retiredat44

Pancreas Disease, anyone else have it? I think I have asked this in the past, but would like ot know to exchange information.. currently, I have many disease, bit one is necratizing pancreatitis.. it maybe have started with gastritis on active duty,,,, also chemical exposure.. http://www.swiss-magen-darm.com/en/pankreas.html (I have already lived with disease for 20 years... I survived a pancreas surgery to remove a 5 inch cyst.. which was a 6 month stay in the VA hospital.. then home nursing care and intense physical therapy to learn to walk, and eat).) thanx..

I have had extensive dealings with Fee Basis.. at least 2x in 15 years.. and one time the dealings ower eof life and death and I was sent to an outside hospital by the va.. and yet I had to use appeals through fee basis to get the bills paid, and that took more than 1 year to clear up... my main advice: make sure you are pre-approved in writing.. if it is a real emergency (dying.. sorry, but I had to use 'dying' as the best example..) then you don't have time for pre-approval. after all the medical is done and you are stablizied.. and you cannot determine when you ahve been stabilized, only doctors can... they you must be transferred to the VA for the rest of the care... and when you are transferred, the VA must arrange the transfer... if you try to get around this in any way, you risk have a huge bill to pay.. or worse... not getting the proper care and follow-up... to top this off i live 15 minutes away from a major hospital and 40 minutes from the local VA hospital.. so I am right int eh middle of large cities with all services.. every person has a unquie health problem, so one size probably does not fit all... to save yourself time and a steep learing curve, find out al you can about fee basis services, addresses, phone numbers, etc... and keep them handy... that will make it easy if/when that day happens.. especially if you are in no condition to talk to people.. you hopefully can hsare the info with your wife, husband, so they know what to do if it is ever needed.. and by al means, do not wait days, weeks, months to get papers, bills, and info and communicate with organizations, starts ASAP whevenever the services are used/neeeded... you only have a small amount of time to get the paperwork going before it becomes a mess.. and one mor ethng, don't be suprise dif you get bills a year later after you though al has been taken care of.. soemtimes they bill agencies back adn fortha dn enver communicat that they payments wer denied.. sent tot he wrong agency.. or they tried to bill an agency that did not cover you... you may not be able to communicate with people and only find out long after al has been asaid and done.. IMHO

I want to move so damned bad, I am not happy here in my home of So, California. the nuts destroyed the place. I like the doctors at San Diego,, but they are overcrowded. I am just so sick and need to live ina peaceful place. I need peace. I want to be happy, or just feel better for my last few years. I worry about if I move, that I may not receive the great care I get here. The VA hospital knows me. Mostly because I lived in their for 6 months ina bed. But It is like extended family. if i move to another city/state, etc... I hope they give the care I need. The overcrwding and worn out hospital rooms in San Diego are hard on inpatients who need constant care for the bad diseases, the worst of the worst. 4 to a room is really bad... and I expect to be admitted several times for long periods of time due to the nature of my very bad health. So, wherever I do move to I hope to choose a hospital that is not as overcrowed as San Diego. Now, I just need to win my appeals so I can move and actually live in peace, the stress, high cost of living and a state that is totally out of control is making my last few years miserable..

we all had the hypo spray in line in basic.... thy probably shot hundreds of us every hour..... you think maybe the body fluids were just blasted into the air from person to person?

there are reports on how far the VA is behind.. it looks like the are behind about 70% for the 125 day goal... http://www.vba.va.gov/REPORTS/mmwr/index.asp

it will be five months after next week since my dro hearing.

I am being scoped (in June) for esophageal varices because I have splenic vein thrombosis (I also had portal vein thrombosis, and have necratizing pancreatitis).. though the doctor is going to make sure no one ever again tries to use ECRP procedure on me, that last time almost killed me...

the va called an ambulance to pick me up from the va clinic because my blood pressure was extremely low, because or portal vein thrombosis and pancreas disease, they took me to a local hospital.. there wer eno beds att eh va hospital for 3 days, so I was left there until a bed was open at the va... fee basis refused to pay for the 3rd day.. I had to cal and write and tell lVA Fee Basis that I had no choice, I was kept there until they could pick me up and tak eme back tot he VA later that 3rd night,, Fee Basis finnally paid the rest of the bills... mind you it took one year to get Fee Basis to finally pay al the bills fromt he ambulance and 3 days at the local hospital and diagnostics bills incurred.. meanwhile during that year I had bill collectors after me,,,, and I was constantly send fee basis the copies... this was on top of just getting out of the hospital, unable to walk... and my intestines were not fully functioning yet... this added more unbearable pressure on my life..

I have a doozy of a story about misreading mri's, cat scans' x-rays... You may have already saw me make a post about part of it in previous threads, so excuse me if I have already posted some of this info.. As most of you know I spent 6 months ina VA hsopital bed fighting for my life with severe complications after pancrease surgery to remove a 5 inch cyst. among the many complications were serious lung problems.. I had to get a cat scan, and xrays every day for months on end sometimes more than 1 per day. These were for the stomach area, chest, etc... after a couple weeks of daily scan.. from both in bed (mahcines that are portable and brought to patients beds to the machine sint eh x-ray dept... they would take these scans every day.. they were frreaked ouit every day and I kept asking what was wrong,t hey never gave me a straight answer.. I was pretty much a slab of meat with no muscles and tube fed.. I could not move on my own and could barely soeak.. I did, however, ask them why they kept taking x-rays and scans of my chest... they never gave a straight answer.. 2 months went by and they cconstantly asked what type of work I have done and what was I esposed to.. and i told them about my jobs.. they finally said, after about 2 months of this going on, that i had a spot in my lung... and it was growing,, imagine that new on top of my condition... I did not tell me wife because it was just to much to bear.. after a couple more weeks I told my wife.. the next day the doctors told me the machine made a mistake and had put a spot there, that wasn't really there.. I don't know much more to tell you about that, but can say that every day I had to exercise my lungs by brething into a ventrui like tube with a floating object to try to keeep the liquis from forming in my lungs.. since i was stuck laying down for months in a hospital bed I Had all these complications and tryin to avoid more lung problems from not being able to walk or exercise.. without going on with all the problems.. I can say yes, I have had misreadings of the machines you are asking about.. I also had a broken disc in my back and the studpid x-ray machine never saw it,, so the doctors refused to help and I suffered greatly for 6 months with a broken disc pressing on my spinal cord.. the doctors just plain refused to do the mri... and relied on the crappy x-ray machine... that invident left my witha crippled back..

my IMO doctor charged me $2,000 for one hour and to read and evaluate 1" of documents... inclduing a quck exam,, that IMO was included with my claim... she is a Toxocologist who once worked for the VA and now owns her own Occupational medicine practice specializing in Toxicology, with specialties in petrochemicals. I could not afford have her do more than she already has. I already talked to one member here who lives in my area and gave me some sound advice before my DRO hearing about the hearing. The only other person that has a similar situation had the same experience , but had cancer, where in my situation, there was no cancer, but we both suffer the same sysmtoms, some of the same surgery and same hsopital stay,, but he only had to stay 2 months, mine was more complicated and needed 6 months... his claim was denied... in fact I gave him this website info to ask for help here, he's a disabled Navy vet. I guess he never aksed for help here... I think he wanted o go back to work... (even though he had the whipple procedure to remove the cancer and part of his stomach and pancreas). The 5 inch cyst on my pancreas was non cancerous,, I still have many smaller cyst call psuedocyts... which become infected often..) I could never go back to work.. otherwise I do not know anyone else with a similar situation. I am one of a kind.. many diseases...

My VSO already went through them. and organzized the papers, when I filled out the appeal papers and went to the DRO hearing.. I am just tyring to figure out how they would rate this stuff.. and just in case I do lose appeals,, get some ideas... I thought I would just ask in case anyone else wne through a similar situation,, I don't want to twist anyone's mind with this if no one knows, that's ok,,, but ya never know, soemone might have alreayd had a similar situation and understands what they do with cases like mine.. when they gave me the copies from VA records, they came in boxes of reams.. and were organzied by date in sections, like progress notes, in one part, lab reports, in anothers, but treatment and tests were just in order by date, not by disease or symptom, so they had to be read line by line... it's monumental. If they were al scanned into a computer then they could just be looked using a computer searching programs, but scanning them into a computer would take a crazy amountof time and elbow bending placing each page on a copier glass,, and million pages.. anyways, my VSO with the American legion helped me when I took the boxes to her...

Intestinal disease questions: some of you might already know about me, but I have a question that I really haven't asked like this before, in this way.. in the USAF I worked with petroleum chemicals, and got sick... and was removed form my job, with doctors orders, but was placed into another job with more chemicals causing more of the same disease symptoms.. I suffered from intetinal disease, gastritis, swelling, blood pressure problems ( hypertenision), headaches, etc.. this went on for at least 2 years and included tests and hospitalization for gastritis, headaches, etc.. later, after I left the usaf, I developed full blown intestinal disease and continued treatment in less than 8 years after seperation.. also spinal disease,, also neurological disease.. my intestinal disease finally got so bad I ended up with chronic pancreatitis.. and spent 6 months in t he hospital becaase of a 5 inch pancreas cyst.. (removed through surgery with severe complications) severe edema, muscle wasting., neurlogical disease like MS, Dystrophy, etc.. portal vein thrombosis.. (tranfusions, several blood infections..ets... internal bleeding) simplified,,, for this forum and questions.. my question(s). the gastritis had already been disagnosed and in my records.. the usaf had already given me 50% for the headaches from chemicals.. My main question for this thread: the gastritis,, in rating the disease, do they look at it as in addition to pancrease disease part of pancrease disease.. all intestinal diseases lumped together.. the liver and pancreas together, the portal vein thrombosis added... the 6 months hospitalization added the inability to eat and walk added... convelescence added... physical therapy in both the hsopital and home therapy... (I had nurses coming to my home afte leaving the hospital with special equipment for me installed in my home..) the conditions I have a chronic and permanent including severe chronic pain for 30 years.. does the VA disability claims only look at the gastritis as continuing for 30 years since the original diagnosis on active duty 30 years ago.. or do they include the advancment of the disease including all the complications, surgery) and diseases of the digetive system. Are they added, seperate.... both physically and rating numbers (added together, full percentages, etc???). I think I ended up confusing people with my problems... if so I am sorry, but my case is a nightmare and most of the professsionals have said my case is really complicated and a real doozy.. some of the doctors have asked if have considered wring a book about my experiences.. (I have simplified this info... the records take up at least 10 reams of paper just for 6 months of hospitalization records..). thanx..

Here is how I fixed it: in the Internet Browser: Tools: Internet Options: Advanced: Multimedia: (Uncheck) Enable Automatic Image resizing

I have had splenic vein and portal vein thrombosis,,... Aneurysm...bulge in a weak spot of the wall of a blood vessel...usually in the aorta or brain. Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. (mine has been in and near the liver and pancreas area..).

a VA doctor said I have Myotonic Dystrophy,, I thought it was MS... the DNA test came back normal.. my new VA neurolgist is deciding what to label me with.. it is one of the issues in my claims.. I am not going to say everything again I suffer from, because I posted so many times some people get angry for repetition.. I have the symtoms of several neurolgical diseases and have been both been ridden and in a wheel chair for extended periods and severe muscle wasting with shaking tremors and jerking.. at this perent time I take a couple meds and walk with a cane... I also gained my weight back after lots of physical therapy and medicine.. I am in the appeals stage for my claims..

The HOme page: http://www.hadit.com/ is shifted to the right.. out of the whole Internet, this is the only website that gives me this problem.... all the other pages the formatting is perfect.. just the home page has everything ont he right running down in large paragraphs... and blank from the left to the right... except for the Banner on top.. that is in the middle as it should be .. btw, this happened maybe a few weeks ago,, I finally decided to post it..

my father won a copd claim before he died...

I was diagnosed with chondromalacia in my left knee while on active duty, yet they denied me in my claim, which is now on appeal.... they are bastards when it comes to getting a claim approved even when you have proof... it can come and go... when it comes, it heurts like hell and can stop you from walking... my problem is that combined with a bad back , degenrative disc disease and other leg problems, soetimes you can't tell when your leg just aches from other problems... only during a strong attack you can be sure of which disease is acting up... but it can be crippling...

How long since DRO hearing and waiting for decision? I have about 6 issues in my claim, in appeals. For me, 4 months almost exactly. (DRO hearing Dec. 8, 2010) (they sent me my SOC january 28, 2011, the SOC was for 3 issues). No decision for 3 issues. Those that are stil denied go onto BVA for decision. I had an poll type thread in which I asked how many on appeal, but that question was a little different, and that was in the research area of these forums.... How long for those of you that had a DRO hearing, and yet to get a decision? and how long have the wait been?

'we're boned!' - Futurama (Bender, Fry, Leela,....etc..)

same thing happens with SSDI, people consider it welfare. it is insurance.. and on top of that, it is mandatory out of your check.. and to make matters worse you have to fight to your dying breath to collect when you become too disabled to work.. the people running it treat you like an animal that is lying to get it it..

When you win, do you get the letter first, or the money? (most important) Can it happen on any day of the month? Are there certain colors of envelopes for certain wins/losses, etc?

I told them at the DRO hearing that I had Ongoing neurolgical tests and appointments for more diagnosis.. MY VSO told me, that the DRO, VA and all the VA claims people will / can send for the records as they process the claim and review it,, the VSO said since it is the VA I do not have to go to records and get copies of any more records.. The problem with the nuerolgist / clinic is that they take a very long time to get a firm diagnosis and the appointments are only a couple times a year... I cannot do much more than go the the appointments, take my meds, and report issues.. besides, the VA has 30 years of neurology records and special tests to work with already... any future tests are to make a final decision on whether my symptoms are from one or more of the major diseases.... (ms, als, dystrophy, etc..etc.).

I still never received an SOC for 3 out of 6 issues in my appeal and DRO hearing I had Dec. 8, 2010. I got an SOC for 3 issues, but the other 3 no SOC. 4 months has gone by. The missing SOC is for the Pancreas disease (intestinal disease), Neuroptathy... I forgot the other... so they denied the Dystrophy (still denied) but.. theothers look like they maybe being aapproved as I filed for the pancrease disease 1 year before the others and since there is no SOC, maybe they are gettin ready to award my claim for those issues... Dec. 8, 2010 - was DRO hearing... Jan. 26, was SOC and SSOC. 4 solid months have gone by with no SOC on those... which leads me ot believe they have not been denied, and they are either collecting dust, or going through the approval process.. As far as I can tell it can tak anywhere from a month to 2 years fo a decision from a DRO hearing.. all my denied claims are on track for a BVA hearing.. (again, I was told the DRO hearing was taped and that tape and transcipt will be going to the BVA for al issues that are still denied.. I wil still have evidence coming in for al my neurolgical, as I am a patient in neurology, also, for eyes, Intestinal disease, liver, spine, chronic pain, mental health, and I think I am forgetting al of my doctors.. but that's close enough...