mags1023

Thanks for the link broncovet! Only been 16 years. What's another 5, right :)

I had a sleep study and it came back positive for Sleep Apnea. I am service connected for Major Depressive Disorder, Cervical Spine DDD/limited ROM, and Migraine Headaches. My question is what condition should I attempt to connect it with/which has the best chance?? Thanks

Coogvet: SO long as your civilian doctor provided an nexis between your nasal issues in service and your sleep apnea now, you should be able to get it service connected.

Thanks for the inputs. I am aware of the fact that you only get compensated for one mental health condition, but the addition of PTSD could equal an increase. Because of VA math, I will continue to fight to get every condition rated at the maximum extent I have earned. As we know and as I am experiencing, the VA can arbitrarily decide to send you a letter saying they intend to reduce your rating and all you can do is fight it with evidence. The current vets (OEF/OIF) seem to be getting taken card of as far as VA disibility goes except for some extreme cases we hear about in the media, but us retired vets have to fight them tooth and nail. They created the war. I am just fighting it as any true Sailor, Soldier, Airmen, or Marine would. I have Hadit (pun intended) with their BS.

I have been fighting different issues with the VA and have several still open going back to 2008; increase for GERD, VA calling CUE on itself to reduce my Cerv Radiculopathy and a remand for Headaches secondary to my cervical spine. I am currently rated at 90% overall and 30% for Major Depressive Disorder, but was recently diagnosed with PTSD by my VA Psych. This is his note: "Veteran presents today by himself. He is dysthymic. He denies SI/HI. He reports continued headaches. Will adjust up topiramate for mood/HA. The response to mood stabilizer and lack of response to SSRI collaborates a component of PTSD to his mood disorder. As air traffic controller he has witnessed over a dozen plane crashes including while serving on America Air craft carrier during Desert Storm." I have so many different issues at different phases, I don't know what to do, but this PTSD issue might get me to the 100% level. Should I wait to file for increase to mood disorder or should I just throw it in with the other stuff?

No he is not kidding and your comments are not constructive. Good luck finding an attorney that will get you an IMO for free. Dr. Bash is clear and concise and he will get the veteran the maximum they have earned. This adds up very quickly over the years and makes his fee look minimal.

My best guess would be 20% left hand (dominant) and 10% right hand. Combined as 30% for CTS and then you get the bi-lateral factor. It states your condition is minor. It would have to be moderate to get anything higher.

I would say the Reasonable Doubt rule is also a joke. As far as the VA sees it, we are lying about a service connected condition until we jump through several hoops and spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to prove that the conditions we have are service connected. This is true even when a condition is covered under presumptive conditions for a particular war. How can this be???? Here is an excerpt from the VA's own rule, but my wife and I were called "Mere suspicion or doubt as to the truth of any statements submitted, as distinguished from impeachment or contradiction by evidence or known facts, is not justifiable basis for denying the application of the reasonable doubt doctrine if the entire, complete record otherwise warrants invoking this doctrine." This is what the BVA judge said about mine and my wife's testimony: As such, this evidence calls into question the reliability of the Veteran, and KM, as historians of his current lumbar spine disorder. In light of the above, the Board finds that the contentions that the Veteran experienced low back pain since the 1992 motor vehicle accident is not credible.

The C&P examination process is a joke. I have had at least 12 C&P exams and they all but 1 have come back as "most likely not caused by service". Even on conditions that are documented in black and white in my SMR. I have to drive 2 1/2 hours (5 hr RT) to Pensacola for each of these and the VA pays me $103 every time I do just for their examiner to put a check in the "most likely not caused by service" block. Most of the time, the examiner does not even include the answers you gave them in reply to their questions!

I'm with St Pete/Bay Pines and all I am hearing is denied, denied, denied. Including a couple of mine. I think they are clearing their desks off. This was happening before all of this stuff in the news. I was hoping it might have some positive effect, but my Lawyer says don't count on it.

Be very careful on how you classify your migraines/headaches. I am going through the remand process right now on my headaches and I initially thought they were migraines, but my Doc is saying they are cervicogenic. I have DDD in my cervical spine with limited ROM. The VA will fight you tooth and nail saying that DDD does not cause migraines (C&P Doc). Then you will have to fight them to get them reclassified if they are not true migraine headaches (prostrating pain). Do you have cervical DDD and are you rated for it? I would definitely claim that they are secondary to your back or neck DDD service connected condition. If not, they will say since it has been 5 years it wasn't due to your service. Also, be careful about saying anything about your vision being bad. The VA will try to say the headaches are caused by your vision/eye problems. You don't get sensitivity to light until after your headache has started to affect you, right???That's the way mine are. That is a symptom of your headache and not a cause. good luck, Mags

Here is an update on the C&P this thread is about. Of course the examiner found that my headaches were not associated with my service or accidents I had in service. I have my VA doctor and a neurologists that says they are and now this C&P examiner who says they aren't. As per the BVA remand, he was supposed to address whether my headaches were secondary to my cervical spine condition....he didn't cover it. My Lawyer has sent a letter back to the region pointing out the insufficiencies of this eaminer who I have had in the past and is incompetent. Now on to my C&P today in Pensacola for increase of digestive disorder/hiatal hernia currently 10%. I got there an hour early and was supposed to have an Upper IG done. The machine supposedly broke on the 1st patient. So they told me they would try to fix it and to come back after my C&P. I then went to see the C&P DR. He was different than my last one. He was complaining about the VA's computer system and that he couldn't locate any of my files and then locked hisself out of his account. Once he got San Antonio to unluck it, he shows me how there is very limited information in the system he is looking in about me. I asked him if he had my C-file or any documentation on the condition he was seeing me for. He said this is all they send me and shows me about 2 pages that he said the region sent requesting he do the exam. It doesn't seem like this is a complete exam to me........I made a note of it and sent it to my lawyer. Once I get my Upper GI, which was rescheduled, done we'll see what he has to say.

You are exactly right Berta. I hope all of the active duty folks that belong to our site take notes. This is a lesson to them. When I went for a physical and they asked me if my back hurt, I said no, because it didn't hurt that day. I didn't think about the 3 weeks before when I was standing for an hour or 2 during an inspection and my back hurt like hell and was cramping or after my physical readiness test when I would have to pop motrin like it was candy. Then they call me and my wife non credible and they ignore the letter from my lawyer, because he didn't specify what area of my back that I received treatment for. It doesn't seem like they combined my spine segments. To me, upper back would indicate part of the thoracic spine and should be rated as thoracolumbar spine. Not just lumbar spine. Whiplash and a broken collarbone injuries don't just isolate it's pain to the neck/cervical spine. I hurt all over. They just concentrated on those areas. Thanks again Berta for all of the advice you have provied to me and other vets. You and a few others on here are the reason why I was able to go from 60% to 90%. My back issue would have meant a lot of retro pay, so I am sure they looked for whatever they could to shoot me down. I was hoping that it would at least be at equipose. Now on to win my remand for headaches that I just had my C&P for. I am confident, but still hesitant to count on anything, because the VA requires our Doctors and Lawyers to make very specific statements.

Thanks Berta. I think I screwed up by listening to my lawyer back in 1992 and not using the base doctors. He said he always had problems getting information from the base, so he sent me to his doctors out in town. I didn't keep those records or have them incorporated in to my service medical record like I should have.The Physical Therapy place I went was no longer in business either. I was hoping the lawyer I had back then would have something, but it was too long afterwards. My ex-wife, who was in the accident with me said she would right a buddy letter, but never did. I have other issues ongoing with the RO, so I will wait and see how they go. I am having trouble working, so I may be filing for TDIU and disability at work in the near future. I worry about that, because going to work and feeling like a part of society is all I that keeps me busy.