diabetes I Am Really At A Loss Here....

[SteveE9C6]

I got my letter from the VA on Friday. This was my appeal.

I applied for disability related to PTSD in 2006. When I tried to do the initial stressor statements, I just couldn't do them. They denied it because I never submitted anything. Ok... so I appealed, submitted copies of my treatment record from my private shrink for the last several years.

I did the stressor letter, researching dates, names, etc. It wasn't hard to find the names and dates on the wall. It was however, very hard to sit down and write it all down.

Regardless.... they awarded me 30% and also agreed that the stressors I submitted had occurred. Hey! that is a huge improvement. The first time I went to the VA PTSD clinic in College Station Texas (referred by my Psychiatrist) the social worker/intake lady informed me that "You can't come here... You don't have PTSD". I was stunned to say the least. I showed her my VA prescriptions and she said "Well, you are probably just depressed or something". I left so angry and confused that I couldn't even think straight.

Before this, I had never applied for PTSD disability. I'm relatively financially secure and have military retirement. Besides, I was already getting 60% for svc connected stuff. I talked with my psych doc and we agreed to just blow it off. I was fine. I didn't need the VA to affirm my symptoms. But then... I got the news that my Diabetes was almost certainly related to Agent Orange exposure in the Central Highlands. I talked to the texas state VA rep and he advised me to file for that. I sat down and filled out the papers and then decided to include the PTSD.

Ok... I was given diability for diabetes related to AO. It was increased because I have neuropathy in my feet.

I got a letter... now I have 80% But the PTSD refused because as noted above, I never did the paperwork.

I did the paperwork and Friday got the letter that says PTSD is approved at 30%

BUT... here is what I am confused about. "YOUR COMPENSATION WILL NOT CHANGE"

uhh... ok. so I get and additional 30% combat related svc connected disability and it doesn't bump my comp at all?

Very confusing.

[Ricky]

something is not right if I read your post right. If you had 80 percent then received and additional 30 percent your rating should have went to 90 percent. Its all VA math.

80 percent leaves you 20 percent non-disabled

then you get 30 percent. You will get 30 percent of the remaining 20 percent.

20

x.30

--------

= 6 Now you add this 6 percent to the 80 percent which gives you 86 percent disability. Since the VA rounds up and down this 86 percent would be rounded up to 90 percent. hope this makes sense.

[Boats]

If you go to the front page of hadit under claims sction there is a Service Connected Disabilities Calculator where you can put all your numbers in. Then come up with the VA math.

Ya the last 20 to 10 takes a lot I am at 90 and will take another 70% to get to 100%...go figure

Boats

[SteveE9C6]

Thanks guys... I do not have all of my numbers here so I will have to wait until I get home to enter them. Yeah... I already have 80% of which 60% is direct combat related. I'm a CW3 retired at 24 years svc so I already get retirement. Reading thru this site, I have just realized that I have two other conditions that I got a 0% (but svc connection established) on because I didn't have active complaints at the exam time. They asked and I said "oh that is doing ok". Which to me meant, stable and unchanged. Apparently the examiner felt that this meant "no problem".

Edited August 28, 2007 by SteveE9C6

[jimmy]

The original 80% rating could be anywhere from 75-84%. As Ricky showed, if it was 77% then it would be 23% remaining which would be 23 x .30 = 6.9 + 76 = 82.9 rounded down to 80%.

You really have to plug in all the percentages when you get a new rating to get the VA math figured out.

[john999]

Disabilities as a result of agent organge are considered as related to war service for some compensation purposes. It is not direct combat related but in the same category as someone who is injured training for combat like jumping out of airplanes etc. Of course, if you never went to Vietnam you never would have been exposed to AO so it should be related to war service in a combat zone. I think us guys who got hurt by AO should have a special badge with a steel drum painted orange and a death's head.

[rthomass]

I guess us guys sitting on the veranda over looking the Mekong River at Nakhon Phanom Thailand never had a chance to be exposed to AO. The only problem is Agent Orange came from NKP via C123 aircraft fitted with spray units to spray AO over Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. NKP as well as most of us non-combatant Air Force weenies at other Thailand bases were expossed via wofking on C-123s and our spraying of base perimeters to kill jungle vegetation. You know a person serving in the states during World War II was considered a veteran of WWII but us Thailand weenies were just there for the show.....I am a Vietnam Veteran and I never put my boot on VN soil.....I and others in Thailand worked around the clock rescuing downed air crews and running interdiction missions along the HO-Chi-Mihn trail. and yes we were subject to attacks by the enemey.

Edited August 28, 2007 by rthomass