Pete Has It On The Ball For A & A

[gdsnide]

PETE

U were right in answering A & A is added to 100% Comp. where all the others said "NO"

Thank U again for the good answer & know wife wouldn't be worth much on her own A & A but will take every penny I can get.

Now all I have to do is win the damn thing. HA Have favorable opinions from every VA Doc I see

GARY

[john999]

Rental

The VA is going to want to know how you work 8 hours a day without A&A. If you do get 100% and you are still able to work I don't see how you can get A&A. I will play devil's advocate. How do you go to the bathroom during the day? How do you feed yourself? How do you move around in your office? I think they will look at the totality of your conditions to make an A&A award.

If a significant part of your proposed 100% is due to a mental condition working is going to be problematic.

I think you may find when it comes to awarding large SC the VA does not stick to the rules that well, but looks for loopholes. In the BVA cases you mention the vets may not have had one single 100& disability but they were basket cases in totality.

[rentalguy1]

Rental

The VA is going to want to know how you work 8 hours a day without A&A. If you do get 100% and you are still able to work I don't see how you can get A&A. I will play devil's advocate.

How do you go to the bathroom during the day? We have handicap accessable bathrooms with bars.

How do you feed yourself? I do not have trouble feeding myself. My upper extremeties work fine. It is my lower extremeties that give me problems.

How do you move around in your office? By using ergonomic chairs on wheels and my cane.

Furthermore, I have to have my wife drive me to my job, and come pick me up most days. I have problems bathing, and dressing, neither of which I have to do at work. If I do have to tie a shoelace at work, I have to have my coworker do it. This is something that he stated in a buddy letter to the VARO. I also have problems with abulation, which I no longer have to do much of at my work. I have three C&P's that state that I have either have severe problems with, or am prevented from prolonged sitting, prolonged standing, walking, chores, shopping, etc. All of this combined is enough to award A&A based on the regs. I do agree, however, that I am not 100% sure what the VARO will do. All I do know, from my own experience and research, is that the Nashville, TN VARO sticks close by the regs.

I think they will look at the totality of your conditions to make an A&A award.

If a significant part of your proposed 100% is due to a mental condition working is going to be problematic.

I hope they do look at the totality of my conditions, because the need for A&A is not based upon my mood disorder at all. It is based, and claimed solely upon my "severe" (C&P examiner's words, not mine) SC'd back disability, SC'd knee disabilities, and soon to be SC'd foot disability, combined with peripheral neuropathy which gives me loss of use of my lower extremeties by VA definition.

I think you may find when it comes to awarding large SC the VA does not stick to the rules that well, but looks for loopholes. In the BVA cases you mention the vets may not have had one single 100& disability but they were basket cases in totality.

I, too, am a basket case in totality. The only reason that I stil work is that I have to to support my family. I am not really able to, yet I have to. I also am fortunate that I have a employer who is severely reluctant to fire someone. They have tried to fire me, but the EEOC put the fear into them enough to make them back off. I have been written up, and given a bad evaluation based upon my physical limitations. I have always been stronger, both mentally and physically, than most of my peers. That is how I am still able to work. That is why I was in the SOAR while in the Army. Ninety nine percent of people with the conditions that I have would have given up work a long time ago. I puish myself to earn enough to support my family, even though I know that everyday I put myself closer to being in a wheelchair, and towards potentially causing my own death due to an accident. I have mouths to feed, and I cannot become too weak to fulfill my duties as a father and husband until the VA sees fit to provide for me.

I know that you and I view the VA differently. We have to completely different outlooks on the entity, even though we have both had very bad experiences with it. Right or wrong, and for whatever reason, I accept the blame for my bad experience with the VA. I feel that it was my own fault for not knowing the rating criteria, the regs, and for mot providing the rater with adequate documentation years ago. You look at it as it is the VA's job to do all of this themselves, and the vet should have to do nothing to get compensation. The truth is, no doubt, somewhere between our two viewpoints.

[john999]

Rentalguy

I hope you get your A&A and I hope you get at least 100% rating. I do view the VA differently. That is because I have been dealing with them for 37 years. The vet is not supposed to have to become a VA lawyer to get his compensation. That is what we have to do, however. You can't blame yourself for the VA's secret society. Go to VAWatchdog and talk to Jim Strictland. He is an advocate. Perhaps bounce some of your ideas off him. He understands the VBM down to the groud. He understands their institutional mindset. We know the rules tend to be sypathetic to vets but it is the VA's interpretation that is adversarial. Anyway we agree to disagree.

[rentalguy1]

Rentalguy

I hope you get your A&A and I hope you get at least 100% rating. I do view the VA differently. That is because I have been dealing with them for 37 years. The vet is not supposed to have to become a VA lawyer to get his compensation. That is what we have to do, however. You can't blame yourself for the VA's secret society. Go to VAWatchdog and talk to Jim Strictland. He is an advocate. Perhaps bounce some of your ideas off him. He understands the VBM down to the groud. He understands their institutional mindset. We know the rules tend to be sypathetic to vets but it is the VA's interpretation that is adversarial. Anyway we agree to disagree.

I've actually talked to Jim, and we're both on the same page. I don't have 37 years against the VA, but I do have 14 years. At least we agree enough to keep it friendly...and I hope I get 100% and A&A, to, but I know better than to hold my breath until it happens...lol