A Call About A C&p Exam

[Steppenwolf]

A letter was sent to me informing me that a C&P was going to be scheduled. A person calls me to schedule but can't tell me when, what month, what year, nothing except that there will be two and not on the same day. Will it be the same week? month? anything, can you tell me anything? Can i request the C&P where i live now? Yes you can but you need to call the regional office there.

Knowing that Florida told me that my travel board hearing would take 4 years and when i had it transerfered to CT it took 4 months i'm worried about requestion it elesewhere but if it's in CT i will have to say with a friend, motel, or sleep in my car on my property and shower at the Y.

i call her back with-in 24 hours, less actually to tell her i'll probably stay with CT. She doesn't answer the phone and never returns my call. Each day that i call i also place a call to the PA who never calls back. Today i place the same two calls again with the video tape running and the speak on, then call the operator who puts me through to a different PA. She calls the comp dept and tells me that i need to call the regional office to ask that my case be reopened?????? WHAT????? And then to reschedule my C&P. Miraculously i reach my SO who tells me that she is wrong and my case does not have to be reopened just ask for reschude. But the 800 number goes to the state that i'm in and the SO i speak with has no clue abut anything.

Can i request a private C&P?

That no one can tell me anything about how long a C&P will take do i want to risk being delayed another 3 or 4 years?

i also asked my SO why he never suggested pension? By the questions he asked he doesn't know me at all. Wasn't sure when i served, if i had an honorable discharge, if i worked or had assests. The he says: Don't know why I never suggested it sounds like your a perfect canidate.

i sometime get the feeling that everytime i go to one of the people or agencies that are suppose to be helping me that i'm going before a firing squad.

So this will be yet another who day this week that i do nothing but make phone calls or trips to the VA and come back dumber than when i left.

Someone tell me something that makes sense.

[mike/3/8/cav]

Thanks Yog,

Maybe my best bet would be to stick it out here for another year. I'm sure I will have another PTSD exam within the 2 year time zone if I understand the system. When they decided on my sc at 50% last (I think September) they said an exam would be scheduled in the future. And I am still waiting for the exam for Gulf War Registery. I am still new to all this but trying to learn and do the right things. I appreciate everyone who has given me advice here on hadit. I'm learning, it just takes me awile to catch on. I just don't like to learn by making mistakes.

oops, sorry my decision date was september. My PTSD exam was april 2008.

[Steppenwolf]

From the bottom of this post: So for clarity: Case started in FL, transfered to CT, i moved to NC a year ago. Still resident of CT.

It is not easy to explain, yet at least some of it is probably important.

My first application for disability was in FL back in 1970. Where iv'e been from then til now probably does not need full disclosure. What might help is the information that i had dropped out of the VA system from about 1976 to 1991 when i had my own health insurance and stayed away from the VA except to appeal my claim a thousand times.

In 91 i was living in CT. i got chest pains while shoveling snow and was taken to an urgent care center in an ambulance. Found out that the health care program that i was paying $300.00 plus a month for didn't cover any of the costs of that episode. That led me back to the VAMC and reopened my relationship with that part of the VA.

Meanwhile in the winters i went to FL and stayed with my parents from Nov til May and would use if needed the VA in West Palm which was a brand new facility. One of the VSO in the hospital suggested that i switched my home base VA to FL which I did. My disability case was once again opened, denied, appealed, denied etc. i tried different VSO with the same results. They always were optomistic about taking my claim ( i am not sure about this but i think maybe there is so reward associated with taking a case but not winning it )

Finally in 02 or 03 i met the best VSO i ever met. He examined my case and saw immediately what had been wrong. This guy was really on it in about every way possible. He had me get a few letters from doctors, one or two right there in the VA. He's read the letter and red pencil all of the areas he wanted redone. That meant that i had to get the doctors to rewrite their letters. Amazzingly they did. He scripted every move as if it was a story board for a movie. It was brilliant! He had me request a hearing from a DRO. That happened in May of 04 in St Pete. She denied it again. My VSO was spitting mad! He took the decision and red penciled it too. Had me once again go back to the doctors to address her words. He also had me request a travel board hearing. Before i got word about that my SVO disappeared...he was gone a long time and no one could answer why or when he would be back. He had given me his cell phone number which i respected and never used. He answered the phone when i called and said he was burned out...the meat of my case was there and at the hearing someone from DAV would be with me....i was sorry to see him leave and never used that number again.

Word finally came down that i'd have a travel board hearing but their best guess was that it wouldn't be until Oct 08. 4 years!

When i was back in CT i stopped in to see the DAV VSO there. Told him the story. He assured me that if i had my files sent back to CT it wouldn't take 4 years for a hearing. i requested that they be transfered and in 4 months i had a hearing.

That same DAV VSO came to the hearing with me along with a trainee. We all came out of the hearing feeling positive. The VSO guessed that

i'd have a descison in a month or so, i did; a remand. VSO still thought that the facts were there, the judge saw it and admitted it in the room, even apologized for some errors including the comments by the DRO. But soon the excuses started coming in: The person there in CT who reviewed the case had to go one the road to train new people, he was sick, on vaction, was working on it but trying to get more information, every so often i would get something from the VA in CT to my CT address telling me something....my house burned down for instance and the VSO asked the same judge to expidite the case do to hardship. She denied.

My VSO insisted that i do everything possible to keep my home state as CT. i have a car reged there, pay house and car insurance there, taxes, have a phone, address, and voted there in Nov.

For about two years i was camped out on an air mattress in a friends NJ home and went to the VA there in NJ. The DAV VSO there would try to keep me posted on what was going on with my case since i could never get a hold of the CT VSO and the NJ guy would tell me that my case was in FL. i would call the VARO in FL which as you might know is not easy with this brilliantly thought out 800 827 1000 only going to the state you're in and no one either knowing how or admiting that they know how to transfer you there. They would insist that they could do everything from where they are and insist that you give them your claim number etc. Then they would tell you: " Your case is in FL and you'll have to contact them " Isn't that what i called to ask them to do...transfere me to FL. This was and still is a horror show that IMHO results in veterans being blammed for what the VA has created in this FU system that they have.

When i finally figured out a way to call FL with a none 800 number ( not easy to do or find ) i was told that my case and records were not there but in CT. If by chance i manged to get through to my VSO in CT he would admonish me and baby talk me: " How many times do I have to tell you to stop worrying. I do not care what the system says I KNOW where your records are they are here and we will be getting an answer soon".....months go by. Everyone wants to help but they look and tell me that my records are in FL and i tell them no my VSO says they are in CT. The NJ guy tried to call the CT guy a dozen or more times to find out why the system still points to FL but the CT VSO would never return the call of the NJ VSO.

In the summer of 08 i get a letter in CT saying that i have 60 days if i want to add anything new to my case. My CT guy tells me that i do not want to add anything and not to respond. Late fall of 08 I call to see what's going on and once again i'm told that my case is in FL. This time it was. MY CT SVO only returned my call when my congressman in CT and the regional boss of the DAV called him and told him to call me. Of course CT guy was not happy that his boss called him or that the congressman called him. i tell CT guy THIS TIME YOUR WRONG! IF YOU WOULD HAVE CHANGED THAT INFO IN THE SYSTEM THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED! He said he would find out and call me back. He did. He said he felt betrayed by the guy in CT who supposidly was aware of my case and who my service officer was and sent it to FL without checking with him first.

The letter from the congressman had no effect on FL now not wanting to release my files until they reviewed them. THIS IS A VERY SCARRY THOUGHT. Why would or should they want to or have to review them when it was suppose to be CT. It wasn't until Jan 09 that they were sent back and for a while they were missing. No one knew where they were before mysteriously appearing in CT at the end of Jan. Then a letter informing me that a C&P was going to be scheduled came to CT. Then a phone call comes to me this week from someone in comp in CT.

She couldn't tell me dates until she told the system to generate them. She did tell me that there would be two and they would not be on the same day. I asked her if it was possible to have the C&P elsewhere. She said yes. i said let me look into it. By the next day this started to look like it could be trouble so i called her back to make the appointments. She never reutned my call and when i finally got in yesterday i was told that it was "sent back" and that i had to call VARO CT and ask to reopen my claim! OMG NO!!!!

CT SVO said she was wrong that i did not need to ask for my case to be opened just to reschdule the C&P.

Back to 827 1000. Locals wouldn't transfere me. Same old story of giving them C # and them tell me what i told them at the start. Called local inside person, they gave me a DC number, DC number said I needed to talk with CT and that the 800 number should transfere me and if not they were just being an a-hole. i call CT even though the VA is in the same building as the hospital the operator tells me she can't transfere me that i have to use the 800 number. i do that again and the person this time insists that he can schedule my C&P. He takes all the info again and when all is done he tells me that he scheduled it in NC. i was freaking out. "ARE THEY GOING TO TRANSERE MR CASE TO NC???" He said no but what does that mean that he said no.

It should not be a liability to move where you want and not have to explain why. That local VSO don't want to help unless all of your records are transfered to their state is wrong too and not every state behaves this same way.

It's easy to blame me for every mistake but the bottom line here goes back to wanting to get a message out to the prez before he stops listening to the people' this VA system is so screwed up that we lost support amongst each other and we have vets blaming vets for problems that are clearly administrative.

There is only one bad guy in the room and it's not us it's the VA. period.

So for clarity: Case started in FL, transfered to CT, i moved to NC a year ago. Still resident of CT.