BigCountryVet

Thanks for that intel, CavTrooper. It was utilized & is bearing fruit as you read this right now. Thanks again.

Wow, that's pretty awesome that you lit a fire under their butts like that back in May. Trust me, I know what you're going through when you have to do something like that. I had to pull some strings like that when getting some senior ranking officials' attention when it came to issues concerning my mental/physical abuse that led to my suicide attempt in the Army. As far as you contacting the "higher ups" as you called it concerning your claim that sat for several months untouched, who exactly are you referring to or what position/office do they hold? We may obviously be in same regions, so giving me a name might possibly render fruitless results. I'd appreciate greatly some information concerning which higher ups you contacted to get the ball rolling as quickly as you did because the more I communicate on the frivolity of my status change the more I am ready to start lighting some fires under people's butts again. I am so sick and freakin' tired of eviction notices, bill collectors and not being able to afford health care for the rest of my family because Eric Shinseki can't manage the Veteran Administration properly enough to take care of myself and my fellow veterans so we can sibside sufficiently.

Then again I've also started checking other's stories out here on the forum and there seem to be a few stories developing with similar traits as far as the claim statuses advancing. What I'm wanting to know is how promising this new development is. If any of yall vets are in the same boat as me right now how long from the point of "preparation for decision" to "complete" does it typically take? I know times can vary widely depending on the VARO so anybody can feel free to chime in with their input. It would be much appreciated. I am from the Waco VARO, so if anybody else is from my area, too, I'd appreciate yall letting me know. Until then, keep your head up and God bless yall :)

Well, just about at the point where I was about to let go and fall into another one of my deep depressions and have another manic episode or so it would've seemed, I went online and signed onto ePeggy and, fully expecting to see the same thing I've seen for almost two years ("gathering evidence", a.k.a. "gathering dust") I saw something completely different: the status was "Preparation For Decision" and in my letter generator the letter available for me to print out and prove to people how much disability percentage and payment I receive monthly was not available online. This has peaked my curiosity quite a bit. Along with reading all of yall's posts about your similar situations paired with some expected guidance my local VA rep advised me on recently this all seems to be coming together rather appropritely. Quite odd though being as the VA has never really given me anything but a bottle full of pills that make me high as a kite and years worth of empty promises. Please, brothers and sisters in arms, I would love love love yall's input. Anxiously awaiting! God Bless!!!

that sounds like something else completely new & unrelated. I'm sure by the time you're getting this you've already tended the problem you've described, but I can tell you from personal experience with venlafaxine I have never experience similar symptoms ranging from the buttocks area down to the calf muscle. Your assumption of a pinched sciatic nerve would've been my first guess if you hadn't even mentioned sciatica as a matter of fact. Do you carry your wallet in your back pants pocket on that side? If so is the wallet a thick wallet? In other words just be looking out for all different signs and causes for things that could be putting extra pressure on that particular buttock area if in fact the sciatica is acting up. If it is not and it is in fact a medicine side effect I'd greatly appreciate if you availed me of that fact on here. Best wishes & God Bless.

I hear you loud and clear on that, rpowell... I'm so sick and tired of not being able to even function at all albeit on any all natural psycho-social level at all. At least on that level I wouldn't be suffering from the side effects of these purportedly less used psych meds that our VA still uses on us guys and gals. Sounds like this new stuff is doin' you pretty rough. Take it easy for a few days & be noting any unique symptoms or particularities you get hit with.I just checked out the Mirtazapine drug facts and it seems like it has some pretty sedative side effects -- something i'd be pretty interested in as a matter of fact. I've got insomnia (it's actually one of my Dx's) and they stopped giving me meds for it so I'm hear on hadit typing this stinkin' reply at 3:28 on a Saturday morning while I should be in bed getting some rest before church on a Sunday morning. Every night is like this with me though. Tell me how your new journey with Mirtazapine goes. I may ask my doctor about it if you tell me positive things about it. My prayers are with you until next time. God Bless.

Wow, rpowell. This is very interesting news to see you going through all this with the venlafaxine, too like me. My VA doc here in San Angelo, TX has me on two 75 mg venlafaxine tablets twice a day (for a total dosage of 300 mg). Back in December 2011 I had a lapse in prescription refills and didn't have any of my meds whatsoever for 6 or 7 days. The withdraws were undescribably wretched. It eventually led to a mental break and stay in an inpatient facility but now that I'm "better", I'm on this venlafaxine dosage. One missed dosage (if I miss my mid-day dose before my bedtime dose) is enough to take it out of me just about completely. I see others on this comment string alluding to the fact that this venlafaxine has been around in the VA for some time now? I was not aware of that. Can anybody here provide any information on that? What else do yall think they could give us in place of this venlafaxine that would leave out this side effect of severe acute withdraw symptoms?

11-Charlie, I could swear you were reading my mind when you did your most recent reply. You & me both man. If I went up to my RO I'd be on every watch list this government makes up and has to offer (already am on homeleand security for forgetting to take my fighting knife out of my assault pack before flying out of nashville when i was stationed at campbell. HA!) Red tape this, red tape that. CRAP!!!!!! You & I & every other veteran knows full well what being fed a line of crap sounds like. Afterall, we all spent years in the service being led by men ahead of us who were just letting the crap covered snowball roll on down the hill when they'd tell us we had to do this or that because of whatever. I've got a good question -- I know protesting isn't unlawful obviously, but is walking into these ROs & demanding an answer from these "upstanding", "productive" government workers a violation of any law or rule? Nothing would excite me more than to see or hear of a massive wave of disenchanted veterans marching on the steps of a regional office or VA headquarters in Washington and refusing to move until actual legitimate dialogue (& I don't mean the fake trash they feed us screwed with veterans on these pitiful 800 #s) and answers are given. I imagine a few arrests would be made, but points sure would be made too and the public would start becoming more and more aware of the crap we all deal with on a daily basis from this organization that purportedly "sufficiently" provides for us. Maybe, just MAYBE this kind of thing ought to be done on a regular basis until they get the friggin point. Food for thought.

Spec-4 & Eagle Eye, your replies are greatly appreciated. if you ask my wife she'll tell you "checking my hadit" is one of the few things I look forward to anymore. I really don't get out anymore. Haven't had any legitimate friends per se, just acquaintances thru the in-laws church. Yalls prayers are truly appreciated & I mean it. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer. I just have to deal with this while I have to deal with it, know what I mean? EagleEye, I got my SSI starting at the beginning of this year. That is minimal and of course I have the amount the VA gives me to subside for my family. It's a little rough to say the least to stretch that between myself my wife and a 7 month old rapidly growing baby boy especially considering my wife doesn't work. She's a full time college student. The VA Suicide Hotline is always something I would be willing to use. I never want it to get as bad as it got back in September of 2005 -- I emptied an entire bottle of preseciption meds trying to OD in my hooch over in Mosul, Iraq. I was an e5 team leader that kept getting mentally abused by my plt sgt and a number of other things that don't bear repeating. I even told my squad leader when I first started experiencing problems with my mental health that I wanted to go visit the local psych guy on camp & they refused to let me do it saying i could only do it if i could find time to do it during down time or when we were supposed to be sleeping (odd hours since we worked a prison 24/7). I actually had to SNEAK to the doctor out of fear I would be harassed by my Sr NCOs if they found out. Then when I finally did get put on sleep meds for my insomnia over there they would always tell me i was lying to them when i told them i was late to missions because of my meds. It was just one big mess that culminated in me doing something harmful to myself. Anyhow, that's 6 years ago and now I think I'd go ahead with the hotline option if i felt i was at the end of my rope. I'm just afraid I'd lose control and lay into some poor operator on the other end. The main think that causes me major anxiety right now besides the obvious MH issues I have is the blind anticipation that the VARO will send that "big white envelope" with a letter saying your proposal for increase has been denied. The only problem there is that I am trying to figure out what would cause them to deny me. On the other hand I believe I have a sufficient case for IU -- documented therapy attempts (12 weeks prolonged exposure, started the other one they do), Major depressive, Severe Anxiety both reported to be chronic and a new diagnosis in the past year and a half of agorophobia.

Darcy, Ironically walmart is probably the last place I ought to go without my lorazepam in my pocket. I, like you, usually leave either angry or annoyed. Although, I try to go when not as many people are there which is usually "after hours". My wife & my family in our hometown also encourages me to get out and do things so I'm not constantly stuck at home by myself. I am glad at least that I have some income for my family even though I scrape together what I can at the end of the month. Most of the time this unemployment situation leaves us running out of money a week & a half or 2 before the month's end IF we're lucky. What I am confused about is WHAT exactly they need to research more since they've kicked my IU claim back to the development phase. I've gone through to C&P exams, completed the 12 week prolonged exposure therapy course at my local outpatient VA clinic here with a licensed psychologist, and been seeing VA psych doctors on an ongoing basis before and since my unemployment for well over a year now. Anybody care to humor me with what other kind of information they might be looking for at this point? Geez, by the time they give me an answer on my claim I'll have withered away and blown into the wind. This new medication they have me on has knocked me down to an alarming 167 pounds.... I haven't weighed that much in 8 years. 3 months ago I weighed almost 200 pounds. Sometimes I feel like a social/medical experiment rather than a soldier who faithfully served his country and just wants some medical assistance. That's just how I'm feeling.

eagle-eye, by the way that wasn't necessarily directed toward you. I'm just feeling burned from this claims process & all the other lack of quality care to say the least without going into full detail. sorry if i came off as a total ranter. i can't work, so i stay home the entire day and this is my only social interaction with the exception of the lady at the checkout aisle at walmart or the guy behind the counter at the gas station.

eagle-eye, I know full well this is just wishful thinking, BUT.... if this [claims/c&p] administrative side of the VA got their act together by educating their telephone operators to legitimately issue answers other than the robotic, cookie cutter ones you & I have been getting then we as a veteran community just MIGHT become a little less disenchanted with this ever tainted excuse for a veteran "care" organization. If enough of us veterans and veteran supporters came to learn that the adjudicating side of the house was actually getting their stuff together rather than blowing us off daily more support might be made for issues like this. What might happen as a result? An even more streamlined process! It's self fulfilling, and the administration just sits on their thousand dollar suits delving out crap, token replies & explanations like "severe backlog" & "grossly understaffed". Hello!!!!!! Swipe those senseless, wasteful earmarks from the budget bills that don't benefit any us citizens and reappropriate those funds for better training & more staffing to get these men & women taken care of. ................................. jmo

SPC4, I'm thinking it's a safe bet to assume the guys on the line only choose to issue a few general bull$ answers in order to get through the mile long line of veterans waiting on the call queue. Mind if I ask what your 100% is from or as a result of? I do understand part of the reason for my extended wait is the backlog is the agent orange claims and THAT I am far more than fine with. My wife's friend she grew up with now works for the Waco VARO processing claims and she made the mistake of coming over my mother in law's house the other day after I was feeling the usual jaded about this crap VA process. I had the claims adjudicator right in front of my face in person, it was great! Directives have come down into her office for 75% of all claims processors in the Waco claims processing office (where this girl works) to STRICTLY process agent orange claims and nothing else. The other 25% get to "focus" on EVERY OTHER claim type in the perpetual pile of claims that come through that office. Your era of men and women are long overdue for some much needed and well deserved care and attention. The point I make with this story about my wife's friend is that it seems like the contingency plan the administration has in place is laughable at absolute best if not nonexistent. I'll bet Abraham Lincoln is rolling over in his grave right now. Such a disappointment for this country.

Guys this stuff happened to me just today.I went to see if my claim had been rated &decided upon and after 7 months of sitting idle in the decision phase it seemingly randomly jumped back to the development phase! I've had my IU claim in since October '10, and it's been in the decision phase since approximately March '11 this year. Today, during my daily self humoring check of my ebenefits claims status page I was shocked to see a change, especially a backward one. I did some calling around & visiting the county va office here in Abilene & was able to come to the conclusion that it did in fact get to the rater finally. Although, the rater apparently (according to the claims rep on the 800-827-1000 #) deemed it necessary to send it back to development for further evidence acquisition. Further evidence??? WTH??? After 9 months and stacks of paperwork, multiple psych evals (C&Ps) and folders and folders full of every therapy session under the sun they need what other evidence? and if the adjudicator thought it was ready to send to the rating board in the first place why did the rater not think so? Do they not evaluate by the same standard. It's only a matter of time before a veteran snaps and acts upon his/her frustrations with this administrative side of the house.

Hey everyone. By now I've grown accustomed to the idea that the VAROs are full of unpleasant surprises and the claims process is as unpredictable as can possibly be. The initial development phase lasted a few short months and then went to the decision phase where it sat for a good 6 more months. I would check it daily anxiously waiting for a final shift to the notification stage. After enough reminders from fellow vets and one solid bit of information from a friend who actually adjudicates claims in the Waco VARO I cam to realize the IU claims from my phase of the wars were pushed back due to 75% of their claims processors being made to solely process Agent Orange claims. That was fine and dandy until today when I was doing my daily claim status check on ebenefits. It somehow changed back to Development Phase, square 1. Now I'm a bit concerned. I went back to my local VA office here and they told me the rating board probably finally got it and "wanted more evidence" and then I went out to my car and called the va rep at -827-1000 who told me pretty much the same thing. The guy on the phone said they are apparently required by law to send me some letter notifying me of what exact paperwork or evidence they will need to support the claim so they can proceed with the decision/rating phase. All this time nothing has happened so I've been thinking everything was kosher, then this stuff happens? Honestly it has me unsettled. Anybody else go through this before or currently going through this? Let me know