yellowrose

BRONCOVET, it will have to be late this afternoon. I am going to Church at noon and then have Phys Therapy at 3, central time. But I will indeed start a new topic. It is important that I do as you asked, because the entire situation about my Claim and the errors VA has made are legendary=== truly, what they call "an icebreaker." What I have accomplished so far MADE HISTORY, but that is when they started really retaliating. They were only mildly retaliating before that :) Thank you for the suggestion and I look forward to discussions. BERTA, I have been badly needing your help on this issue, and I have heard that you will not take private questions from any vets anymore and you keep your phone # hidden. So, when I get the new topic created, I will come back here and post another Comment, so you can see the name of the new topic and be certain not to miss it. Thank you so much. It's a very woman-specific conundrum, in a lot of ways. It's an assault-victim-specific issue in all the other ways, but that does include men. I know, I'm friends with the 12 men who have filed lawsuits in Kansas right now, if you have heard about that. Julia in Alabama

So, this is where I'm having problems, too. The staff of the BVA, inside the VARO Cleveland, told me to file for an increase and then they denied it, and I contacted them back that they are still ignoring the specific records I'm pointing out about their very serious (22 year old!!!!) CUE on my diagnosis, and they sent me an appeal form. That isn't right, is it? I filed the CUE separately and they ignored it, before I did all the complaining through the Undersecretary for Benefits and landed the phone number for that special VBA staff "hit team." They KNOW they are sending me up a primrose path. That they are fixing it so that I make a wrong move and they don't have to address their CUE. Thanks.

I'm SUPPOSED to be eligible for SMC-K, but they are being shits about it. Loss, or loss of use, of reproductive organ or function. They cannot get it through their thick skulls that PUDENDAL NEUROPATHY, and the fact that the only drug they knew how to prescribe back in the early 90s was Tegretol which causes shortened limbs in a lot of fetuses when a woman is treated with that drug, caused me to be told to not have children. I have a very renowned Anesthesiologist who wrote, on University Hospital letterhead, a letter to this effect and then I have two Social Worker Adoption Home Studies where we went to build a family through an alternative path that wrote the reason adoption was being sought was the same thing. VA continuously ignores them. THEN, there are two different causes that I have for Sexual Dysfunction. I have Female Sexual Arousal Disorder. One should have been presumptive s/c just based on where my 34 years of chronic pain stems from: a fracture in the deepest part of my pelvis which damaged the pudendal nerve. Men have those nerves, too, but I don't know how to describe what the impact of pudendal neuropathy would be. For me, the urethra, all the way up the left side of the vaginal canal and the left side of the cervix can flare up and make me feel like my crotch is on fire. It is s/c in my VA records. 0% for a number of years (that's tolerable to me) and then 10% a few years ago. That obviously impacts a woman's body from being able to function sexually, but I keep losing the claim battle for that, for lack of them being able to see it in my treatment records--- to me, it's common sense. The other cause of my Female Sexual Arousal Disorder is more newly approved by Regulations: sexual abuse. I am 70% compensated for a PTSD -personal trauma through Section 1151 because a VA physician therapeutically deceived, exploited, molested, raped, and then stalked me for seven months across State lines. A true nutcase. He was in Texas' Impaired Provider Program on his suspended, but stay of suspension medical license for a few years stemming from my reporting him, until the VA allowed him to retire with flying colors!! and he went to the other side of the city and got hired at a different hospital and was observed by a colleague drugging and exploiting a different female patient, and with the knowledge that he'd been hired on that suspended license, turned around and reported him again. This time it resulted in a revocation of license and surrender of FDA prescribing privileges for life. It was supposed to be a 5 year suspension, but he got caught only 14 months after he signed the Agreed Order for what he did to me. Again, the VA will not log me in as "sexual dysfunction." I saw "0% ED/Sexual Dysfunction" in your prior post on this topic. Here is the bulletin information about the recent allowance of sexual assault being known to cause sexual dysfunction being compensable: http://www.federalregister.com/Browse/Document/usa/na/fr/2015/2/27/2015-03851?search=Veterans%2BAffairs#84965044 Again, I think it is "common sense", but I suppose I'm going to keep losing until I get the psych people to put more complaints from me in my PCRS file? "The 'mental disorders' we diagnose are no more than descriptions of what clinicians observe people do or say,— Statement of Allen Frances, Psychiatrist and former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman, 2015" " Unlike the rest of medicine, mental disorders are arrived at by a political, not medical process." " While DSM has been described as a ‘Bible’ for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary…. The weakness is its lack of validity. — Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health " " There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder. There is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bull—. I mean, you just can’t define it.” — Allen Frances, Psychiatrist and former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman" All of these quotes are from http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-disorders/psychiatristsphysicians-on-lack-of-any-medicalscientific-tests/ So, I see your "0% ED/Sexual Dysfunction" but need your help in understanding if my Female Sexual Arousal Disorder is part of my building blocks for the SMC-K compensation? And since you didn't include K in your chart, how much is it these days? Thank you, Julia S

It means the rater is partially screwed up. Appropriate C&P report terminology is "more likely than not." He or she knew there was something that needed to be typed in, to assist in professional WAFFLING, but didn't grab the terms as it should have been utilized. The deal is that you might have trouble getting two different spinal ratings. You might confer with a GOOD service officer about how to re-open the issue when you got the ROM 20%, and at that time the rest should have been at least been rated 0% so you'd get s/c designation for it, and call one or the other as "secondary to." I know 0% sounds bad, but it has helped me, and ultimately I HAVE gotten better ratings. You just need to get it on the books NOW that it is s/c. Especially because it seems as though you are under 50% and not getting comprehensive health care yet. I appreciate your recent service, and am glad you're involved in conversations like these.

The VA has a duty to assist. Also to give the veteran the benefit of the doubt. Remind them of that. They're getting in all sorts of hot water for initial denials fired out, only to have to screw with the case again in an appeal.

I think everyone involved in working through disability claims is overworked. The people inside VSOs can be a lot more concise than we veterans are, pretty often. It's a matter of expedience. Sorry if you don't like this, but it's what I've observed over the past 32 years.

My heart goes out to you, usdart. I am proud of you for continuing your battle. I've got to get off my duff and do more on my claim, too. I'm glad that you do seem to have an open channel for communications, on account of using your Congressman's Caseworker.

If I were you, I would have put your most important link, the one directly to your article, first: 6 States Refuse Benefits to Gay National Guard Spouses Regards, Juli

yes, this has been an issue in my life, too, over two different sets of particulars. Almost always, if representing yourself, Uncle Sam the cheapskate is going to prevail in a situation such as this. I'm sorry. I'm looking for a lawyer (and really, really could use a recommendation for the greatest shark in the country, it's mostly involving a CUE and the fact that the VA got pinched until it had to admit that it would re-visit MST claims because the victims were being held to a higher standard), and I'll be asking for at least one of the two analagous rating topics to be revisited. I wish you luck, and admire you for pinpointing part of what's wrong with the adjudication in your claim (at least to the sensible man on the street) and asking us for help.

you're in for a long haul with a Federal Tort Claim action. Be EXTREMELY picky when you check with attorneys. Few of them know what they are doing. I'm very sorry.

the Post Decision Hearing is a magnificent idea. never heard of it before. I really need this-- have been fighting for 23 years about being sexually assaulted by a VA doctor in his office, I had so much evidence the state suspended his med license for 5 yrs. VA has PTSD on my list of diagnoses but still considers it non-SC (I'm fighting them via Sec. 1151). Thanks again.

You have to start with the MOVE program at the local clinic, but to get the drugs, you must attend a once per week meeting at the nearest VAMC. Good luck.

I just looked at my face. I had a crying fit 6 hours ago. Not good. I cannot get treated for all of the areas of pain that I have in my hips and pelvis. Not all of it is chronic. I was discharged from the Navy for an ortho diagnosis, fracturing my pubic bone. I've been in this area of the country now for 11 years and no one will let me see an Orthopedist at the Birmingham hospital. I am in with a "Physical Rehab" doctor, but I found out last week he "treats the spine" and acute flare-ups of pain in the 9-10 range are completely out I hurt in 5 places, not all can be impacted by silly trigger point injections near my tailbone. No one is palpating the areas that I say are miserable, no one will let me rotate my left leg for them to demonstrate how the tendons at the top of the femur and in the hip socket snap. There are other rehab doctors that probably treat other parts of the body, and there are anesthesiologists, but no one will let me see them., I will try not to bore you with more details. But I had a horrendous phone conversation with the nurse and M.D. in Huntsville primary care. Their story: "we are doing everything we know to do." Well, you know what? Apparently the Human Resources functions need to be beefed up. Because the one skill that ought to be in practice, which doesn't seem to be going on here, is rather basic: LISTEN The primary care doctor is insisting I get a different doctor. I am not making this request, I am going to use my elected officials, groups who fight for vets (I did put in a message with the Patient Advocate at the hospital today, let's see what happens Tuesday), and a lawyer if I have to. I will not let them say I wish to be treated by someone different. I wish for these creeps to be caught in the fact that they simply are "doing everything we know to do" for complaints that are not the accurate ones coming out of my mouth. Thanks guys, this is really hard for me to share. Juli

oh, and, yes, I've seen the VA's custhelp page. and the safe domains and security levels and javascript matters all seem to be set up appropriately on my machine.

How can this gidforums site be of any help when it was created as early as 2003, and a lot of us just spontaneously began having IRIS crashes in about the last 45 days? I'm not meaning to sound snotty, but everything that http://www.gidforums.com/t-1513.html, http://us3.php.net/manual/en/install.windows.iis.php and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/839229/ allude to just boggles my brain. I run XP and have tried IE and Chrome browsers. I have faxed the IT department at my VARO, requesting a workaround, with no response. I'm certain I'd get treated like a fool if I tried to talk to the Reps at the 800-#. I did call and ask them to get a message to the person who usually works on my case, wanting an update, and that's been close to three weeks.... still no response. I just want an update on some of the many aspects of my case action, and I don't know what to do since IRIS and the phone line aren't working. Should I put in a telephone complaint to the 800-# and not ask them to get it to a specific worker, but to the boss of all of the VARO people who develop claims? Thank you, Julia

It's difficult to expose what I went through. "someone in similar situations" ??? not hardly Let's just say that what a VA doctor caused me to endure, the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners suspended his license for 5 years and ordered him into a program. The final thing he was stated to be guilty of was negotiated down a rung from the original charge, but I don't mind much. The VA keeps denying 1151 action, and in a C&UE decision, they wrote that the State Board's action was as much as they needed to hear, reparations to me in the form of examining how I might have been harmed just wasn't anything they are interested in. (They set out to do a character assassination on me). The system thinks it can just walk away from its liability for unleashing an impaired physician on its veteran patients. Thank you. d

I was referred to this forum by Jim Wallace, who said I need to get to know Berta Simmons and Carlie, the moderator. If anyone wouldn't mind sending me their actual email addresses, I would appreciate it. My email addy is dogshowaddict at gmail dot com Thank you, Julia in Huntsville, AL