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brokensoldier244th
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Posts posted by brokensoldier244th
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Is there any chance the site itself can at least be archived and hosted?
Internet Wayback Machine (website) also should at least provide a way for Vets to still see site content but as a site drops out of use the Wayback crawler slows down and essentially stops crawling it, making it hard to find, even there.
Still, at least for awhile, its an option for people to still find it to go back and research.
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A DBQ isn't a rating opinion- have you received a narrative decision yet? The RVSR still has to go through the record again before issuing an opinion.
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Did you claim it specifically to Pes Planus? If the opinion asked for is secondary to Pes planus then that is what the examiner has to answer. This is why I advise people not to try to get super specific with their claimed contentions.
The MD may carry some weight but if there is conflicting opinions then they may send it (not you) to another examiner for separate decision. The examiner is basically saying that the knee issues are due to in svc injuries- so you could have had a direct opinion rather than a secondary- but that doesn't sound like thats what was asked for. You don't have to claim a contention as direct or secondary when you send it in- thats the VSR and raters job to figure out. You can state you think it may be cause by x, y, z to give them a direction to look in, or you can just say "due to knee injuries incurred in service" or something like that unless you can point to a specific incident or two.
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No worries. You can contact him directly, too, but honestly they are likely used to to it. If you have good relationship with them you can write them a nice letter and then they can notify us that the relationship is terminated, also.
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Pretty much, yup. It can become generationally ingrained among lower income households, too, and because of pattern recognition the kids see and learn the same behaviors. Plus, the underlying psychological effects that linger even AFTER they may have 'gotten out' and done better for themselves than they had been growing up.
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If its that old then its likely been scanned, if you are talking strictly VA folder. Other stuff not yet incorporated into VA that old would be at NPRC.
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congratulations! -well, relatively. Im sure you'd rather be hale and healthy, but under the circumstances I am happy to hear it!
Do something nice for you and yours, then stash the rest somewhere and forget you have it for awhile, if you can. If you don't follow the propensity to consume economic curve (gradually increasing spending to match new income-eco theory of how people act) you'll probably have some money stashed for 'oh shoot' moments. If you hit 100% p&t don't forget to ask your state/county about Tax exemptions for homestead and vehicles- that can add up. And CHAMP VA for your dependents, and DEA eligibility as well.
- blahsaysme2u and Vync
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You can file a 21-22 with VA and revoke, which gets the attention of VRCs and in VBMS the form is flagged to be reviewed. You can also do it on a cocktail napkin, 21-4138, etc, but the 21-22 is the official POA form and is easier to search for if looking for POA history, or prior revocations, etc. .
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what are all your ratings? your list is confusing- is 40x3 including your legs, for example? You can use the calculator, or you can download the combined disability chart that is used by the raters. You’re still at 100. Without an SMC which would usually take a major rating - unless you have ED- which is a fixed amount of around 110.00- you seem to be where you are supposed to be.
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Not trying to take away from your frustration, just trying to separate blame into buckets.
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16 minutes ago, john999 said:
No compensation for HTN AO vets for 4 years? Most of us will probably be dead by then. I think average age for RVN vets is 75. If they have high blood and other conditions I would not take odds that they will live another 4-5 years. The VA is just going to cheat us as usual. I have HTN, DMII and CAD. l am surprised every morning that I am still alive.
This is a congressional thing, not a VA thing. Congress sets the budge. VA can't pay if there is no money.
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7 hours ago, pacmanx1 said:
While I do agree with your post, there is no such thing as a "QUE" error. I noticed this on several posts, it is a CUE ERROR (CLEAR UNMISTAKABLE ERROR) "CUE" ERROR. This may seem unimportant to you but when veterans write their arguments, they must be clear, and simple mistakes can cause major misunderstandings.
He's right- this is a VERY important thing to be aware of, especially for CUE. CUE have to be very specifically crafted and worded. You have to put exactly what you think is wrong about the decision, and cite exactly what error you think was violated. Since so many VA regulations sound similar to each other, citing one that sounds almost like what the correct one is will not work. There is no room for inference on a CUE, and no 'interpretation' of what we think the veteran is claiming. CUE is a legal standard that must be asked for, and specifically cited- to the reg- and supported with WHY it was violated, and what evidence was missed, mis-applied, ignored, whatever. Asking for a QUE- well, that isn't a CUE, and federal laws support that it must be asked for in the right way, in the right format, with the right supporting evidence, otherwise it doesn't count.
There are some things that we have wiggle room on, or can justify. Claim a contention as Direct when it really turns out to be Secondary? Well, a good VSR should catch that, and, if supported, can send for both types of opinions, anyway (as they should). It's not on YOU to know if its primary or secondary. The wording you send in helps us get an idea of where your mind is with what you are claiming, and what direction to go for looking at the type of evidence in the record, but at the end of the day it comes back to "all theories being considered that are plausible". CUE doesn't have that wiggle room.
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So, there conceded that it’s military but not what you claimed. You could cite the c&p and claim it less specifically, too. General is better, let the doc( or in this case the examiner) do the work, which they did. The issue was likely more claiming it specifically to pes, through the rather should have caught that under “maximize benefit”. I’m not a rater, though. Almost was, then turned it down. I’d rather work the claims to the Nth degree so they are as bullet proof as they can be with what I have to work with.
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Other than having access to research journals through EBSCO or your public library, or using PubMed and filtering by number of years, typing in your search query, and organizing the results by Most Recent, none that I know of other than google. I search for journals a lot for class and I usually put the word 'peer researched' in my search query somewhere, that helps sometimes.
- Vync and blahsaysme2u
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Secure messages are part of your VHA medical- which is all pulled into your Cfile when someone works your claim, and repeatedly while your claim is pending, and again before sending the claim to rating. They aren't ported over in real time, but if a VSR or Rater does not do a final check of Capri (VHA) before sending to rate, or rating it, its a quality error and we get penalized for it.
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If you got out and had no hearing deficiency listed, and then 20 yrs later you claim hearing loss, how do you think any competent audiologist is going to be able to derive a nexus from that? You're right, the criteria don't same "time out of service" but common sense would indicate that if you hadn't' complained about it in X yrs after, that other factors can cause hearing loss.
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Worst case, if its in your notes, even without a letter, especially if you discuss it multiple times (like, appt followups for the same thing if you are trying to narrow it down) it is considered a ''nexus". A misunderstanding sometimes found on the internet in general is that you specifically need a 'nexus' letter, like, special separate thing for the doctor to write. Some doctors do, some don't- not all of them want to get involved in disability he said/she said (between doctors), and some people have stripped the header and footer off such letters and applied them to other letters typed by who knows who- which is actually pretty easy to see if the notes say X and the letter suddenly says Y.
So, you don't specifically need a letter/memo to support these things, but it does need to be broached to your doctor, a doctor, whomever you go to see. Some doctors will charge for the extra time as a visit, especially if you are not a long time current patient- or they won't write one at all- because they have little care history with you. If you approach it as a conversation rather than "please write me a letter..." which they hear a lot from any disability seeker- then at least it gets entered into the notes as a patient concern that they have to address, and not like a "im only seeing you because.....". If you are approaching a doctor specifically for an IMO/IME, be up front about it, and possibly pay a doctor visit fee or 2 for the time, but just be prepared that some might say no.
I like letters, on one hand- they are easy to find, easy to read, get right to the point, and save me several hundreds of pages of reading sometimes. How they are received by the raters? I don't know what their opinions are on them. Probably similar to mine, as they save a lot of work in digging around for info and, if supported by the medical notes, easy to point to for justifying a rating (or granting an exam, or a rework of an exam). But, on the other, the lack of one isn't a mine crater to your claim, either.
Dustoff has had a lot of success over the years with doctors opinions/thoughts being written in the notes rather than having a specific letter for a particular claim. You can search on his name and see a lot.
- Ranmic and blahsaysme2u
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Check with your counsel on that. I don't know how Board appeals are affected by PACT- its kinda outside my wheelhouse. If it is remanded back to an RO for development then PACT would be considered, but I don't know what the BVA is doing procedurally with pending appeals or those that are docketed.
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You have to refile unless you have a current claim pending.
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Pretty much exactly that. You can’t approach any doctor with a self-diagnosis and expect them not to get a bit defensive- but you CAN word things as a question- if you do it enough it gets dictated into your notes and then you have a record of at least bringing it up. I’ve done this before, with success, by approaching it as a conversation rather than a direct question that puts them in the spot.
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53 minutes ago, jamescripps2 said:
It is going to take a nexus letter either way you chose to go. The VA is not going to take your word for it, that the hips are secondary to your knees because you are not a medical professional. Any time you make a claim, unless it is for a presumptive condition, you will need a nexus letter. Your inference sounds reasonable, but you can't expect to reason with the VA, and neither are they companionate when it comes to granting claims.
Any other entity world require as much as well. A lay diagnosis isn’t a medical diagnosis.
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I didn’t say that it did, just that It doesnt hurt If you can find evidence of it also in your STRs somewhere then it doesn’t have to be secondary to- you can file both ways, also, as direct and secondary. They don’t have to be separate claims. They would get consolidated onto one claim anyway, if filed within a year of each other. It’s not asinine (as another poster put it) to search your STRs for it.
For whatever reason your decision letter states that your hips aren’t secondary to your knees. Somwhere in the reasons and basis it says why. Secondary isn’t a slam dunk, there still has to be a w link and a diagnosis of hip isssues. You need to address the opinion that your hip engagement isn’t affected by your knee issues.
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You can, you just lose the current filing date you have now. The issue isn’t VA, it’s service connection. Service connection starts in your STRS. Talking to the VA later about it just established that something is wrong with no tie back to your service period. That is the part you need to address.
Also, HLR , 21-0996, just means a review of what they already have. If you want to include new evidence it needs to be on an 0995.
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NEWS - HadIt.com - Update HadIt.com To Remain Open
in VA Disability Claims Research
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I've got a masters in IT Sec, I know how they (SEO attacks) work. I just wondered if the content itself could be saved, at least for a period of time, like a year. Eventually VA regs changes world render some of the information obselete but that's always been an issue. At least it would keep the info up for awhile.
What is the status of members identifying information? I'm assuming that was encrypted so there isn't any chance of that coming to bite people?