Testvet

Just get the hammer out and smack your big toe then you will know when that bad thing is going to happen and then you won't have anything else to worry about except how bad your big toe hurts and before you know it you will then get that envelope.......Need help with anything else? :)

I have one question for the original poster if you have filed for this issue in the past 15 years or was it longer than that when you were discharged what did they use as a basis to deny the claim? What has changed in the years since then to make you think a claim would be approved now? If I have made a false assumption I apologize but I have seen to many hypotheticals where they leave this sequence out of the equation and it does play a role do you have new evidence that wasn't considered the first time or is this because you have heard they have relaxed the rules for PTSD claims? I don't believe they have reduced them that much.

Slang them changing reps is NOT unusual it seems to be a normal practice in all of the vets groups and nationwide, most hearings are you the vet rep or SO and the DRO and your spouse or maybe a brother or grown child they are in my experience very informal and it is a chance for you to look the DRO in the ey and explain why you think your claim should be rated the way you feel and present new evidence if you have it I handed the DRO the copies of the general Cort Martials the VARO had been telling me they could not find for over 2 years (I called DA JAG in Alexandria VA and a real nice lady used my name as a witness and found the 4 mens names that had been convicted and sent to Leavenworth for attempted murder and robbery of me on 5 Feb 1975) that was when they finally stopped saying I did not have a verifiable stressor and after the DRO hearing and they left me and my SO with the implication that my PTSD would be rated at 100% and my CAD approved they turned around 3 months later when we actually got the award letter and they low balled my PTSD at 50% and denied the CAD again I filed the NOD the very next day at the RO and got it date stamped stating my medical records showed that I should be rated at 100% for PTSD as I was unemployable according to my shrink just based on my PTSD symptoms and I was still fighting for the CAD related to the toxic exposures at Edgewood Arsenal, my lawyer is the one who changed the theory that my CAD was secondary to my SC PTSD and stopped talking to the VA about the Edgewood experiments since they did not want to address the human experiments issue the lawyer was right in the long run as the BVA Judge did grant my CAD and hypertension secondary to PTSD in April 2009 after 7 years of being on appeal the DRO hearing is an added chance to settle the claim at the local level rather than wait 2-3 years for the BVA hearing and the BVA hearing was a little more formal with the Judge and even then it was me my wife our lawyer and the Judge and the Judge was more concerned that I "felt I had a fair day in court" and that I had the chance to ask him to address any other issues I wanted him to look at I told him my lawyer had documented the issues and evidence very well and the new IME she had me get in Jan 2009 spoke for themselves and I was very happy with her representation of the case in the BVA award the Judge finally brought up the Edgewood Arsenal experiments and the toxic exposures and the fact one of the IMOs I had was from one of the Army doctors who had spent nearly his entire Army career doing experiments on enlisted soldiers at Edgewood. The VA, DOD, the Army etc do not like this issue as they are now being sued over it by some of the "test vets" in a federal court in San Francisco oh well they deserve it we haven;t like being ignored or lied to since 1975 either Most veterans do not spend much time with their SOs until the day of the "hearings" and then they might spend 10-30 minutes with you going over your case to us our case is "special" to them it is a duplicate of other cases they have already argued before the only difference is the names and the dates there are some issues it seems that the VAROs do not want to settle and they want to be forced to make the awards by the BVA and sometimes the only way to prevail is to appeal to the BVA but you will know more where you stand after the DRO hearing and if there is any new evidence you might need to find between the DRO hearing and the time if you appeal that your case is heard by the BVA you can submit new evidence at the BVA hearing you just can not add new evidence at the COVA level DRO hearings are an additional chance to settle it before you have to appeal to BVA and if you can NOT get it settled to your satisfaction then you learn a little bit more about how to perfect your appeal to the BVA good luck sometimes getting a NEW SO can be a good thing

congrats I don't think Columbia SC VARO meets any of the time guidelines for anything just my opinion and experience

they will try and focus on exposures in your civilian life, any smoking you and people around you may have done, anything at all they can possibly use to place the blame, did you ever do smudge pot operations in citrus groves? Those type of questions they will use any reason at all to blame your lung issues on if you haven't tell them and look them in the eye when you do it.... if you are staring at the floor and looking away they assume you are not telling the truth I learned a long time ago if you tell someone something they are not going to like it's better to look them in the eye and tell them like you mean it they might not like it but it helps your credibility

I tried doing that once that told me due to my cardiac issues I could only use the heated pool twice a week for 5 minutes, they have to be kidding it takes an hour to get to the VA change into my suit get wet and dry off and an hour home again I told them thanks but no thanks I bought a house with a pool and I go in when ever I feel like it like John I don't go in during the winter but I do have the hot tub for the fall and winter lol they can't tell me how long I can stay in my own pool

Vync I would hope not you could go 2 x a month and still not get your moneys worth at 1500 a year 1500/26 would be 57.86 a visit I see my VA doc about twice a year that would be 750.00 a visit I can't see it

Congrats Hedgey it sounds like you caught your brass ring that is what a good VSO will do as they are wired into the VARO system they are normally told by the rater when the decision is made so they can give their veterans a heads up there is no benefit to him in lying about it to you, because if it isn't true he's the one who you get mad at It sounds like you are getting all the benefits of P&T ID cards CHAMPVA for the spouse and kids now you can check into your states benefits like property tax exemptions etc remember this is probably the last Large check you will see so don't spend it all in one place and remember that there is rainy days if you are not on SSD yet maybe this will be enough for them to grant you SSD I think most of us live pretty decent on VA and SSD benefits especially since they are tax free unless your spouse works and makes a decent salary then you might have some tax issues on the SSD benefits but not the VA benies either way you are ahead now have a MERRY XMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR

I have read about it in Seattle, San Francisco etc places like that it is usually per person I don't know if they have a family rate or not it's a way of having a steady patient load without having to deal with medicare patients etc they usually only want patients with good insurance

John is right if you worded your DIC claim wrong then the VARO won't go beyond what you put on paper if you resubmit ans base it on the fact he has been SC for more than 10 years and the cause of death does not matter then they will quit being ignorant and approve the claim but if you stated is was caused by PTSD and the death certificate says CAD then they just added 2+2 and came up with denial you need to find out when his TDIU was granted and did he have the 10 years required SC at that rate

have you asked for the ILP program thru Voc rehab since you are not employable? you might be able to get assistance thru the quality of life assistance they refused to buy me any power tools due to the meds I am on I guess they thought I would hurt myself but they bought me camera equipment and photo printers and software for photo processing on the computer they bought for me the ILP program allows them to do a lot of things to help veterans with "hobbies"

I have read in the past where some doctors have done this, it gives the patients access to a doctor when ever they want it, it ensures the doctor of a steady patient load and they do not take on "new patients" once they fill the 450 slots it gives them a secure financial base and you can bet your sweet bippy they will bill your insurance company for every nickel they can but few of us can afford to pay 1500 annual just for access to a certain doctor above and beyond our insurance policies I quit using private doctors in 2000 when I lost my Blue Cross and I have been lucky in having excellent docs at the VA, the one time I did have an emergency my wife had the ambulance take me to the nearest emergency room and we told them to get me transferred to the VA as soon as they got me stabilized I was lucky in that the VA did pay those bills but when it comes to ER care when you are having a heart attack you go to the nearest hospital and worry about the bills later living is the primary goal at that point I would rather be alive and arguing about who is going to pay the bill than waste an hour on the road getting to the VAMC in Augusta not knowing if I will live long enough to get there I don't make enough to pay a doc a 1500 retainer maybe some lawyers and other professionals do but VA comp and SSD is not enough to spend that kind of money unless he can make you look and feel 25 for ever which no one can

John that DRO made my life a living hell for 7 years you know that it finally ended when the BVA Judge granted my CAD claim in April 2009 now the less I have to do with the regional office the happier I am I haven't even been to it since they moved to the new building on Garners Ferry Road and I think they have been there over a year now I hope they have my C File in storage never to be opened again until I die when my wife files her DIC claim

the VA requires C&P exams if you use VA doctors or private doctors that make the diagnosis the diagnosis is one thing then they have the C&P doc determine how severe it is then a "rater" decides what percentage they want to assign to your claim they may lowball it, they may award it the proper percentage if they low ball it then you can file a Notice of Disagreement (NOD) and appeal it sometimes a DRO hearing can resolve the issue quicker than the BVA appeal will or you can skip the DRO hearing and go straight to BVA with it, it seems that DRO hearings seem to take about one year while a BVA appeal can be anywhere from 2-4 years before it gets done nothing is fast with the VA claims process except denials seem to be done quickly

the exam seems to be very favorable to your claim the fact that you are getting SSD for PTSD should be a major factor in your rating but I get the feeling they will use the fact that you are not in counseling or on any types of meds against you I had a GAF score of 30 and they tried to give me a rating of 50% well they did give me a 50% award and I filed the NOD the very next day and a year later they were forced to grant me the 100% schedular based on statements from my treating shrink and his treatment notes of the previous 3 years where he had stated I was totally and permanently disabled solely by my PTSD symptoms and he felt I would never be employable again. He writes that same statement every Feb each year and he still does it he knows I was rated 100% P&T back in 2006 but he knows the VA so he keeps my treatment records up to date I don't think I have ever had a GAF score higher than a 40 you should be rated at 100% because of your SSD award but should and are don't always compute with the VAROs they may try and give you a 50% rating or a 70% or maybe even 70% TDIU and not grant the P&T status based on the fact that you MAY improve and schedule you for a review 3-5 years down the road there are many ways they can handle this if you have a decent rater you should be fine if you get an idiot like I had you are in for a rough ride good luck PS I had 2 C&P exams for PTSD one lasted about 15 min and the other about 5 my diagnosis took 4 months of interviews and the tests I think there were about 3 or 4 of them one was really long about 540 questions some were the same question asked backwards to see if I answered them differently they play a lot of head games on those tests

NOVA and others seem to be attacking the new rules to allow for private doctors diagnosis to be accepted I hope they win.

you should do like John says stay in the VA health system but as far as surgery goes if you have private insurance you have every right to let a civilian doc do the surgery you do not HAVE to let a VA doc do it, but for rating purposes it does help to have a current treatment record in the VA system especially if they are reviewing your rating status every few years but I don't think they really care if you have private docs do it as long as you don't send them the bills to many veterans get the checks coming and then quit going to the VA and then wonder why they get called in for a review and the VA tries to reduce them because they haven't been in treatment since they obtained their disability check this is more a problem for veterans with mental health issues rather than physical issues. But regular treatment records either from the VA or civilians are beneficial to the claims system

if he has a retirement benefit or SS he may not be eligible for the "pension" as it is means tested, as a veteran he is entitled to be buried in a national cemetery but they do not just give money to veterans because they once served this nation has over 24 million living veterans and about 3 million of them are service connected at some percentage, I saw someplace last week that less than 300,000 are rated at 100% or higher my step father never filed a VA claim either he was retired Air Force from WW2 and Korea he retired before Nam started but he ended up with 3 kinds of cancer related to the radiation from the nuclear experiments in the 50s and 60s, he flew AF planes thru the clouds on data gathering missions over the Nevada test site he did not want them messing with his retirement pay he died before they passed the RECA act which would have given him the 75,000 dollar payment If his income and expenses for medical care take him below the level for the pension he may need to make a formal claim for the pension and find out if he qualifies or not, sometimes you have to put the numbers onto the forms and find out, many times the people at the VA will just say nope no benefits but once the forms actually get submitted and the numbers get crunched he may be eligible for the war veterans pension or a partial payment

John I don't think there are enough "lab rats" in each VAMC to make a group out of them and we don't really fit into the "groups" they already have established. I watched my ex wifes Uncle do a Nam group and it seemed to me he was there to learn new "symptoms" all he did was find a new way he thought a PTSD vet was supposed to behave and he made sure he did it better than anyone else he was a total pri**** I ran into him a few years ago at the Augusta VA and he still was being denied his PTSD claim he had a bogus stressor and nothing was going to change that fact I think he went to group for 4 or 5 years he thought if he went long enough they would HAVE to grant his claim at the worst it gave him a place to go and something to do for the years he went to group I don't think I and group would get along to well I don't play well with others hell the Post Office sent me to the mandated counseling 3 or 4 times once they put me on zoloft and put me out of work for about 2 weeks to get adjusted to the meds that really made my station manager mad rofl teach him to send me to a shrink on the clock he was the same idiot who left me on the dock by myself when I was having a heart attack one of my friends was out there with me waiting for the ambulance he made Cowboy go back to his case and told him he would stay with me, about 30 seconds later he went in and clocked me off he said I shouldn't be paid to lay there he was a real piece of work that was in 1998 that was the time they hooked me up to a heart pump for 4 days the post office wanted a supervisor to come to the hospital and give me a letter of warning for missing more than 3 days of work in the past year on unscheduled absences all of them had been due to me being hospitalized for heart attacks I didn't know anyone could schedule heart attacks or strokes ahead of time lol

they are all different I think I was extremely lucky I had my BVA hearing on the 4th of Feb 2009, I got the decision letter dated 7 April 2009 and got the award and back pay about the 4th of June 2009 which even surprised my lawyer they said not to expect it until at least September or later my case had been floating around the VARO since Dec 2002 with the help and advice of the people here at Hadit I was able to keep the case alive and valid thru NODs appeals and DRO hearing requests until I was able to get a lawyer involved in the appeal process after the VA changed the laws about using lawyers in June 2007 I had one offer to take my case pro bono as they saw I was getting a really raw deal from the VA this lawyer taught me a lot about ethics and showed me not all lawyers are sharks some of them are really decent people The BVA Judge went out of his way to make sure I felt I had told him everything about my claim that I wanted to and did I feel I had a fair day in "court" and was there any other issues about my VA claims I wanted him to address the hearing really surprised me it was totally different than the DRO hearing I had done back in 2005 where that person just flat did the opposite of the impression he gave at that "hearing" I should refer to it as it really was a "joke" and waste of time....... After you get the decision letter from the BVA they then have to send your C File back to your VARO for them to rate the claim unless the Judge assigns a percentage and then write the award letter which can take 3 months or more and pray they don't lose any of the boxes with your C File in it, my C File is 3 of those legal size boxes and is about 6 feet of paperwork and is moved on a gurney hopefully it is in storage never to be opened again.....good luck and find a hobby that will occupy a LOT of time spring will be here more than likely and maybe even summer before you get all of the award letters I was told that my 4 month ordeal was really unusual and fast maybe you will get lucky like I did good luck

I can understand the anger yes even 35 years later or more, I am one of a group of men who are suing the VA, DOD, the Army and the CIA over a human experimentation program that they conducted from 1955 thru 1975, these agencies have basically told everyone that inquires about it that all of us are lying about it, despite the 1975 DA IG report, the Church Committee's investigation, MKULTRA was real and so were the other approx 250 substances they used on 7120 enlisted soldiers. They have lied to us veterans, our congressmen, senators and any reporters that attempt to get into the truth of it. As recently as 2004 a Army Colonel wrote a letter to my congressman that many older veterans "believe" they were used in "secret" tests that never really took place and my records do not show any use in "secret" tests, of course they don't I was used in a known classified research program that has been well documented since 1975 and it was stopped when Congress learned about it in 1975, unfortunately I was there from Jun 25 1974 until August 22 1974 I get mad to this day when I think about it my shrink says I have OCD over this issue, gee I wonder why? I really hate being lied to and denied service connection for the medical issues caused by the exposures at Edgewood Arsenal, the Super Fund report by the EPA shows the base water wells where all the drinking water was obtained until they were capped in 1978 after the initial tests were done contain 77 toxic substances, that cause damn near every medical problem known to man, yet the VA and DOD maintain that the Edgewood tests were safe BS. Yea I have OCD over this and I can get quite anal over it. I think it is normal even my shrink seems to understand where I am coming from now, at first he didn't believe the US Government would have allowed this to happen after getting the record from Edgewood after a FOIA request his jaw hit the floor where it talked about a "bad trip from LSD" and I was labeled a perfect candidate for all tests. classified a level A test subject. there is nothing wrong with anger as long as you keep it focused on the right places

you can ask but please what ever you do do not refuse to go to the C&P if you miss the appt they can deny your claim based on the missed appt good luck

Just a few thoughts if you do get rated do not stop treatment a check is not a cure, many veterans quit treatment once they start getting compensation and then wonder why the VA moves to reduce them a year or 2 down the road after they call them in for a new C&P and see that there is no treatment records from the past few years, so they will state that the veteran is now "better" and they lower the rated percentage and many veterans do not understand why the VA does this to them PTSD is not curable it is treatable either with medication or counseling but it never really goes away yes there are ways to mitigate the symptoms but if you have been dealing with it for years if not decades why would a check cure it? It doesn't stay in "treatment" either at the VA or vet center or a private mental health professional why fight so long and hard to obtain benefits you deserve then turn around and give them a reason the lower your award by stopping all treatment we have all seen to many veterans make this mistake and a few years down the road only have it bite them. I have not personally ever met anyone that got better with PTSD it usually just gets worse as time goes on It is up to you if you tell anyone that you have been diagnosed with PTSD, if you are working I wouldn't advise telling your employers, it is not required so why ask for more problems at work. Unless your treating doctor tells you that they feel you shouldn't be working any longer and feel you should medically retire I wouldn't tell my boss, I worked at the Postal Service and to many supervisors there seem to think they are medical professionals all they would do is make things worse each of us deal with the symptoms of PTSD differently I have never been able to do a group session I just can't see it, I have been doing one on ones at the VA since Jan 2003 they have tried different time periods for appts 3 months, 4 months, 5 months and 6 months the longer periods all seemed to make things worse for me so we are back to every 3 months they tried to get me into the inpatient programs but the dom refused to admit me due to medications I take and the severe health problems I have (first time I have ever been told I was to sick to be in a hospital) I never wanted to admit I had problems I blamed my problems on everyone else my ex wives, my bosses, my kids you name it I could blame it on them, I don't know who was more surprised when the PTSD diagnosis team at the VAMC came back with the fact that yes I have PTSD my shrink or me I abused booze, I was a workaholic I like many vets refused to look at me Once I admitted to myself that I had a problem then it became easier to deal with and treat if nothing else do it for yourself it will help with your family friends and at work good luck

I don't know where or who told you that you would have some type of notification from the VARO within 30 days after your C&P exams, I have been dealing with the VA since 1997 and I have never been notified of anything before a minimum of 90 days after a C&P exam I have received 3 awards 2 from the VARO and one from the BVA in my experience in 2005 I had a C&P exam in Jan 2005 and got the award letter in April and the deposit was received 2 days after the letter, in 2006I had a C&P exam in Feb and got the deposit in May 2 days before I got the award letter then in 2009 I had the BVA hearing on 4 Feb got the decision letter dated 7 April and got the award letter from the VARO dated 4 June and the deposit was 3 days later so as you can see in my case I never was notified in less than 30 days and my lawyer said the award letter and deposit was fast for a BVA decided case they expected it to be September or later before I got the award letter and the back pay so they feel in that case I was treated quickly the VA does not have time limits they HAVE to live by only we veterans are bound by time limits patience is required in dealing with the VA I wish I could tell you something different but if I did I would be lying to you and that I don't do no matter how ugly the truth is

Berta is the gift that keeps on giving she has forgotten more about veteran issues than most of us have ever learned