tdiu Advice On How To Best Proceed With My Claim

[John Purser]

Hello. I've posted here before and followed the advice I've received. Now some things are coming together and I need to know how to take the next step.

GOAL: TDIU

PLAN: Apply for increased disability (20%) for the nerve damage to my leg while keeping the 40% for my back giving me 60% disability from one injury. And apply for disability due to depression. From the charts I've seen on here I seem to fit the 50% rating easily.

REALITY: An Army jump accident 20 years ago screwed up my back and has left me with 20 years of worsening chronic pain and nerve damage as well as made my depression worse. Today I'm restricted to a recliner for about 16 to 20 hours a day. I lost my last job over 2 years ago and my inability to move about, sit up, and focus keeps me from earning a living or having much of a life at all. I'm currently living off the small amount of disability I get from the VA and bumming money from my girl friend and family. I've filed a claim for SSD but will have to wait until next April or so for the hearing.

CURRENT VA DISABILITY: 40% for my back injury alone.

VA DISABILITY CHANGES: At one point I had 20% for my back and 20% for the nerve damage to my right leg which has numbness, doesn't always do what I tell it to, and occasionally collapses a bit on me. After one attempt to increase my disability level the VA declared my leg "cured" and my back worsened to keep my disability the same. I had further tests done through the VA and the nerve damage was still there. Duh.

REPRESENTATION: I'm doing this myself. My last two VFW representatives told me to pull absurd stunts, told me to file fraudulent claims, don't appear to understand the legal requirements for TDIU, and missed a deadline for filing a notice of disagreement. I can screw this up by myself and making office visits hurts so I'm dumping them.

CURRENT EVENTS: I applied for a copy of my C-file about 7 months ago. There is a 9 month back log for copies of the file from the Seattle office so the wait should be about over if the back log hasn't gotten worse. I've FINALLY found a doctor who will prescribe bed rest for back pain (last three doctors refused to do so under any circumstances saying bed rest is not warranted for someone who's bed ridden with pain!) and if my new insurance will cover her clinic I'll be going back to her. Also my VA psychiatrist entered a case note saying that my back condition was making my depression worse.

QUESTIONS:

A) Should I wait for the copy of my C file to arrive before I do anything? This makes good sense to me but I hate waiting if I don't have to.

B) Can I apply JUST for the additional disability for my leg and depression without throwing the back into it? I don't want to let them shuffle the percentages around again.

C) Should I apply for TDIU at the same time I apply for the additional disability for my leg and depression or make that a separate claim after I get the results of the other claims? Right now I don't meet the legal requirements for TDIU (just the reality ones).

D) What am I missing? Seriously, I think I've got a goal and a plan but if I've dropped the ball somewhere let me know.

Thanks for the help.

[john999]

Like Larry says you should get your VA shrink to say that your depression is a result of your chronic pain and immobility due to the SC back condition. If you get even 50% that will bump you up to between 70-100%. I would file for TDIU while I am at it so you get the earliest effective date. If you are going to ask for an increase also ask for TDIU at the same time. I had 30% when I asked for TDIU. It took over a year, but they paid me back to the time I filed for TDIU.

[carlie]

John,

You posted,"I've had three VA psychiatrists and been diagnosed with depression, PTSD, and bi-polar disease. The one I have now had no problem stating that the 20 years of pain and my current inability in move about was making my depression worse."

Questions:

The "three VA psychiatrists diagnosed depression, PTSD, and bi-polar disease",

Did they put it in writing and provide a nexus to service for each with Medical

Rationale to support their opinion ?

My claim would be for the MH disability that I had the most Medical Evidence on

to connect it to military service. VA only compensates for one MH Disability, so

that's why my claim would be for the one I had the most solid evidence for.

The one that states,"the 20 years of pain and my current inability in move about was making

my depression worse."

Have they put this in writing ?

carlie

[rentalguy1]

QUESTIONS:

A) Should I wait for the copy of my C file to arrive before I do anything? This makes good sense to me but I hate waiting if I don't have to.

Continue to wait for the C-file. While waiting, gather all medical records and review all pertinent regs and exam sheets. Put your claim together in a succinct way, and have it prepared to send as soon as you receive and review your C-file. In order to preserve the earliest effective date, send in a VA Form 21-4138 to your VARO stating that you are filing a informal claim for increase regarding your sc'd nerve damage, and for service connection for the condition of depression. This will give you one year to get all your ducks in a row while preseriving the claim date.

B) Can I apply JUST for the additional disability for my leg and depression without throwing the back into it? I don't want to let them shuffle the percentages around again.

You can apply for the leg and depression without including the spine. They are not going to make more work for themselves if they don't absolutely have to.

C) Should I apply for TDIU at the same time I apply for the additional disability for my leg and depression or make that a separate claim after I get the results of the other claims? Right now I don't meet the legal requirements for TDIU (just the reality ones).

I would suggest waiting on the TDIU claim. Since you do not meet the criteria currently, they will most likely deny it. On top of that, your calculations are a bit off. Disabilities of 40% and 20% combine to make a total disability of 50% under VA math, not 60%. Also, the spine and the leg will remain two seperate disabilities. That means instead of needing 60%, you will need a combined 70% with at least one of those disabilities being rated at a minimum of 40%. When you get the 20% back for the nerve damage, you will need to get a rating of at least 30% for depression to meet the criteria for TDIU.

D) What am I missing? Seriously, I think I've got a goal and a plan but if I've dropped the ball somewhere let me know.

You've got a good plan. Take the suggestions provided and run with them.

[John Purser]

My apologies to everyone who responded. My new depression medicine knocks me out and makes thinking rather difficult. I decided to wait until this morning to respond rather than waste everyone's time with gibberish.

[John Purser]

You need to be able to assess what you have been diagnosed with, i.e. just what the psychiatrist thinks of your disability. Your GAF (General Assessment of Functioning, or some such). Google "GAF" or look it up here on hadit, it'll give you the various GAF scores and the equivalent %'s of disability. Then, speak with your psychiatrist as I have already mentioned.

Then, armed with the psych records, the GAF score(s) (they are supposed to assess your GAF each time they "visit" with you), and, hopefully, a helpful, beneficial, "letter" or whatever they may choose to call it........then you may very well wish to "file a claim" for the appropriate indicated degree of verified, diagnosed, disability. And, hopefully the letter from your psych doc will indicate that you are TDIU, in which case you need to fill out the FORM for claiming TDIU (there is a SPECIFIC form that you MUST fill out before they will consider you for TDIU, my memory loss renders the recollection of the form number inaccessible at this time, maybe someone else here will chime in with that info?).

Now, it's back to my basket-weaving and drooling.

Thanks Larry. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me but it might pay off. I'll get a copy of my records, then I'll know what I need from the psychiatrist next time I see him.

[John Purser]

Like Larry says you should get your VA shrink to say that your depression is a result of your chronic pain and immobility due to the SC back condition. If you get even 50% that will bump you up to between 70-100%. I would file for TDIU while I am at it so you get the earliest effective date. If you are going to ask for an increase also ask for TDIU at the same time. I had 30% when I asked for TDIU. It took over a year, but they paid me back to the time I filed for TDIU.

What my psychiatrist and research about Depression tells me is that my service is unlikely to have "caused" my depression in the same sense that it "caused" my back injury. Instead it's more reasonable to say that the 20 years of chronic pain has worsened my depression and that my current immobility has not only made the depression worse it's stopped me from my previously healthy way to deal with it which was exercise.

Thanks for the info on your TDIU claim. After about 3 years now of doing this wrong I'm trying very hard to do it right.