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brokensoldier244th

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Everything posted by brokensoldier244th

  1. Sure, but again, the wording of a 'study' that is being quoted as 'showing promise' is NOT the same as 'proven effective' in a mass case scenario. Do you want tens of thousands of US citizens being guinea pigs for a drug that is only published about in 2-3 studies, that hasn't been mass tested? I sure as hell don't. I have a friend that works with USAMRIID and John's Hopkins. if it was an effective treatment he'd know about it- and he's not jumping on this wagon either until there is more testing to ensure that the young and the old are not negatively affected by it. https://factcheck.afp.com/chloroquine-has-not-been-approved-treatment-covid-19
  2. “Showing promise” is not the same as proven effective when reading a published study- I’m a grad student and I’ve read hundreds. The wording is overly formal but it all means something. China didn’t human test they just dumped it on the population. If you read the whole study you’ll also find that chloroquine can cause stuffed effects like blindness and it can induce viral mutation. THATS why it’s not just given it to anyone. The study noted serious side effects to the use of chloroquine as a treatment. The study also reads: “One often cited side effect is chloroquine retinopathy, which can result in permanent vision loss after high cumulative doses of chloroquine. “However, retinal damage is extremely rare in patients with a total dosage under 400g (dosage level only reached after years of treatment).” The study also noted treating COVID-19 carries the risk of inducing a viral mutation that “can either be beneficial or harmful to humans”.”
  3. Every one has to worry about everything now. Why pick on VA? Schools are closing, kids are home and parents have to figure out what to do, college kids all over the place, stores are being raided everywhere even in places where there are few cases (NE only has 13 last I checked, statewide), etc etc. Take a deep breath. Everyone has problems right now. Im supposed to start a Federal job on the 30th, contract signed, with a start date, but it may be pushed back indefinitely. I already put in my notice at my other job and finished my two weeks there. *shrug* everyone has something to worry about right now.
  4. No. At the moment they are already working on this and have some things in place. Here is what I know from a contact in Voc at the RO. "BAH-- At this time, your stipend will continue as certified for the semester, even if your classes have gone online temporarily. If the school has closed entirely for the semester, you will have a 4 week allowance for BAH/subsistence but it will be discontinued after that time frame. IF your classes continue online past this term, your BAH rate will change to the online rate."
  5. It would help to know what links you can't open, and other than that, what help you are looking for.
  6. I do a summary topsheet of what is going on, what im claiming, and page numbers or dates to relevant stuff in my records so that its easier to find for the rater. Hasn't steered me wrong yet. My wife put in a statement once about my snoring and stopping breathing when I filed several years ago for sleep apnea.
  7. You can also get in idea of how many claims are backed up at your regional office by looking here: https://www.benefits.va.gov/REPORTS/detailed_claims_data.asp#Reports and then look for the date you want in 2020, then on the last page of the report that opens up is the listing by Regional office workload.
  8. It depends on too many factors to guess.
  9. Unemployability (IU) assumes that you cannot work at all, even though you are rated less than 100% by the schedule. The regs say that you cannot do gainful meaningful employment, which is a standard that SSDI uses as well. I know veterans that work, and people on SSDI that work, but SSDI people lose money from SSDI based on the amount they made in income. VA doesn't do that but if you work and make over poverty level you are looking to have some issues, big ones. They will assume that you are potentially getting better and they can pull you in for a re-evaluation. There are such things as "protected environments" (actual quote) where the employer has made major concessions to your disability, or you are working in a sheltered environment like for family, but the legalities of this, while legal, get really tied up in legalese at the Dept of Labor over what actually IS one of those situations, and DOL seems to take it on a case by case basis. Best not to tempt it. I had IU temporarily, I found out, for about 6 months. My claim for increase was not yet settled at the time, and I was being paid at 90%. When my claim finished, they called me 100% P and T (permanent and total) and paid that backpay increase amount to when I filed. They then backpayed me another 6 months back to when I came off of FMLA and still could not work according to CIGNA (my disability provider for work) and had filed for IU, but as TDIU. It was weird and ive not seen it talked about in forum here or elsewhere. It makes sense, and the amount was the same, so it wasn't a net gain, but I never asked to be P and T and would have been happy with IU. *shrug* If you are on IU its best not to work or to push it, unless you are doing under the table stuff or hobby working. If you are 100 by schedule you are freed of this limitation and can work as much as your disability permits you to.
  10. VA wouldn't have paid them.They would have been forgiven by your lender. You just have nothing left to forgive. The lenders sure aren't going to retro actively give it back.
  11. TDIU is for things where the ratings schedule says its only X disabling, but the net effect on you is still worse than that percentage for YOU. Say you have a 40% rating for your back, a 20% for each leg for peripheral numbness/pain. That might not be completely disabling for some people- I worked like that for years. BUT for some cases it IS 100% disabling for someone. You don't meet the criteria for an increased rating based on the ratings/actuary tables, but the effect on you is still that you can't work. That is TDIU, thats why the I stands for "Indivdual". Its a catch all for conditions that cause more of an effect in a particular person that they might not cause in someone else.
  12. What’s the election got to do with it? Depending on the audience he talks to we’re all either the best people, or entitled moochers. He, or people in his administration with his support have said every year that welfare needs to go, and then lumps us in there.
  13. Ebenefits probably hasn't updated yet Or, VSO's can see decisions before they are finalized, and sometimes they jump the gun when notifying veterans about updates on claim activity. what did your VSO say about your claim other than there was a decision? If thats all they told you, what was the point of them calling you? *smh*
  14. I had a sit down with my manager when I went on FMLA and asked him to write me a letter/memo of all the deficiencies I had in my current position. It sucked, hearing it from him, but we had a good relationship and he understood where I was at because I kept him in the loop on things medical and otherwise. I submitted that, along with the approval of FMLA from my employer, and progress notes for MH and physical when I applied for IU. After FMLA I was let go from that job, so I submitted that, too. You'll want to find all the documentation you can that is work related of negative performance. It sucks, but that is going to be a major driver towards evidence for IU. I was at 80 or 90% when I applied for IU, if I recall correctly. Good luck, take deep breaths. The better your documentation is the better chance of your claim succeeding. I also typed up a top page that I submitted with a sort of table of contents of dates for various clinic notes that applied, work write ups and dates, etc. It isnt necessary but anything you can do to make your claim easier to work on for the rater the better and probably faster it will be decided. My IU claim and then my increase claim were applied for in Feb 2016, a few days before I applied for FMLA from work. My claim was decided by the end of May. Not saying that is the same for everyone, but like I said, the better your documentation and the more readable your claim is (that table of contents I typed up, for example) the easier it is on the VA end.
  15. Okay, I did a lot of digging and I found my decision letter from 2015. You'll see that I was granted TDIU for a few months, backdated to when I filed the claim. They made that decision first, I guess, because in May of that year they increased my depression rating. You'll see that the ending date for the TDIU award corresponds with the starting date of my 100% rating, as does the DEA award for Chap 35. There is no language saying TDIU is "moot", that would usually show up in a court case since it legalese. So, long short, I was temporarily TDIU but then a few months later they completed the rest of the claim. They sent it to me as 1 letter and 1 finished claim. I don't know why they didnt just backdate the 100%, but in the end they ended the TDIU in May when they changed my MH rating. They also dont come right out on the first page summary to say that I am P and T, but you'll see it in the summary of the DEA award. I hope this helps.
  16. NPs are basically doctors with a few years less of residency. They can do all the stuff doctors do.
  17. You can't cite Non VA court cases or opinions unless they apply to you, as in, you were as part of it. They may point to potential causality but they aren't evidence that same thing is happening to you specifically.
  18. The denial reason should have been in the decision letter.
  19. What did they prescribe, how much per dose, and how long did you take it? For example. I got out in 2002. For 6 months up to that point I was taking 3200 mg ibuprofen a day. After I got out and got home, I got into VA healthcare and was taking the same 3200 a day, plus Gabapentin 1600 a day. I asked about the same thing, potential damage to kidneys/liver from taking NSAIDS. I was told by VA and by my own doctor that it takes years of dosages like mine, or higher to get to a point to consider it a possibility.Took ibuprofen and Gaba for about 6 more years. Its now 2020, I take tramado (an opioid)l and Etodalac- a stronger NSAID like iburprofen, but only 1 of those. Same strength, just fewer pills. No kidney damage or liver problems. You may have kidney problems from NSAIDS, but you are going to have a difficult time finding a doctor to prove it because it takes years of high dosages, and it only occurs in about 5% of patients. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1894754 Good luck to you.
  20. My decision letter at the time had me as 100 tdiu for the time since id filed the claim until the effective date, then there was a rating change on the effective date that made me 100p/t. On the same letter it was a bIt confusing at first, but I was rated both ways during the same period.
  21. what is your basis for claiming that your kidney disease is service connected? What was your doctor's rationale for creating the connection between service and your kidney disease? What did the denial actually say?
  22. Which VA benefit letter are you printing? Is it there one sheet you can pick what you want to print with check boxes? If so, use that one and sender all the boxes. If it looks close to this you are scheduler.i have dependents so my amounts are slightly different than yours.
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