Loss Of Use

[Ricky]

Six-I have followed your posts and consider you and expert in this area. I suffer from a service connected right thalamic stroke. As a result of this I have been diagnosed with Dejerine-Roussy syndrome. I will not post the total effects for the post would be to long. My Neuro and PCP have provided statements and medical opinions that the Dejerine-Roussy has caused me to have a complete loss of functional use of the left arm/hand and left leg/foot. I wear as full contact AFO to assist with walking and use a cane. I can not grasp or hold items with the left hand. I currently have an appeal pending for loss of use of the left arm/hand and left leg/foot.

My question/concern is that this is not supported by EMG. The nerves from the arm/foot read ok. However, when the signal reaches my brain, within the thalamus, it is mis-read causing my problems (strange pain/loss of propreceptional sense). This syndrome also cause a severe spike in pain in the thalamus from real pain such as that from a normal EMG. The neuro has provided this in his statements (provided that this is not normal PN). Will the lack of an EMG be a problem? The reason I ask is that in most Loss of Use cases I have read, they speak of complete paralysis of a specific nerve. I do not have paralysis in the nerve it is in the thalamus where the nerves meet and transmit their signals to the specific parts of the brain.

My problems with this syndrome are: severe pain which feels like a wild animal is tearing the flesh from the bones; burning like the body parts are in hell; pain which feels like the parts are going to burst from swelling eventhough no swelling is present, unbearable shooting pains etc..

All of this is effected by tempature changes, the wind, stress, real pain, viberations etc.... Yes I do feel pin pricks, boy do I feel them, they feel like someone has stuck a knife into my foot or hand. However, the funny thing is I can not feel the hand or foot or tell where they are at.

Neuro has done the frey hairs test to diagnose but refused to do the EMG because the real pain from the EMG would drive me crazy and he said the nerve conduction would read as normal since the nerve is really not damaged.

In 05 when I had the stroke my daughter filed the claim. The SCed the stroke and dejerine roussy. They gave me a 10 percent rating. They failed to give me the 100 percent rating for six months for the stroke and although they said they were SCing the dejerine roussy they did not provide a rating for the areas it affected, face, arm/hand and leg/foot. The appeal has asked for the required 100 percent for six months and a rating for the face, hand and foot. I amended the appeal and asked for a 100 percent rating due to loss of use of both hand and foot but this EMG thing has me worried. Any comments?

Wow, this is a pretty long post for a one handed guy!

Thanks a million

Edited June 11, 2007 by Ricky

[sixthscents]

Ricky,

While it has been my experience that the VA NORMALLY uses an EMG to back up loss of use, it is not the only test. You are kind of a special case. If you have the proper letter saying that an EMG will not show correctly, then I would tentativly say that it will be significant, and that a reasonable rater will understand what is going on. They may ask for their own C&P, and I would expect that, but if they deny it out of hand then I would be a bit PO'd.

Honestly, it's going to depend on the rater I think. If you get a decent one, it'll fly. If not, they'll stonewall it. I think you can win it though. Just walk it thru the steps, and I'm goping to research you illness and comment further when I know more about it ok?

Expect more tonight.

[Ricky]

Thank you sir. I have not seen any posts from veterans with dejerine roussy. It is a rare condition and although it can be caused by injuries to the spinal cord it normally only affects stroke patients who have had a stroke within the thalamus.

Eventhough I have filed a form 9, the VARO gave me a DRO hearing that I requested over 18 months ago. The DRO seemed to understand the condition and commented that without doubt I should have received the 6 months worth of 100 percent. I thought she would have issued a rating fairly quickly and given me the 6 months of 100 percent while holding in abayance the other items on the appeal but that has not happened so far. Therefore, it appears that she will issue a rating on all the items at the same time and it will probably be quite a while before I hear something.

She also commented that she did not understand why the original DRO did not provide a seperate rating for each area affected by the condition. Even if she fails to rate me as loss of use for the arm and foot at least it will be a step in the right direction if she corrects this and provides some type of rating for each body system that is affected by the condition.

This claims is really messed up. I have actually been given two DRO reviews. The first was a copy and paste job from the original rating. I raised so much heck about my due process (the DRO hearing) after filing my form 9, out of the blue one day in Feb 07 I got a letter stating that I was to report to the VARO for a DRO hearing. She told me while I was there that she is reviewing the entire claim and would issued a decision. I certainly hope that sine I filed my form 9 18 months ago they have already given it a docket number instead of just letting the claim sit there in the VARO.

Bob, if I can figure out how to scan and attach things I can/will send you a copy of the SOC, and a couple of the statements from my docs they prepared for my hearing.

Ricky

Edited June 12, 2007 by Ricky