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Dak To II ATC

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Posts posted by Dak To II ATC

    A Lay Person Claims To Be Vets Advocate

    in VA Disability Claims Research

    Posted

    My wife has for years been an administrator in adult education which includes English as a Second Language for immigrants . There are many "advocates" claiming to help their paisans for a fee doing things that are free except a little daunting to the uninitiated. Often these advocates were bottom feeders who had a minimal knowledge of the forms and procedures. Some of them were outright frauds.

    I have always had a bias against paying for something that should be free and accessible.

    That said, if the VA was more consistent across the landscape and we could trust their qualifications, skills and sincere commitment to us instead of sometimes exhibiting all those habits and traits we have seen in some civil servants I would say stay away from self-styled advocates on general principle. Unfortunately many of us are standing in the middle with a road map written in some obscure dialect and weeping silently because we shouldn't be so damn lost and confused.

    If this particular advocate has a track record, is literate and knowledgeable and returns your calls I would at least listen and hope but keep copies of all my own files.

    My own experience relied on an all to rare VSO who had the straight scoop and really did help me out. I also relied on the DAV..

    If you have doubts there is always Hadit.com and its long list of kibitzers as your backup.

    With VONAPP and the new agent orange online applications we shouldn't have so much trouble but it still doesn't hurt to have a buddy as a backup. I would rather pick up the check occasionally for a table full of veterans than pay someone for a free service but, for you, that depends on whether you have a table full of veterans you can hang with.

    Remember how many self-styled mortgage experts have left people homeless as a warning.

    Take heart, we've got your back.

    Goin" Fishing

    in Success Stories

    Posted

    I got the envelope and was awarded 100 percent for AO/IHD. Added to current 60 percent I think I can relax a little and learn to be nicer to my family. I am sure they will appreciated this particular milestone.

    Thanks to Rich Butler, VSO at the VA hospital, DAV, VA Watchdog and Hadit.com. Rich was the first person anywhere who was able to point out the right paths, everyone else were trailblazers, on point or trucking along with me and I really needed each and every one of you. God bless you all.

    I might be hard to find but leave a message if you are around Peoria AZ; we'll have a beer or I can point you to some good spots for good fishing.

    Ebenefits Web Page

    in VA Disability Claims Research

    Posted

    OK, now I am back to notification phase. I had asked IRIS and gotten word that a correction to my file had been required as a reason for the reversion.

    Let"s hope the correction is complete and I can relax. It isn't that I am ungrateful for the assistance the VA offers but sometime it seems designed to trigger unwanted emotions and such.

    My first VA experience was an hernia operation in "72 which fixed the hernia and gave me spinal headaches for three months so good with the bad seems a good description.

    Luck to all.

    Ebenefits Web Page

    in VA Disability Claims Research

    Posted

    WTF?

    I was all atwiter Monday when my eBenefits page showed both my active claims for IHD and TDIU had progressed to Notification. I thought, wow, I can fix my car and take wife out for a drink...

    Today Notification has been changed back to Decision on both claims.

    Has this happened to anyone else?

    Has anyone an explanation?

    Did Webb really f me over?

    This isn't good for my angina or my attitude.

    Thanks, I hope.

    Another New Website From The Va!

    in Agent Orange

    Posted

    The page is just a screen shot, a .jpg or whatever. Maybe someone forgot to change the address in the link and some bunch of programmers are celebrating their skills after giving the keys to management.

    Fortunately the rally for sanity and fear gave me something to occupy my time while I waited, and waited.

    By the way, think a good thought for VA Watchdog; I sure appreciated his help...

    Ebenefits

    in VA Disability Claims Research

    Posted

    Good point. If the software techies had ever read FM 22-5 end users would be much happier. I have asked quite a few if they ever were simple minded but I think they misunderstood.

    I work in software development and database deployment for county sized government offices and that can take 6 months to a year with only several hundred thousand records across multiple tables. Despite the frustration that you have, the Ebenefits deployment really isn't going that bad and isnt taking that long, relatively speaking. I think they shouldn't have deployed it and then tried to populated it in the background, but that's me. I also don't know the full scope of the project or the data manipulation that has to happen to make it all fit together, and how much they are having to digitize by hand and shove into tables.

    "showdown"

    in Agent Orange

    Posted

    Saw this post too late, must be over.....? :wacko: The Pres is on CSPAN at the moment, 11:12 a.m. EST.

    Anyone see it?

    Apart from the crew cut and the Marine it wasn't too unbearable. Wonder how tight their own standards are?

    The scariest part was the expressions of ignorance about extra-national studies of AO. Just a few days ago there was news of a study that showed residents of DaNang had dioxin levels 600 times ours. That was just the latest I have read of since a friend's chloracne in '72 reminded me of taking the waters for most of my tour near the parrot's beak.

    We've seen pictures and read blurbs for years about birth defects and rampant disabilities in-country VN. The rest of the world was studying it but as one of the Solons said..." We've didn't want to know".

    I think they knew.

    It's good to be the king.

    The only result of this hearing is that we have paid with good and well earned angst waiting for this small part of election year follies to end. I know its a bitch to find all these hidden charges for our troops coming due but it is tough being an adult and frankly I am a little pissed that I can't sneak off to the hills or the river without my wife wanting a babysitter for me. People in my family waited until their late eighties to start breaking down.

    Final comment....it was nice to listen to inside voices for a while.

    Scary Thought?

    in Agent Orange

    Posted

    Exactly! I am saying that on Sept. 30th 2005 I had an exam by QTC and they said I had no signs of heart disease.

    Yet on Oct.24th 05 I was rushed to the ER and an emergency anigo plasty discovered blockages of 100%/70/40. I was then in emergency heart surgery and by waiting and not going to the ER right away I had damaged 40% of my heart.

    Less than 30Days!!

    this may be a small point but blockages you describe are part of heart disease and would have been discovered well before your VA exam if they had done more exacting tests. Just a stress test or EKG wouldn't show everything. I know because I had near total blockages that showed up only with the contrast scanning and angioplasty. My angina had been building for fifteen years and more that doctors had passed off to poor jaw alignment and bursitis. I figured it was due to a misspent youth.

    The Media And Ao

    in Agent Orange

    Posted

    I read an article in the St. Pete Times today that was carping about Vietnam vets getting compensated for DMII resulting from AO exposure. They point to the vet who spent 3 hours in RVN and now gets compensated for DMII as if this is typical. This is the run up to the opposition to RVN vets getting compensation for IHD. The idea is, of course, that the aging vet population would have died anyway from AO presumptive diseases. The media and the public never get tired of kicking Vietnam vets even when they are sick. For years we were portrayed as psychopathic baby killers and losers and now we are freeloaders who live high on the hog due to AO compensation. The only good vets are the Greatest Generation vets and current vets of OIF/OEF. The rest of us are sucking the government teat and just refuse to die fast enough. Sorry! I do get sick of hearing "Welcome home OIF/OEF vets" when I call the VA. Pretty soon it will be "Welcome home vets except for free loading Vietnam vets who are not dead yet".

    On my better days I can feel this charitable.

    C & P Twilight Zone

    in Veterans Compensation & Pension Exams

    Posted

    I know just what you mean vet4life, I had a C&P 3 weeks ago for PTSD and some one must have kidnapped me and went in my place. The Dr. was argumentative the whole 4 hours I was there. Just got the exam notes and was shocked the he stated that "at this time the veterans shows NO symptoms of PTSD! Veteran at one point in his life did meet the criteria of PTSD but not presently"

    AXIS I; Poly-substance abuse in remission for more than a decade.

    AXIS II; No diagnosis

    AXIS III; See medical history

    AXIS IV; economic distress, Severe life threatening diseases

    AXISV; GAF 59

    So I guess the 2 failed marriages, abused currant wife for 15 years 17 jobs in 35 years, a drunk and doper until I finally grew up and became a man, the attempted suicide in 1978, ect, ect was all just a dream.

    He said I smelled of stale tobacco smoke, I haven't smoked for 2 years and 3 months!

    He also stated that I was given a PHQ-2 test in 8-08, and scored 0. The answer to all 17 questions was "not at all" . This is bs' I was never given this test, but how do I prove that?

    I guess I have been cured, or screwed big time. This is why I sometimes really get pissed at the VA. This isn't right, but how do I fix it.I know the denial is most likely as not in the mail. Time to go and get my own Psychiatrist and get a IOM. Oh that's right I am broke.

    First, don't give up. Second, write a very detailed narrative of your adventures and copy each department head, Shinseki, your elected reps and your VSO.

    Keep looking to your buds for your back. We all will help whereever we can.

    But all kidding aside, anyone have any advise, I am running on empty!!!!

    New Ao Presumptives

    in Agent Orange

    Posted

    As I understand the Congressional Review Act, during a 60-day period, Congress can evaluate the decision of the VA to add the three new presumptives to the Agent Orange list. If Congress does not agree with the VA, then legislation would have to be introduced and passed in both the Senate and the House to rescind the VA's decision. Has Congress ever rescinded a VA decision before? No. Is it possible that Congress might do so this time? I don't think so.

    The VA is continuing to move this proposed regulation through the appropriate regulatory channels for final review. It is currently at the Office Of Management And Budget (OMB). Below is the link to the OMB page that shows the status of the VA proposed regulation.

    http://www.reginfo.g...4&RIN=2900-AN54

    I believe it can stay at the OMB for up to 90 days.

    I'm thinking that it may be sometime in mid to late fall before it is finally posted in the Federal Register, barring an unpleasant surprise from Congress.

    I checked the link and there is a final action date of December of 2010.

    Ptsd Once Again Denied

    in PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Claims

    Posted

    We can appreciate your frustration with the VA. You are not alone.

    I had the luck to find a contact at the local VA hospital who gave me a short list of good inclusions in your applications or appeals. Some of those you already have, like the stressor and the diagnosis. Did you also include letters from your wife or kids to describe their lives as spouses and children of a PTSD vet? What about from your family doctor? Along with the positive aspect of having myself checked in to the sixth floor for some cool out time the letters from others seemed to have a great deal of power. The time on the sixth floor let them have records of my bad attitudes and the letters gave them a wider canvas to view. I promised the wife and kids not to read the letters because I needed their full honesty.

    A final point. I first went to the VA for my hearing many years ago and tried to pass the damn hearing tests. At the time my hearing was as bad as it is now. It took years to get past a zero rating. You are not in any examination to pass the test. You want them to find what is wrong and acting brave is not the way to go. If you can't hear the tone don't push the button; if you are PTSD don't walk in as a strac soldier, we aren't. We have parts missing or damaged and we need the VA to help us out.

    Everything you wrote says you are on the ball.

    Hadit has the point.

    We've got your back.

    Ptsd Once Again Denied

    in PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Claims

    Posted

    Friday morning I recieved the dreaded white envelope..It was my latest round of rubber stamped denials....There were more than one but the PTSD one concerns me and my VA psyche that I saw for a monthly appt on Friday afternoon....In the write up for the denial they conceded my stressor...

    I quote" Review of your file showed that your combat stressor has been conceeded.Service medical records avaliable for review were negative for a diagnosis of posttraumitic stress disorder.

    At your VA examination, the doctor reviewed your avaliable medical records.The examiner reported that although you have symptoms of posttraunitic stress disorder there was no evidence of persistently avoiding situations which remind you of the traumitic event.(I don't knoe what they want, I told the examiner that I detested the 4th of July, avoided crowds and would not join local Volunteer Fire Department because I couldn't face the possibility of encountering the smell of burnt human again..Plus no friends and spending hours alone).No diagnosis of post traumitic stress disorder was rendered.The diagnosis of major depressive disorder was supported by finding on examination.Service medical records were negative for a diagnosis of depression.

    The claim for service connection for post traumitic stress disorder with depression is considered reopened.However, the evidence continues to show service connection is not shown by the service medical records or demonstrated by evidence following service.Therefore, service connection continues to be denied" end quote...

    This has to be the biggest load of double talk and BS I have ever seen...My VA psychiatrist was astounded...And this is with a clear diagnosis of PTSD from her with a GAF of 55 2 days after my C&P and was 50 the month before...She said that my PTSD may be partially controlled but without the 3 antidepressants and sleep aids and lets not forget the nightmare medication that it is rampant and will probably always require medication.............I guess the good news is the conceding of my stressor..I don't think they even looked at my VA treatment records...Next week I will request a copy of my C-file and the C&P exam..Thinking about a lawyer for appeal..Also psyche suggested if I can get off worrk the 4 week inpatient course at Little Rock..Off the record said it would help claim and appealNow just seeing if I can get 4 weeks..Can't afford missing pay..Have enough leave to cover abot 2 1/2 weeks...Work for Feds so really don't have to worry about losing job with Docs note.......ANY HELP AND GUIDANCE WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.......Grid

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