My C&p Exam Notes Are In (just As Expected Not Promising)

[TANKERJOE0]

HI,I HAD A COPY OF MY C&P EXAMS PRINTED OUT FOR ME TODAY.

SOME MAY REMBER THE DAY I GOT BACK FROM THE EXAMS AND WAS IRATE,DISGUSTED AND DISSAPOINTED.

WELL JUST AS EXPECTED THE DRS NOTES THAT THEY ARE SENDING TO THE VARO ARE CLEARLY UNTRUE AND UNFOUNDED??

I NEED A SUGGESTION.OR MAYBE A EXPERIENCED HADIT MEMBER WHO WOULD BE WILLING TO ANALYZE MY C&P NOTES AND TELL ME WHAT THEY THINK???

I DONT THINK ITS ADVISABLE TO POST ALL THE NOTES ON THE FORUMS

AS IT WILL TAKE ALOT OF SPACE UP?

IF ANYONE IS WILLING TO HAVE ME FWD YOU THE NOTES VIA EMAIL AND GO OVER THEM WITH ME ID BE FOREVER GREATFUL!!!

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE GREAT ADVICE AND SUPPORT THIS HADIT FAMILY PROVIDES TO ME.

I TRULY FEEL I AM AT WAR WITH THE VA AND EVERYONE ON HERE IS ON THE SAME SIDE AND CAN HELP ME.

OTHER WISE ID BE FIGHTING A MUCH BIGGER ENEMY BY MYSELF!!!

TRYING TO CLEAR THROUGH ALL OF THE OBSTACLES THE VA HAS SET UP TO MAKE IT GUT WRENCHING TO GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS. SO MANY GIVE UP.

I WILL NOT GIVE UP.I AM FURIOUS.

I GAVE UP 17 YRS AGO ON THE VA WHEN I FIRST ARRIVED HOME FROM THE WAR.AFTER THE WAY THEY MADE ME FEEL SO I CONTINUED MY MEDICAL TREATMENTS WITH A PRACTICE OUTSIDE THE VA.

I REFUSE TO GIVE UP THIS TIME.

THE VA HAS NOT FOUND A WAY TO MAKE MY PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS GO AWAY OR EVEN MAKE THEM MANAGABLE.

SO IM GOING TO TRY WITH THE HELP FROM HADIT,MY WIFE AND MYSELF TO FIGHT THIS BATTLE TO THE END.

THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE.

SEMPER FI!

TANKERJOE0

[Quint7]

Tankerjoe, who were you with? I was with Dco 3rd Amtracs (outta 29 Palms), carrying Marines from A 1/7 and attatchd to 3rd Tanks for the war. Task Force Ripper. Lemme know, I might have some links to some documents that will at least document Rippers and 3rd Tanks experiences.

[Pete53]

The only way to overcome a bad C&P is to find a Doctor who will write an IMO and even refutes the bad C&P. You can complain about the C&P but its unlikely that you can get another one without a Hearing and the Hearing Officer agreeing and ordering a new one.

Good Luck

Sometimes your progress notes can overcome a bad C&P but the best way is with medical evidence from your Service and after you got out.

[rentalguy1]

Here are the C&P Notes. There are three C&P's.

[rentalguy1]

I have read through these C&P exams, and here are my conclusions and recommendations:

Issue 1, Hearing Loss:

I. According to puretone tests and speech recognition scores, your hearing was within normal limits:

A. When you entered service

B. When you left service

C. Currently

II. This issue will be denied because there is no evidence of direct or secondary service connection

III. Given the chain of evidence, it would not be useful to file a appeal on this issue. It is unwinnable.

Issue 2, Tinnitus:

I. The audiologist stated that it is less likely than not that your tinnitus was caused by military service.

A. He qualified this statement by quoting the NOISE MANUAL (fifth ed.), which states "only seldom does noise cause a permanent tinnitus without also causing hearing loss."

B. Your puretone audiograms and speech recognition scores do not show you to have hearing loss.

I. This issue will be denied because there is no evidence of direct or secondary service connection.

III. A denial could possibly be averted with a Independent Medical Opinion from another audiologist that states the tinnitus is at least as likely as not caused by military noise exposure. This audiologist would have to refute the information quoted from the NOISE MANUAL in the C&P.

Issue 3, PTSD:

I. There are comments in the C&P report that are hurtful, but not harmful.

A. Childood issues

1. Raised by step father

2. Special education classes for being disruptive

3. Suspensions for truancy and fighting

4. Consuming alcohol at the age of 15

B. Frequent drinking

C. No mental health treatment in military

D. Attitude toward examiner: "Manipulative"

E. Possible drug seeking (from medical records)

F. Rule Out (r/o) exaggeration of symptoms (from medical records)

II. There are strict guidelines in the DSM-IV manual for diagnosing PTSD. You must meet or exceed the minimums in four separate criteria to receive this diagnosis.

A. You have a traumatic event.

B. You persistently re-experience the event in one or more ways.

C. You persistently avoid traumatic stimuli in two ways. The diagnostic criteria states that you must avoid this stimuli in three or more ways.

D. You have two symptoms of increased arousal. This satisfies this set of criteria.

III. The C&P examiner was not able to give you a AXIS I diagnosis of PTSD because you did not meet the complete criteria as listed in the DSM-IV. You missed it by one avoidance symptom. You were given a diagnosis of Depression, Not Otherwise Specified instead. The examiner did state that your depression was at least as likely as not related to your combat experience in Desert Storm.

IV. This issue will be denied because you do not have a diagnosis of PTSD.

V. You can avert this denial by searching your medical records for a diagnosis of PTSD from either a licensed clinical psychologist, or a board certified psychiatrist. Multiple diagnoses in your records would be even better.

VI. Even if you have the evidence I listed in V., you may still be denied based on those doctors not having access to your C-file and SMR's. I would suggest requesting a copy of your C-file from the VARO. This will help in two ways.

A. It will slow your claim down, and help you to gather and submit new evidence prior to the claim reaching the rating board. This will help you to avoid a lengthy appeals process.

B. You will be able to get a Independent Medical Opinion from a psychiatrist, and the doctor can state that he reviewed your complete C-file and SMR's, which would put his opinion on par with the C&P examiner's.

VII. If you are able to get a IMO that states your entire C-file and SMR's were reviewed, and provides a diagnosis of PTSD, you would get a 30% rating at best, based on this C&P. If you are able to get a IMO, push for a new C&P exam.

Issue 4, Skin Condition

I. You first reported this problem in 2008, 16 years after leaving the military.

II. The symptoms you presented with do not rise to a ratable level.

III. This issue will be denied because there is no evidence of direct or secondary service connection.

IV. A appeal of this issue would be fruitless, due to the lack of continuity.

V. You could attempt to get a Independent Medical Opinion for this condition, but I think you would have a hard time getting a doctor to tie the current condition with your military service. If you were able to find a doctor to make the nexus, this would most likely only be rated at 0%.

Overall, I do not think that you got the shaft by any of these doctors. These are not "bad" C&P's. They did thorough exams and listed the evidence as you presented it. We have to remember that these docs are not there to be our friends, nor listen to our long list of complaints. They are there to gather the information that the VARO has requested and to follow the guidelines on the C&P exam sheets.

If there is lies in the exams, please tell us what they are so we can get to work on turning that part around.

[john999]

A rating for service connected depression is just as strong as for PTSD. All the junk about your childhood and teenage years is a quest for a personality disorder diagnosis. I would get a private medical opinion to verify the service connected mental conditions. You need to show the private doctor your SMR's.

[Quint7]

Tankerjoe,had you been seeking help for this before asking for comp?

I started getting help last Feb. and was advised by my social worker that late March or early April to put in for comp. By then I had already been diagnosed as having PTSD and the C&P was simply to confirm via interview, pictures, etc (the hardest part) and the 2nd C&P to go through the officail questions.

Did you bring/ present any evidence to the 1st examiner? I didn't read the C&P's but will in a minute. The writeup I got from the "stressor" examiner (the 1st one) was the one that mattered as the Doc doing the 2nd said he had reviewed it and didn't want to get into any of that, only to ask his list of questions as I had done the hard part already.

When a VA doc writes that you have PTSD and came in voluntarilly to get treatment and a social worker says that you have been coming to them for the same, there is no denying that you have it and since you have a C.A.R. the stressor is not in question. Like I said, I have some documents if you were with Ripper, including a timeline that mentions a tank in one of the lanes hitting a mine and disabling it. I also have some documents from C Co, 3rd Tanks about how we in 1/7-3rd tanks were taking fire from 2nd Tanks (2nd MarDiv) because they didn't know we had M60's instead of M1's.

Lemme know if I can help you out.

Jason