I'm completely lost and I'm sure this will get a little long....
My husband has a 10% rating for an ankle injury while on active duty. I've been doing ok with the VA up to this point....at least I thought so! I didn't think it would be nearly this hard actually. I'm currently trying to get a higher rating and gerd added to his service connected illnesses but to be honest I think my 6 year old will be eating veggies with no complaints before this is over. My husband is young (31) and had surgery in 2001 on his ankle. He broke all his tendons and ligaments in his ankle and had to have it all reconstructed. The injury could have been avoided (I think anyway) had the Army done the surgery sooner b/c he kept spraining it over and over and then finally in March of 2001 he fell 15 feet out of a tree and broke everything in there but the bone. They finally got him into surgery in Sept of that year. Anyway, in all those months he was taking naproxen/alleve for the pain apparently taking this medication daily like he did can cause constant heartburn/gerd. He's been taking some RX medication for this (the VA doctor he saw wrote it for him) but the VA doesn't want to add the illness because there is no record of it. It actually took us years to figure out it was the meds causing the heartburn. The VA doctor he saw was the first to suggest it. Oh and another issue on this claim is the idiot doctor that did the exam for the claim somehow brought his left ankle into the claim and they are saying that since we are linking it to the left thats another reason nothing is covered along with saying that my husband said he'd had heartburn long before this ankle injury. He never had heartburn like this before his ankle injury.
He has been seeing our ortho surgeon b/c in August I believe it was the surgeon he saw at the VA said surgery won't fix his problem and that he was going to have to live with the pain. The overall care he gets is just horrible. I can't imagine a doctor telling a patient that he has no options and will have to live in pain. I made him an appointment with our doctor and apparently he has a bone spur on the front of his ankle that is causing the pain. We already knew the bone spur was there from an xray this same doctor did in 2005 but at that time it was a small spur that wasn't needing any treatment at the time. He went back recently because the pain is just too much at times and this small spur that the VA led us to believe was there is actually covering the entire front of this bone. Our surgeons opinion in 2005 was that it might need surgery b/c it is possible it will get bigger but there was a chance it wouldn't get any bigger. Well, he now says the only option is surgery.
I know the VA won't cover our out of pocket cost for a surgery as I am fairly certain our insurance won't cover it 100%. My husband has no faith in the VA hospital and its staff at all. What choice am I left with but to figure out how to pay for it on our own? Obviously I wouldn't want someone doing surgery on me if I had no trust and faith in them and I don't expect him to just suck this up and use the VA. Is there some complaint process here?
If we could get a higher rating it would cover the out of pocket expenses we have using our own doctors. At this point the only thing the VA is good for is getting him his pain medication at no cost and the heartburn medication at a reduced price. I'm thankful for the prescription coverage he is getting because that would cost me an arm and a leg. One of the doctors there asked him if he could find a new job to stay off his feet. This injury has limited his activities greatly. I'll also add that the VA also added that his range of motion is fine in his ankle and until it gets worse they won't raise his rating.
Any thoughts, insight, help would be greatly appreciated!
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cskeeter
I'm completely lost and I'm sure this will get a little long....
My husband has a 10% rating for an ankle injury while on active duty. I've been doing ok with the VA up to this point....at least I thought so! I didn't think it would be nearly this hard actually. I'm currently trying to get a higher rating and gerd added to his service connected illnesses but to be honest I think my 6 year old will be eating veggies with no complaints before this is over. My husband is young (31) and had surgery in 2001 on his ankle. He broke all his tendons and ligaments in his ankle and had to have it all reconstructed. The injury could have been avoided (I think anyway) had the Army done the surgery sooner b/c he kept spraining it over and over and then finally in March of 2001 he fell 15 feet out of a tree and broke everything in there but the bone. They finally got him into surgery in Sept of that year. Anyway, in all those months he was taking naproxen/alleve for the pain apparently taking this medication daily like he did can cause constant heartburn/gerd. He's been taking some RX medication for this (the VA doctor he saw wrote it for him) but the VA doesn't want to add the illness because there is no record of it. It actually took us years to figure out it was the meds causing the heartburn. The VA doctor he saw was the first to suggest it. Oh and another issue on this claim is the idiot doctor that did the exam for the claim somehow brought his left ankle into the claim and they are saying that since we are linking it to the left thats another reason nothing is covered along with saying that my husband said he'd had heartburn long before this ankle injury. He never had heartburn like this before his ankle injury.
He has been seeing our ortho surgeon b/c in August I believe it was the surgeon he saw at the VA said surgery won't fix his problem and that he was going to have to live with the pain. The overall care he gets is just horrible. I can't imagine a doctor telling a patient that he has no options and will have to live in pain. I made him an appointment with our doctor and apparently he has a bone spur on the front of his ankle that is causing the pain. We already knew the bone spur was there from an xray this same doctor did in 2005 but at that time it was a small spur that wasn't needing any treatment at the time. He went back recently because the pain is just too much at times and this small spur that the VA led us to believe was there is actually covering the entire front of this bone. Our surgeons opinion in 2005 was that it might need surgery b/c it is possible it will get bigger but there was a chance it wouldn't get any bigger. Well, he now says the only option is surgery.
I know the VA won't cover our out of pocket cost for a surgery as I am fairly certain our insurance won't cover it 100%. My husband has no faith in the VA hospital and its staff at all. What choice am I left with but to figure out how to pay for it on our own? Obviously I wouldn't want someone doing surgery on me if I had no trust and faith in them and I don't expect him to just suck this up and use the VA. Is there some complaint process here?
If we could get a higher rating it would cover the out of pocket expenses we have using our own doctors. At this point the only thing the VA is good for is getting him his pain medication at no cost and the heartburn medication at a reduced price. I'm thankful for the prescription coverage he is getting because that would cost me an arm and a leg. One of the doctors there asked him if he could find a new job to stay off his feet. This injury has limited his activities greatly. I'll also add that the VA also added that his range of motion is fine in his ankle and until it gets worse they won't raise his rating.
Any thoughts, insight, help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you
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