mssoup1

I would definitely think that if you are appying at a public school, you should by all means let them know the type of meds you are taking. With the problems that occur daily in the public school systems, you don't want to hide anything from them in the event down the road something should come up. You want to make sure that you have yourself covered. This is just my opinion though. mssoup1

Jangrin, I agree with you. When filing a claim, if you feel that you are unemployable due to these illnesses, then I think you should also file for unemployablility at that time. Doesn't mean you will get it, but then one never knows. At least you have a date established for any retro. As I stated before, this is what I did and my husband received it retro back to his claim for it. At the time I filed the claim, he did not have the ratings which would have given him unemployability, even though he was not working. I had to work on get the ratings up which would also make him eligible for unemployability. He did get the required ratings and since I already had filed the claim for unemployability, that was approved as well, retro back to his claim date. mssoup1

Yes, Berta, They did go back prior to my filing the unemployability form for my husband. But all along, I continued to state to the VARO that my husband was filing a claim for unemployability, even though at that point he was probably not really eligible for it. But, I figured with all of the claims I had in for him, that if they were approved, that would put him at the level to get unemployability. And, if the claims were approved, then he would have been unemployable back to those original claim dates. Therefore, since I had claimed unemployability at the same time I filed the other claims, then they would have had to go back to those dates to give him his unemployability. By the way, he was unemployed during that time. Wasn't sure if it would work when I started, but I had nothing to lose. If fact, we won. mssoup1

If you lay off the drugs now for this test, what happens when you get the job and they do a random drug test on you. Better to be upfront now with them. mssoup1

When I filed some of the last claims I turned in for my husband, I requested that they look at unemployability, also. As each claim/claims were decided, the unemployability issue was deferred. This was due to the fact that he did not actually have anything in writing at that time that he was unemployable, nor had they rated him for one disability at 40% with a total disability at 70%. But, since they had other claims of his to decide, they could not actually yet make a decision on his unemployability. Finally, his psychiatrist wrote in her report that he was unemployable solely due to his PTSD. The C & P examiner agreed with her in his report. He then got his PTSD increased and also his skin condition increased. Both were rated higher than 40% and his total disability went beyond 70%. Before he received this final decision, they sent him a TDIU form to fill out and return. We immediately did this. When he got his final decision, they approved him at the 100% rate TDIU P&T with no future exams, along with the PTSD and skin condition increase. I personally think that if you are after unemployability, file it regardless. The most they can do is deny it or defer it. They even went back to the original date that we filed for the unemployability. Also, a couple of years ago, they changed the rating schedule for skin conditions. If you have the skin condition on more than 40% of your body, then you can get 60% for this condition. But, you must have a doctor to state this fact. I found this just by coincidence and refiled the claim for my husband. He had been at 30% for years. I didn't realize that the rating schedule had changed. Not sure if any of this will be of help to anyone, but I have found that just posting information like this from others can sometimes help someone else out. This was only experiences that we went through. mssoup1

Medicare B is now $88.50 per month now. But, as I understand it, Medicare B is going to go up to almost $100.00 starting in January. As usual, you get a COL raise in your Medicare and then your insurance cost for Medicare B goes up more than the COL increase that you get. I do know that while you are talking about Tricare, if you apply for Champva, you have to carry Medicare Part B, but are not required to carry Medicare Part D. I currently have Medicare (primary), Blue Cross (secondary) and now Champva. I hope that Champva picks up any of my co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses that I have been paying in the past. I think this is the way it happens. mssoup1

You really do need to try and hang in there. There were many times that I was ready to give up on my husbands claims because I felt the stress was more than I could handle. I would take a couple of days away from the claims process and tried to just totally forget about it during that time. Then, I would belly back up to the bar and say I will not give up. I have come this far and I won't give up now. Well, my husband ended up rated at 100% TDIU P&T in the end. So, while the system can be frustrating, just think of how far you have come with your claim. Don't give in now when there could be something good sitting right at the end of the rainbow for you. Just take a few days and just get all of the VA stuff out of your head and then get back into it again. Everyone needs a break once in a while in order to stay half way sane. mssoup1

Shalia, I can sympathize with you because we have been there, done that before. There is one C & P examiner at our local VAMC who is, IMO, a poor excuse for a doctor. He is also rude, had to apologize to me for jumping down my throat while I was there with my husband and writes the worst C & P reports that I have ever seen. If you are lucky enough that you can even get him to write up the report. I called the Directors Office at the VAMC. Really sounded like they were concerned about some of the treatment we were receiving and told me that someone would be calling me back. She felt sure that the Director would be interested in hearing what we had to say. Well, never got a call back from anyone. They did give my husband another C & P exam after I filed a complaint with the VARO that the exam he got was inadequate. I also stated that I did not want this same examiner examining my husband for the second C & P exam. I did all of this before they had a chance to deny his claim, as I got a copy of the C & P exam as soon as possible after the exam was done. I immediately sent a letter to the VARO explaining how inadequate the report was and they could in no way use it in order to decide my husbands claim. When talking to our Patient Advocate concerning Dermatology treatment at the VAMC, she indicated to me that getting doctors, expecially Dermatololgists, is a real big problem in our area. Maybe that is the reason for the type of doctors we see at some of the VAMC's. Apparently, it seems, they are having to hire who ever they can in order to have enough doctors to see the patients they have. A lot of them act like they really don't want to be there. Also, I agree that you should take someone with you on your visits, if at all possible. You may find a few doctors who don't really want the other person in the examining room with you, but they cannot deny you if you tell them you want that person in there with you. We had one of my husbands doctors who didn't seem happy that I went in with him, but after a while, I guess she knew I was going to be there so she finally just accepted the fact of me being there. If you feel that you cannot get anywhere at the VAMC, also try calling the Patient Advocates office. They are there to assist you and if they are doing their job, they will. Had problems with our Patient Advocates office at first, but I have been real pleased lately with them. Don't know what happened, but if you call now with a problem, they are really quick at trying to get it resolved. I have been in the system ever since my husband was discharged and I guess I have been there and seen just about everything in both the VARO and VAMC systems. You just need to hang in there and fight as hard as you can. If you give up the fight, then they win, not you. My husband is now I/U P&T, which means no future exams, so I hope that we are through with the VA claims process for a while. It has been a very hard and long road for both of us, but we hung it there, kept up the fight and finally won. As they say, you must fight for what you want and the harder you fight the better chance you have of winning. So never give up. mssoup1

foreveryoung, Thanks for your reply. Yes, he has tried that and is currently on it. It seems to help a little, but not much. Nothing he has ever been prescribed has given him enough relief to really feel half way confortable. The only thing that did come close was steroid injections that he was given for a short period of time. This helped more than anything else, but naturally you cannot stay on them for a long period of time. Even the steroid creams and ointments don't help. He has even seen independent Dermatologists and Ophthamologists and they have no clue as to how to treat what he has. One VAMC Dermatologists wanted to refer him to a Medical Research Hospital out of state, but the VAMC would not give the approval for my husband to go. This Dermatologist felt that since he had run out of solutions to my husbands problems, that he felt he needed to be seen by other doctors in the research field who may have some trial things to use on him or could give a better opinion or testing on his problems. But, again, the VAMC would rather see my husband in agony than pay for him to be tested and treated outside the VAMC. I do appreciate your replying to me. You never know when another veteran may have some ideas that helps them and may help another veteran with the same problem. mssoup1

Jangrin, Thanks for your reply. I will do some searches and see what I can find on the Tango boats. My husband has seen every Dermatologist that the VAMC has ever had, along with every Independent Dermatologist that we have here locally and you cannot get one to state that his skin condition is the result of Agent Orange. They all give the problem another dermatology name, but not anything connected to AO. I have seen him at times itch so bad that he then scratches non stop until he actually has himself bleeding. His earlobes break open, along with his hands and feet to the point that they ooze and hurt. His entire body looks like he has ringworm and his entire body breaks out and itches all the time. His eyes stay red all the time that I'm sure people think he has either been drinking or has a bad case of pinkeye. His eyes burn, itch and tear so bad that it is sometimes almost unbearable for him. With both his skin condition and his eye condition, he really goes through he** and I feel so sorry for him because I cannot do anything for him. He has been given ever steroid, ointment, cream, lotion, etc. and nothing works for him. If it was just your normal everyday dermatological problem it would appear that some of these prescription drugs would work for him. He even underwent two surgeries on his eyes hoping that would help, but it didn't. The doctors have basically given up. They don't have anything else that they can give him to try, unless a new drug comes out on the market. Then, I doubt the VAMC will carry it. He says he would give up every dime that the VA gives him now if he could just get a cure for his problems. But then again, I'm sure that most veterans feel this way. They just want the pain and hurting to go away. Thanks, mssoup1

At the moment, my husband does not have any health problems that the VA recognizes as being related to AO. But, my question is, if , God forbid, he was to develop a health problem that is related, would he be able to successfully file a claim if he served in the Navy and was on the Tango boats. These were the boats that moved at a snails pace up and down the small rivers of Vietnam. He stated that he was on some rivers so small that you could almost reach out and touch the sides of the river and transported a lot of the Army guys. Also, he stated that most of the time when they went up and down the rivers, all vegetation on both sides of the rivers were totally brown and dead. He was physically in these rivers many times and also jumped in them more than once in order to take a bath. AO was definitely being sprayed in these areas all of the time. He has some kind of a map that I saw several times which supposedly shows the areas within Vietnam that were sprayed. Some other veteran sent it to him. He does have a lot of health issues, including chronic skin and eye problems. He has had these problems ever since he was discharged and they have only gotten worse over time. In fact, I think what ever is causing his problems is in his blood or cells and has spread. I also think that this is a result of AO, but you will never convince any doctor of this. They have called his problem everything they can think of that relates to dermatology, but if you mention AO, they get on the defensive real fast. He is currently service connected for his skin and eye conditions, but only because it shows in his SMR's of constant sick bay calls due to problems with his skin and continued care within one year of being discharged. But again, no connection to AO. mssoup1

stevedenesha, I never meant my initial post to be an ongoing discussion and I am sorry my post caused someone to question at length a comment I made. I just stated a fact. All I stated was that in the BVA decision letter, they granted "instant approvals" (their words, not mine) on a couple of my husbands claims. I in no way insinuated that we got the rating and compensation on that same day. The instant approval means that the BVA has approved the claim, therefore, the VARO only needs to rate the claim and send out the decision letter as there is no further action required on the part of the VARO. Maybe you have gotten approvals from the BVA which read different from what we received, but I only quoted what was in the decision letter we received. Yes, even though it reads "instant approval" the VARO has to still do the rating and send you the decision letter. And yes, this can take some time to get, depending on what VARO you are dealing with. Sorry for my original post and the confusion I may have caused on this. I only thought my post and our experience that we went through might be helpful to someone. I guess I was wrong on this one. mssoup1

My husband had to go before the BVA on several of his claims. On some of them, the BVA remanded the claims back to the VARO and ordered a C & P exam to be performed before a decision could be made. The C & P exams were set up and the reports sent to the VARO. The VARO then decided his claims based on these C & P exams, along with any evidence which they currently had. We were successful in getting the claims approved. From the time we had the BVA hearing until my husband received a decision took approximately 1 1/2 years. But, then again, my husband had more than one claim in to be decided. It seems that there are times that you seem to have to have an IMO to help with your claim, then other times, the C & P exam is good enough to rule in your favor. A lot has to do with who you get who performs the C & P exams. Some examiners are really good at wanting to go the extra mile to help out the veteran, then there are others who seem to do everything they can to help get your claim denied. These are the ones where you end up having to get an IMO in order to get the wording the VARO wants to approve a claim. But, again, in our case, even having a good IMO in your favor doesn't always get a claim approved either. The ideal situation is being able to get a good C & P examiner who will put the correct wording in their report that the VARO wants to hear. This pretty much gets your claim approved. But, again, finding that right examiner is the biggest problem. On any C & P exam that my husband was given, we went to the VAMC a couple of weeks after the exam and got a copy of the C & P exam report. We live close to our local VAMC, so this was not a problem for us. I then read the report to see if it was adequate and accurate as far as I was concerned. On several of these exams the same examiner did the exam. One report he failed to write up at all and the other one was so inadequate and inaccurate that I immediately wrote a letter to the VARO and told them that both of the reports were inadequate and that we were requesting new exams with another examiner. He was given new exams. By getting copies of the exams ahead of time, we were able to not only request new exams based on the ones he had been given as inadequate, but also had time to get an IMO, if needed. This saved us time, since had we not worked his claim this way, my husband would have been denied based on inadequate exams and we would have had to file a NOD based on this. We caught the inadequte exams early before the VARO had a chance to deny the claim and saved time in having his claim decided. I think that the BVA will probably remand your claim back to the VARO for a C & P exam, if the evidence shows that the VARO did not afford you one. If you do get an IMO, I would send the report directly to the BVA since your claim is with them pending their decision. You will need to waive your rights having the VARO look at it first, but in my opinion, that is okay. We sent in additional evidence we had while the claim was at the BVA and I sent a letter stating that my husband was waiving his right at having the VARO look at it first. Since the BVA was now the ones making the decision, I wanted to insure that they had all of the evidence available to them to make their decision. There was no reason to have the VARO look at this evidence first. It takes more work, but I tried to work my husbands claims in such a way that I tried to stay one step ahead of the VARO when I could. Getting results of exams ahead of them making a decision allows you time to rebutt this information before the VARO can make a decision, therefore, saving you time on your claim. Sending information directly to the BVA, if your claim is at that level, saves time by not having to have this information routed through the VARO and then to the BVA. By that time, the BVA could have already made their decision. I am not sure that any of what I just said would/could have an impact on anyone else, but it sure helped in my husbands case. Just thought I would pass this information on to anyone else that might find it helpful mssoup1

10thFO, I live in the Blue Ridge, Virginia area. I was speaking of Dan Karnes. In fact, his last day was today and they were having a little send off for him but we did not get to attend as planned due to other commitments. Haven't heard yet who is going to take Dan's place, but he was one super guy, as well as the others there. We went to the Naval Reserve unit located just off of Peters Creek Road in Roanoke, Virginia. We went out to the Reserve unit to get our ID cards, but were told that we needed to set up an appointment. We set up the appointment and when we went there, they must have it set up to do the cards only on certain days as there were about 5 others there at the same time as we were. But, we were in there and out in a short period of time. Didn't take long at all and had our cards when we left. Hope the I/U works out in your favor. My husband recently went to 90%, compensated at 100%, given I/U P&T. This was done all at the same time. Of course, all of the claims, including the I/U were remands from the BVA and everything was approved in his favor. After all of this, we received an approval for his cataract when we thought this claim was just dropped due to him getting 100%. They rated him 10% for the cataract. When we went to the VARO in Roanoke, Virginia to get a letter on his 100% I/U P&T, I could not believe how helpful the guy was that waited on us. He gave us letters addressed to everyone we would need in order to collect the extra beenies. We took the letter to the DMV and he got Disabled Veteran plates free for life for his vehicle. We then went to the Fincastle Courthouse and got it set up such that he will no longer have to pay for county decals for this vehicle, either. We already had the free fishing license, so we didn't need to apply for those. I also just recently found out that I got my approval for Champva on July 10th. Problem is, I never got my card or the information, so I had to call them and ask for them to send me another one. They were very nice and helpful. Since we don't live there far apart, if I can be of any help on anything you may need to know, let me know. Not sure I will have the answer, but you never know until you ask. mssoup1

While my husbands claim was at the BVA, I continued to send new evidence to them. I waived my right to have the VARO look at it first. I never had a problem with the BVA not accepting it. mssoup1

stevedenesha, You stated, "What I meant is any decision by the BVA can't be instant! How long did this instant approval take - 1-2 years?" What makes you think that a decision by the BVA cannot be instant? I have a decison letter from the BVA stating that they were instantly approving the two claims. This went back to VARO and they rated him on them. Do you know of something documented somewhere that says the BVA does not grant instant approvals on claims. If so, it is wrong because I have proof that they do this. I guess I am still at a loss on your comments that you made and why. jangrin, You definitely need a doctor to state that you are totally disabled before SS will approve you. Now, this can be a temporary disability or a permanent disability. Even though SS considers you to be disabled, you are still allowed to work a certain amount each year without it affecting your claim. But since my health conditions won't allow me to work at all, I have never been able to do this. I have heard that it is very hard to get a lot of the doctors at the VA to state that a veteran is totally disabled. That is why there are so many times that you need an IMO from your outside doctor to state this. I also agree that not all of the VA doctors document everything that occurred at the exam. That is why is is important to get copies of your recent doctors reports and read them to make sure that they are correct. If not, you need to take a copy with you on your next visit and discuss those with the doctor. If these reports can be used in making decisions on your employability and whether or not a claim is approved or denied, you want to make sure that what is in those reports is accurate. mssoup1

Berta, You stated, "Sometimes between you and me I feel like walking through the halls of the local VAMC and asking every doctor there "What is wrong with you?"" I'm sure most veterans have felt the same way at one time or another. The VAMC, I guess, in some ways is no different than other doctors offices. The only difference is that with the VAMC, some of their opinions can make a difference in whether a veteran is approved or denied his claim. Also, with what the VAMC pays their staff, along with the number of veterans they expect them to see daily, probably has a lot to do with how you are treated and the amount of time you are alloted. But, all doctors offices and facilities are trying to do more with less. I just had a stress test done and while talking with the nurses, they have been told that they are going to increase the number of patients they do a stress test on daily. They can barely keep up now. It is hard to keep track of what patient is where. The staff there is great, but I think if they increase the load on them, there could be some mishaps to occur. I hope not, though. You can only expect so much of someone, especially when you are working in a field whereby a patients life can be at stake. Also, in the independent world, doctors and hospitals have to get pre-approval from the insurance company/Mdicare on so many more things than they use to. I have been put on oxygen at night due to the results of a sleep study I had done. Because the report from the sleep study is 3 months old showing my oxygen level while sleeping, Medicare has required my pulminary doctor to send a respiratory therapist to my home to have me monitor my oxygen level for one night in order to submit this to them before they will approve my use of the oxygen. Medicare says the report cannot be more than a month old. Go figure! Insurance companies/Medicare is now managing our health care more and more and telling the doctors how they can treat us based on their opinions. I realize health care costs have risen considerably, but I also don't think doctors are out there to break the insurance companies/Medicare by doing unnecessary testing and treatments. So when you look at this and then look at the way the VAMC is run, I guess the basic element in the whole equation is costs, costs, costs, vs. care, care, care for all involved. JMO mssoup1

When I applied for my SSD, SS never sent me to a doctor but accepted the information and opinions from my own doctors. The same for my husband. I am not sure I have ever heard of SS using their own doctors for an examination, especially if you have your own evidence from your doctors. But then again, there are so many reasons for appling for SS and the evidence available to SS. I just have never heard of anyone having to do this. stevedenesha, Why did you get a laugh when I stated my husband got an instant approval from the BVA? In fact, he received instant approvals on two of his claims at the same time from them. I guess that during the meeting they saw and heard the evidence we had and along with the evidence and giving him the benefit of the doubt, they decided to instantly approve these two claims. They remanded the others which were also eventually approved. mssoup1

10thFO, We also use the Roanoke, Virginia VARO and the Salem, Virginia VAMC. We apparently do not live very far from one another. My husband also goes to the local Vet Center in Roanoke. They are super. In fact, they are losing (retiring) their head Social Worker this Friday. Will be sorry to see him leave. I only hope that he continues in some capacity with helping veterans as he is very compassionate. It definitely makes it nice when you live so close to the facilities you need to go to or correspond with as a veteran. We even found out that there is a Reserve unit close by us that we were able to go to and get our ID cards. Sounds like with all of the evidence you have showing unemployablitlity you should have a good shot at getting it, but with the 70%, do you have the necessary ratings within the 70% to get the unemployablitlity? Wish you the best of luck on the outcome of your claim. mssoup1

My husband had a claim in for his eye problems, directly related to his skin conditions. Not only was he being seem by doctors at the VAMC for his eye problems, but had been seeing an independent doctor for quite some time because of his eyes. After many tries, including surgery and every med available, at trying to resolve my husbands eye problems, his independent doctor wrote in a letter that it was of his opinion that my husbands eye problems were directly related to his service connected skin condition. The VARO denied his claim based on the fact that they wanted to know where the doctor got his opinion from. Duh! When we showed his doctor the letter of denial, he was floored. Needless to say, this was one claim that went on to the BVA and we won an instant approval on it. I think showing some experiences that others have had can, in the end, help some others when they feel they are having to fight for their claim to be approved. I hope some of my experiences will be of help to someone else. mssoup1

Berta, Over the years, my husband has been to numerous C & P exams as a result of our filing and appealing his claims. I think in that time we have been through, seen and heard about everything. So much depends on who the C & P doctor is that is examining you for your particular claim. At his hearing exam and audiology exam, they were superb. More than willing to help my husband with his claim. His PTSD C & P exam was also very well done. But, for what they consider standard exams like the skin, hypertension, ED, etc. the examiner used is so against the veteran. In fact, he did a C & P exam for my husband for an increase in his skin condition. Couldn't finish the exam fast enough because he was going on vacation and my husband was the last veteran he had to see. Well, needless to say, he never did write up a report to send to the VARO. I caught this when I kept asking for a copy of the report. I immediately filed a complaint with the VARO due to the fact that my husband had a C & P exam, but no report was ever written up. I asked that he be given another C & P exam as that exam was inadequate. They did give him another one. I also stated that I did not want the same examiner to give him the second exam. He didn't. End result was that my husband received his increase. And I also was able to get this done before the VARO sent my husband a denial based on the absence of a report for the first C & P exam. Saved time all the way around. This same examiner did a C & P exam on my husband for ED. The entire report was written wrong. Even stated he had a prostate problem which my husband does not have. The claim was ED secondary to his medications, which was not for any prostrate problem. Again, I caught the report early and filed another complaint requesting another C & P exam by another examiner. Never heard back on this claim. I don't want to rock the boat now either because he has been granted P & T. I guess the VARO considered this claim moot, since he was given this rating. But, from experience, so much depends on your C & P examiner. If you can get a good one, your claim has a better shot at getting approved. He is willing to listen to you and read what is in your file before giving his opinion. But, if you are one of the unfortunate veterans who gets an examiner who is in no way willing to help the veteran out, then you are basically SOL, unless you can get an IMO to help your claim. Should not have to be this way, but it happens every day and at every VAMC, I'm sure. In some of the reports that we have received from C & P exams that my husband has had, there is no way that the examiner heard anything we had to say, much less read anything in his file. And the bad part about all of this is more than likely the examiner is a veteran himself. mssoup1

This is just a standard letter that everyone seems to get now and then for what ever reason. After years of dealing with my husbands claims, he received numerous letters like this, but never seemed to mean anything. Maybe someone else has some more information to add. mssoup1

I agree completely with going to the website to request the status of your claim, vs calling the 1-800#. I started using the website myself to request the status of my husbands claims and was much more pleased with the feedback I got. I'm not sure what the difference is, but there is a difference in what information you are given. Seemed to be much more accurate and more detailed. mssoup1

Hypertension seems to be an area that is hard to get service connected, unless you can prove it is seondary to an already service connected disability. We fought for a long time (all the way to the BVA) to get my husbands claim for hypertension service connected. His blood pressure was normal when he entered the military. On his separation papers, it showed his blood pressure to be high. No where in his SMR's was there ever a blood pressure reading as they never took his blood pressure at any time he went to sick bay. He had early records of being diagnosed with hypertension and also being medicated for it. The records didn't quite go back to within a year of his discharge because those records no longer existed. The VARO kept denying his claim. When it went to the BVA, they remanded it back to the VARO requesting another C & P examination. At this C & P exam, we finally got the examiner to put into my husbands report that it was of her opinion that his hypertension was at least likely as not that it was related to his military service. It took only this statement to finally get the claim approved. Without it, we would not have prevailed. He was granted 0% because his blood pressure reading, while at times was high, still showed that it was being controlled with medication and was not consistently high. Since he is now 100% I/U P & T, it was still important to get his hypertension service connected, even though it was at 0% compensation. If in the event, God forbid, he should die from something that can be related to his hypertension, then I can apply for DIC. As another helpful note, when my husband was granted his P & T, there was still an outstanding claim for cataracts that had not been resolved. I felt that since they had granted him 100%, that this claim would not be completed and would be considered moot since it would make no difference in his compensation or anything else. I just filed everything away and considered us through with everything. I never even responded back to the VARO concerning this claim. A few weeks later, we received a decision letter in the mail approving him for service connection for the cataracts and rated it at 10%. It made no difference in his compensation, but they did grant service connection. Therefore, even though you are granted 100% and have outstanding claims sitting at the VARO, I would not let those claims drop by sending anything to the VARO to do so. Just let the VARO continue on these claims and there is a great possiblility that you may very well find that they get approved, even though you are at rated at 100%. But, if not, you have not lost anything by continuing with the claims. By the way, why would anyone want to take their blood pressure every half hour. I know this is done in the hospitals for specific reasons, but I would never take mine every half hour at home. I have had 2 heart attacks and have considerable problems with high blood pressure, but I take mine several times a week, maybe several times a day, depending on if I feel I am having some problems or not. If I feel I have a critical enough problem that I have a need to monitor it every half an hour, then I would probably be calling the rescue squad to take me to the emergency room. In fact, I have done this before. Hope I didn't jump out of turn in this thread, but was hoping that my experience may help someone else. mssoup1

Again, thanks for your replies. I no longer have his records, so I am trying to remember off the cuff as to what he had and what opinions he had. He did have an IMO that basically stated that it was of his opinion that the start of his back problems did originate from his military service. The doctor could only go so far with statements, since there are no SMR's which actually reflect the accident, only sick bay treatments showing he was seen for back strain. The doctor was taking the veterans word for it that he did, in fact, injure his back while in the military. I think since the SMR's didn't reflect treatment for any accident, that the only SMR records he had just showed back strain and the fact that he hurt his back while on the job, all had an inpact in denying his claim. In fact, the veteran stated that when he injured his back in the military, they never took any x-rays or anything else. They only gave him some pills and said he had strained his back. I know that when we went to the BVA hearing, it did not go well. The law judge that he had seemed the least bit interested in what was being said and acted as though he would much rather be somewhere else. In fact, we noticed that he kept looking at his watch. I knew then that we were in trouble. Didn't take long to get the denial back, either. It was just the opposite for my husband. The law judge he had was great. She listened with concern, asked us questions and didn't seem to mind how long it took for us to present my husbands case. The outcome for my husband was very positive for us, even though the whole process took a long time. It seems that there are so many circumstances within each veterans claim, that anything can happen. Right down to who you have hearing and rating your claim. Any further responses would be most appreciated. mssoup1