Phred

Thank you purple.

If I provide my personal civilian medical records to the VA as part of a claim, can I "black-out" with a big black marker that which has nothing to do with my claim before turning it over to them or will they have a problem with that?

Thanks everyone for your comments and advice.

So if by "The VA examiner stated that he could not assess the degree of leg pain related to your service connected injuries without meter speculation," they meant that the doctor’s position was that he can’t determine the degree of leg pain and any attempt to try would be mere speculation on his part. I’m looking at the schedule of ratings and notice that the following is mentioned, “Limitation of motion must be objectively confirmed by findings such as swelling, muscle spasm, or satisfactory evidence of painful motion." So how does one go about providing objectively confirmed evidence of painful motion if the doctor’s position is that any attempt to do so is mere speculation!

Also… I need to figure out what exactly she was originally rated 10 percent for for each leg because I’ve seen her condition referred to on various VA documents as Left ankle, shin and knee injury residuals, I’ve seen it referred to as lower leg stress injuries and I’ve seen it referred to as stress fractures. If she had for example, Left ankle, shin and knee injury residuals then couldn’t it be argued that that should be getting 10 percent for the left ankle, 10 percent for the left shin and 10 percent for the left knee totaling 30 percent, not 10 percent. How does one go about getting the official document that states exactly medically what the VA is paying her for?

That makes so much more sense, thank you. I believe you are right, “mere speculation.” I’ll try to give a quick background. My wife asked for a reevaluation of: Left ankle, shin and knee stress injury residuals Right ankle, shin and knee stress injury residuals Each had been previously assigned a 10 percent rating, so she was getting 20 percent for her legs and 10 percent for a wrist but she didn’t include the wrist in this request for re-evaluation. She got no increase. I blame our approach. I do so for a number of reasons. I’m not ready to give up and neither is she. I am going to help her with her appeal but I don’t want to screw it up again. I think we screwed up from the beginning by giving the VA an easy way to claim that her current condition is not service-connected. What I mean is… she got out in 1999, had been getting 30 percent, fell and hurt her legs in 2007, when she filled out the Statement in Support of Claim she stated that she fell and hurt her legs but that the injuries were made more extensive due to the pre-existing service-connected condition or something to that effect. At least that’s what I think she stated. (Note to Self: I need to get a copy of the Statement of Claim) I’m not sure if the Statement tried to claim that the fall was caused by the pre-existing service connected condition. I don’t know if that’s a direction we should have taken it or not. The bottom line is that they denied her by saying that “No link of the accident (meaning the fall) or residuals to the stress fractures in service was provided.” Previously in that paragraph they state that, “The private medical records show your accident when you fell on ice, while moderately impaired, in May of 2007, resulting in surgery.” They did get medical records directly from the hospital and surgeon, we didn’t see a copy. (Note to self: That was a big mistake.) I need to get a copy of those records as we work on the appeal because I want to see how they determined that she was moderately impaired, I don’t remember a breathalyzer test having been administered, maybe they performed some blood test, either way I want to see what reference there is to this moderately impaired business. I’m also wondering why they would bother to put that in their findings. Is that statement an attempt to disprove her service connected pre existing condition had nothing to do with the fall or severity of the injuries? Also, look at the date, May, we don’t live at the North Pole, what ice are they talking about? Nobody ever said anything about falling on ice, there was no ice. That’s another reason I need to see these records, I want to see if the VA is just blatantly making shit up or if someone at the hospital got their facts wrong. I'm thinking we shouldn't have mentioned the fall at all and just asked for a reevaluation based on the state of her legs currently. Anyway, I appreciate any comments or suggestions; I’ll type up plenty more after I cool off a bit. Certain aspects of this has really got my blood a boilin'.

I have about a hundred questions as I'm reading through this paper work but I'd like to start with what does this mean: "The VA examiner stated that he could not assess the degree of leg pain related to your service connected injuries without meter speculation."

Not much of an update but she got a letter the other day stating that they were still working on her claim and thanking her for her patience. Is this a good sign, bad sign or just automated because her claim hasn't been adjudicated yet?

Just wanted to point out an Illinois Program I heard about on the news last year, it's called G-I Loans for Heros. Here is the website... http://www.ihda.org/ViewPage.aspx?PageID=231 "The G-I Loan for Heroes is the exciting new Illinois Homeownership Program for Veterans and Active Service Personnel. The G-I Loan offers significantly below market homeownership financing and counseling. There are two program packages, one for Veterans and one for active duty personnel. Veterans' Program: The Veterans' Program is designed for honorably discharged Veterans who qualify under the income and purchase price limits of the IHDA MRB Program. Participants will receive a substantially below market rate financing package, closing cost assistance and homeownership counseling. In addition, under federal legislation passed in December 2006, Veterans do not have to be first-time homebuyers to qualify. Active Duty Program: The Active Duty program is designed for active duty service personnel in the Armed Services and Reserve Forces. Under this program, they will receive the same package as the Veterans, except they must qualify as a first time homebuyer under the IHDA MRB Program."

Thanks everyone for the welcome and for your comments and suggestions. I will let you know if there are any updates.

Hello, I’ve been reading your forum for a few months and finally decided to register. My name is Fred, my wife and I were in the Army in the 90s, during that time she suffered from chronic stress injuries in her legs and one bad wrist. When we ETS’d the VA gave her 10 percent for each leg and 10 percent for her wrist. Since that time her condition (legs) has worsened. I encouraged her to seek a reassessment and she finally went to a local VA office of some kind and filled out paperwork last November December time frame. We heard nothing until March when she received a letter on a Monday informing her that she needed to show up for an examination that Wednesday in Wisconsin, we live in Illinois. So she went, she said the doctor was very nice, they took a bunch of x-rays of her knees, shins and ankles. He looked at them, asked her a few questions about her legs and said he’d send in his report. The next day we received a huge packet from the VA explaining that they were working on a reassessment for injuries to left knee, ankle, shin, right knee, ankle, and shin and also working on a claim for individual unemployability. The packet informed her that she’d be required to go to an examination that they would arrange (which she had already done), I guess the letters arrived out of order. Anyway, the packet encouraged her to send in all medical records, testimonials, etc… so I guess we’ll be working on that next. It will be interesting to see how they decide as even though her conditioned has worsened what actually prompted our seeking a reassessment was that she tripped down a couple of stairs leading into our backyard about a year ago and broke her ankle, tibia and fibula on her left leg and when I say broke I mean completely shattered. She’s had two surgeries already and one to two more on deck. All of the doctors that cared for her after the accident assumed that she had been in a major car accident; they said her injuries were consistent with a major car accident. I’m no doctor but I was surprised by the extent of her injuries as well considering all she did was trip down two stairs. I told her that perhaps the bones shattered because she had been suffering from chronic stress fractures since her time in the military (and I honestly believe that could be true and seems plausible to me) and that she should try to draw a presumptive correlation type of deal during this reassessment. She brought that up during her VA examination and the doctor just listened and gave her a non-committal noise as a response. In fact, she said he didn’t have a whole lot to say during the examination other than to tell her that he personally had nothing to do with what kind of percentage she would end up with, that his responsibility was to just submit his findings to another group down in Chicago. He claimed he didn’t know she was already receiving 30 percent and said he had been provided no medical records prior to the examination. I’m not saying I think he is a liar but it does seem odd that he had zero background or history on her conditions, but whatever. I guess that’s the way it works sometimes. So we’re going to collect up all of the medical records we can and send copies down to Chicago. Do you think these testimonials they said we could send will hold much sway with them one way or another. I mean if our neighbor writes a couple of paragraphs saying that since she’s known us my wife is having a harder time getting around is the VA going to really care or say my wife herself writes how her conditions have affected her ability to work or even function around the house is the VA really going to consider that? I am going to try to get our doctors to write up something, anything that might be helpful to my wife’s case. I don’t know how much cooperation we’re are going to get on that front, a couple of her doctors are kind of jerks. Anyway, thanks for this forum and all of the information it provides. Regards, Fred