[Success]

It's taken me about two years to get 100% TDIU [PTSD & major depression is the med diagnosis on the award], but last week it came. I started the process not knowing much about VA disability. Unfortunately I had two poor VSO's representing me; one was just too new at the game but a decent guy, the other was just an oxygen thief. I also learned that VSOs from another organization won't speak to you if you take a different organization VSO.

I decided to do the whole app for VA disability myself without a VSO. I paid a pretty steep price emotionally and psychologically but after reading some of the experiences here I probably would have as well even with a good VSO I suppose.

My psy-doc and counselor at the MHC in Seattle were amazingly supportive [with them for four years]. They wouldn't write a recommendation--I think they're gun-shy probably an admin thing--but each put their opinions on my ability to gain employment in the medical notes. I used those medical notes containing the clear statements on their professional opinions of my employability as part of the evidence for the TDIU app.

I also utilized my family in contacting congressmen which was a dead end. Both a dem and repub representative's staff seemed helpful but not hopeful, this wasn't their first rodeo with the VBA process. I used Iris as well. After waiting 12 months I would check in once a month and let them know exactly how many days I'd been waiting ("It's been 345--or whatever the number was that email--days since I sent my initial packet and request for TDIU in..."). I sent in a note to the regional office every month with a reminder of how long I'd been waiting, always nicely phrased with a 'thank you for your efforts on this' included (even when I was fuming).

I'm not sure what Iris did if anything but I knew something was up when I'd requested a contact from the office handling my claim--just someone tell me what's going on--and they responded by telling me the office had not yet responded to their request but to wait, which was a first.) I got a call from the regional VBA office telling me of my award two weeks later. Greatest phone call in the last few years.

Maybe some of my stuff worked, maybe it would've taken that long anyway.

I finally got it last week, back dated to Sept 9, 2009 with a nice chunk of back pay as well. I can't tell you how relieved I am, the stress of finances and of living off of family charity is over and I can maybe even give back now. Frankly I'd have been living under a bridge if it weren't for my family, the VBA process takes so long.

In the long run the process does work and doing it myself with no guidance but a lot of research (I lurked here for a couple of years) taught me a few things. Exhausted but vindicated and happy.

My husband started a claim in 2000, we fought it until he died in 2007. He worked on the flight line in Lakenheath AFB in England, working in the jp4, developed diabetes mellitus, then heart condition, neuropathy, hearing loss, etc. The last condition he developed was dementia with balance control, staggered gait, loss of speech, died in 2007. Kept the claim open, our VSO incomptetent, the whole lot of them was fired a couple of months ago, new group brought in but was advised to take files to Houston VSO office which I just returned from there. Husband had gotten a remand few years ago, VSO talked him out of dropping it. VSO in Houston has requested a hearing and says with the supporting documentation we have that I have a good case. An internal medicine doctor had written a letter stating it was more likely than not that his condition was service related. Have supporting research that confirms all his symptoms. Anyone that has any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm 64, can't get a job.

[Fighting For Deceased Husband]

Hello everyone. I had posted this in introductions and was advised to put it here.

My husband was a jet mechanic in late sixties at AFB in Lakenheath, England. He contended that he worked on the planes that came from Vietnam and had AO. However, he had diabetes, later heart disease, neuropathy, then after several years of disturbing symptoms such as personality change, staggered gait, loss of balance and falling, slurring of speech, he was finally diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia where he finally was unable to speak. He finally passed away february 2007. We had two doctors who looked into his military records and felt that the jet fuel he was exposed to was the cause of the ftd and the screw up in his brain.

After his death, the VSO did change the claim for me as well as filed for widow's pension. I received the award letter for the pension yesterday. I had almost given up and was in the process of writing to the Texas state senator and rep and had the letters ready to go about the case when the award letter showed up for the pension. I had been told it would take years to get the pension and probably never would get the claim filed on behalf of my husband so I guess I should feel lucky to have gotten the pension after a little over a year, huh?

[Fighting For Deceased Husband]

Hello

[New Member]

Hello to everyone. My husband was a jet mechanic in late sixties at Lakenheath AFB. Few years later he was dx with diabetes, then heart disease, and died last year of frontal lobe dementia. He had started a claim in 2000 but kept being denied. The claim is still open as he had letters from two doctors stating his condition was more likely than not caused from inhaling the fumes from the jet engines. VSO wanted him to get buddy letters stating he worked on the flight line but haven't been able to find any buddies. I filed for a pension last year but haven't gotten it. Is there any advice or help?