'reviewing SMR's' and I hadn't brought my x-rays/MRI so he lleft that blank. I'll carry all that stuff when I go back to him.
What I'm wanting to do is spoon feed him the finished product as near as I can so he pretty much just has to fill in the blanks, as it were, and sign it.
That's where you good folk come in. ;)
Please bear with me as this is long but I really need input here.
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This is his, I guess call it opinion or cover letter with my edits for him in Italics. The next two are his additional pages. Some information useful, some needs amended and some omitted as potentially harmful or just needless. In the end, it all needs shuffled into a whole... This is what I'm hoping you all can help me with. Something fit to set VA back on it's heels. And this is in time for my Hearing in March.
>>> One more thing. This fellow above is a foot/ankle doctor. Good for that and connecting secondary conditions. I have also come upon a 'doctor of Internal medicine' I know willing to help me out too. Is it a good thing to have two IMO from different perspectives??? -
Yup, it's GOT to say "I've reviewed his Service Medical Records.....", otherwise they'll shoot ya down.
Yes, I have those records and the doctor is willing to work with me on it. So far, including the exam, he's only charged me $92. My hearing is in mid March so I have time to fine tune it.
Reviewed SMR, I'll get that in.
What else?
I've got Jim Strickland's sample 'nexus letter' (that's what I gave the doc). I'd like to review Berta's sample. I thought I'd saved a copy but can't find it either in my files or here-a-bouts.
Thanks much all so far.
I can walk but not far. That's why they gave me one of those walkers and a scooter. And if you saw my med list, whooo I can't imagine any employers whose insurance would even cover me. Without distraction, I can't even stay awake long enough to sit in a guard shack. Heck, I frequently doze off pecking on the computer. Can't depend on keeping my count straight long enough to run a cash register.
Besides, by trade I was a machinist. Not like I have any marketable skills for 'more sedentary work.' And, there is that bit about 'gainful employment.'
There's good justification for my IU claim.
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So I noticed. B)Jayg,Unable to open those links.
You will need to upload the file into Hadit.
jmho,
carlie
First time I ever added anything to a post here but I think I've got it now. :D
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Howdy all. I found a doctor that gave me a 'more likely than not' on connecting my arthritis to my sc conditions (flat feet and ankle injury). I gave the good Dr. a copy of Strickland's sample letter and he tried to follow it but he didn't get it right in detail. I had fore warned him that VA was fussy as all get out and he told me to let him know if it needed altered so there's no problem on that end.
He gave me three lightly filled pages with information scattered about and omitted a lot of detail, providing mainly broad statements/impressions. Too, I hadn't brought the full battery of my records since at this first visit, I hadn't actually expected the letter. His office people really had no idea what I was asking of him so I just expected to explain what I wanted and to see if he would do it. He accepted the idea, looked at what I had brought and gave me an exam. then produced the 'letter.'
What I'm wanting to do is spoon feed him the finished product as near as I can so he pretty much just has to fill in the blanks, as it were.
That's where you good folk come in. B)
Please bear with me as this is long but I really need input here.
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This is his, I guess call it opinion or cover letter with my edits for him in Italics. The next two are his additional pages. Some information useful, some needs amended and some omitted as potentially harmful or just needless. In the end, it all needs shuffled into a whole... This is what I'm hoping you all can help me with. Something fit to set VA back on it's heels. And this is in time for my Hearing in March.
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The real question is, where are the big 3? (VFW, Am Legion, DAV) If ALL the major organizations got in line on something like this, they might actually effect some positive change.
But as things stand, the people behind the desks on the floor in the VAROS have, lets face it, an impossible task. So without major changes in records submission, keeping, evaluation and ratings, more people and training, they might speed things up, but nothing is going to change.
And if they should set out to do it right,
it won't happen right away no matter how soon they start. Change would be too late for us older geezers, but it would be nice to know it was better for the next poor sods in line. 
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So I'm catching it both ways.
What bothers me is that word moderate.
I'm in knee braces, on canes, walker and scooter and take meds for chronic pain. In all these conditions they use the word "mild."
So my neck is "moderate." it's no wonder I have pain in my neck.
Thanks.
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This is something from a barium swallowing test.
Translation please?
"moderate hypertrophic spurring & disc space narrowing at the cervical spine."
Spurring refers to arthritis. Yes? Disc narrowing I have saome idea. But the rest exceeds my understanding.
Thanks!
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The phys therapist put me on the stuff for my knees. Swears it cured his knees. Happy for him, but, no joy for me.
It doesn't cost VA anything though.
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CONGRATULATIONS!!!
it won't happen right away no matter how soon they start. Change would be too late for us older geezers, but it would be nice to know it was better for the next poor sods in line. 
Nuff Said, Thanks Everyone For Their Assistance.
in VA Disability Claims Research
Posted · Edited by Jayg
Things are getting out of hand here. It's a matter of misinformation/lack of information. Nothing more. It's going to be looked into. Thanks everyone for their assistance.
Jay