Dak To II ATC

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

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.

The VA formulary is alright to a limited extent, especially if their analogues are not good enough to avoid adverse affects. I tried the VA for a while but found that, with one exception, none of the meds I was taking for cholesterol, blood pressure and bad attitude were on the formulary and I had some fairly uncomfortable weeks trying to live through the chemical readjustment. I needed a specific variation of several meds that kept me on the level and feeling halfway well. It took about six months to get back to the proper meds and that was through a family doctor and a cardiologist. Be careful.

We expected some yahoo to step in and protect the taxpayer. We might be able to convince Webb if his email gets used well.

My C&P was the same. Additionally he told me that I would be scheduled for some sort of stress test. He didn't say whether it would be just a treadmill test. That was about a month ago.

I have had luck with the Phoenix DAV. This office has a good process and has helped me out immeasurably. Once they had my signed permission to act as my sole agent with the VA I was able to give them copies of all documentation and forms for forwarding to the VARO directly upstairs. This ensured that my copies had copies at the DAV and all were a backup to all documents the VARO was supposed to have. The DAV would also keep me advised of the progress of the file and whether the VARO needed anything else. This was a good experience relative to previous attempts at crossing the wilderness. I haven't use the link in an earlier post except to register.

I just had my C&P yesterday for the IHD/AO. Up to the time I was able to find a service organization seemingly competent or interested enough to help me I was without any real hope of progress. It was a pretty daunting and emotional experience just being on the grounds of Phoenix's VA and it was, for me, a VA contact and the DAV who brought a lot into focus. The consulting physician was a retired heart surgeon and professor who let me in even though I was stupid enough to confuse the time of the appointment. Heart disease you know. The point is even a forum such as this won't be effective unless you can use the services of our vet organizations. The local DAV served as the repository for all documents I needed to submit to the VA. I gave the DAV a special power of attorney which allows them to receive my documents, copy and store them, and send them on to the VA. They also had every form necessary for a response and access to the VA database for status reports. I needed the help of an empathetic and knowledgeable agent and got it. I'm still paranoid enough to check the records the VA actually has. You want to be careful though. ONE special power of attorney ONLY! I had tried, unsuccessfully, to use the VFW on an earlier claim attempt. I hope they are better now. But I had signed an authorization for the VFW to represent me with the VA. That was still on record when I restarted my claims and confused the issue for a while. DAV and I figured it out the process is grinding along. I read this entire thread. It was tough reading for me but I have been there in every way and am still breathing. Those primal screams can help sometimes. Hoa Binh

I spent a good amount of my fifteen months incountry in the parrots beak area as an air traffic controller. Not an 11Boo, that was my secondary MOS, but in the same jungle, the same water and the same enemies and as much or more time exposed than anyone else . The methodology of the Phenfen settlement was based on a select population with specific ailments and a direct and timely correlation. AO is the head of a pin and we vets are all the angels dancing on it. It is unwise to add some sort of formula that can only be subjective. Just as we all got combat pay in like amounts we sure all deserve equal presumption. Hoa Binh. DT

The VA also considers the Army Commendation Medal when it has a "V" device attached. DakToII

26 Apr 2010. Abbreviated comment period for presumptive afflictions. Stutter Step. Get your claims in! Hoa Binh.

There is a link in a previous thread that will give you the list of presumptives associated with AO. Check that list thgen get yourself started. I won't pretend I can use the computer well enough to put it here. You will have fun but it's what we live for Hoa Binh DTII

My last and only effective date of filing wast 28 Oct 08. All previous filings went dead after the requests for more info went unanswered. I spent some considerable time being a little irresponsible. Patience and a serious intent to do what is necessary to document every, use, USE, some organization like DAV, keep all original records and flirt enough with the nurse to get record copies for free. Get into the zen of being a vet at the VA. Strong coffee or strong drugs and always good friends who look like you, sort of. I'm lucky, my award gives me an assurance that the retro date is the effective date on my award. There are If you can, find someone at the hospital who is approachable who also knows the system. I am suspicious that they have gotten a helluva large bill with these three additions. They might still be suffering from shell shock. Just remember the freedom bird. Hoa binh.

I have been searching for the proposed rules. I assume from reading the odd post that VA has yet to publish the proposal. Is this correct? I am at sixty percent with a determination of ischemic heart disease pending these rules. I note you remark that there is no asterisk marking the three new presumptives. There is also no active link such as there are for the others and I wonder if that has any meaning for me and a completion of my award claim. Hoa Binh.... DTII