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Newbie To Forum And Looking For Help

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ssg_rw_brown

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My husband got out of the military in 05. He spent 12 years active duty with a total of 21 eyars with his reserve and guard time. he spen over a year in Iraq in from Feb. 04 to March. 05.

He initially received a rating for a knee injury he recived from and explosion in Iraq but several months later after passing out (I thought he had a stroke!)at our dinner table and being hospitalized for over a week, and numerours testing he was diagnosed with "neurocardiosyncope". Told him nothing he can really do just make sure he eats 3 meals a day , drinks a lot of gatorade, avoid stress, caffeine, and plenty of rest. Then to make a long story short we ended up at the Va and not sure how it happened but he was finally diagnosed with " mild traumatic brain injury". this was kind of a releif because we now had and answer. They did a tilt test there, and sent him to speech class to help with the memory loss.

From my prospective I had noticed a change in him since the day he returned from Iraq...I chalked it up to the war and things he had seen and done...never sleeps, when he does its on the coach because any moves in the bed wake him up, personality change, irritability, forgetfullness, changes in taste, wanting to stay alone or just with me and the kids (antisocial behavior) little subtle things that I knew were different but never occured to me what or that it was a brain injury.

Fast forwarded he received rating for 10 % for the brain injury. So total he gets 10% knee, 10% tintinus, 50% PSD, 10% Mild Tramatic Brain injury.we have put in claims for different things that came up but were denied. Chronic back pain, tried to increase the knee because of the chronic pain but they say it's nothing and he has full range of motion so no increase. Vision problem, he had 20/20 vision his whole life with no problems and now needs glasses which they say is probly from sun exposure (focusing problem and light sensitivity). I have just stumbled across this site and read with interest the new changes with the brain injury. he was rated for the TBI in September of 2008 and when we received that rating I thought it was crazy. He has a combined rating of I think 60 or 70 percent (we get like 1200 per month with 3 kids under 18). Recently we received a letter saying they were decreasing his compensation to 900 because at his last compensation visit they felt he was "improving" (PTSD) which I thought crazy because he's on meds! that's why he seems better! so i talked to a VA guy and he said to send in a letter to say we were appealing it which I got a reply last week that said because it was only a "proposal" they were not accepting it and that now since we hadn't sent in evidence to contradict these claims it was now official and if we wanted to appeal it we coud. I'm so frustrated! I don't feel that we can find any help to wade through these VA paperwork. I really feel like he should be getting more compensation but not sure how to go about it.

We did talk to a VA guy a month ago who felt he should be getting 100% and pushed him to try, and told us the form to submit but yet i'm at a loss what else to do. I feel that there should be someone to help him wade through his medical papers and find out what he needs to send in and what claims he needs to file. So far we have submitted individual claims in the past for the passing out, back pain, vision problems but all got denie....but I kind of feel that maybe it should be compiled because basically I think it all goes back to the brain injury. He passes out for no apparent reason, we never know when it is coming on but i can usually trace it back to heat, stress, pain, didn't eat that day. he passes out and then when he comes around the first time he thinks he is back in Iraq, and needs a medic, he says he has sand in his mouth and needs a drink...then he starts to cry and without going into detail goes through a lot of guilt ...eventually he will pass out again and the 2nd time he comes around he's back in the real world....i worry he will do this driving or somewhere that he will get hurt so I have always felt he should be getting more compensation but just am at a loss on how or what do do to obtain it. He does not do good with people and public situations, to much anxiety and gets very agitated very quickly but the main fear for me is the passing out. I know this is getting very long and there is so much more I would love some input on but don't want to bore everyone but plese could someone give us some advice on what do and how to go about it. Thank you for listening.

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I was asked by someone to post the letters I have received from the VA these are all the letters I have received since my original claim in 2005. Which I don't know what I'm doing (his wife) and he went to all the meetings when he was outprocessing from the miltiary so I'm going on what he does or doesn't tell me on how to do things. Thank you for any advice or comments they are all appreciated.

Nov 28 2005

July 11 2007

April 23 2007

Oct 24 2007

Sept 10 2008

June 16 2008

May 22 2009

Aug 13 2009

Misc VA doc

Wife of

SSG_RW_Brown

SSG Brown and wife,

I'm kind of new to Hadit myself, but it looks like you're already getting some good advice. The only suggestion I have (and you may already be doing this) is to document everything! Keep a journal of conversations with you VSO rep, the VA,and anyone connected with treatment etc. This type organization will help you stay focused and may take some of the stress down from the mound of paper work involved with a VA claim. Definitely a record of dates and time of "passing out episodes" and how long it took each time to get over the episode could prove helpful eventually.

Mrs. Brown, I think it's a blessing for your husband to have you to jump in and seek the help he needs in getting his due benefits. Not all spouses are as willing as you seem to be to get in the fight. I commend you for your diligence and will pray the things will start to come together for you and your husband.

Don't give up!

Blackbird

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It appears from the date of the letter that they time period for you to request a hearing to stop the reduction has passed. You still need to file a NOD if you have not do so at this time.

I am sorry that if you missed the date for requesting a hearing. If is much harder to get something reestablished than it is to have it continued.

Your nod will have to focus/argue against the reasons they gave for the reduction and you will have to have medical evidence to back your arguments.

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I certainly responded to this post days ago-in a lengthy reply that I felt was very helpful - regarding this vet's numerous residuals and his obvious 100% disabling situation.

and wondered why there had been no reply to the board since then-

I will try to find the post I made-

I looked for the original post and apparently it was moved and maybe the reply was lost somehow.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I am just a little bit confused about the complaint that there was no response. Perhaps its more of a case of not knowing how to get around on Hadit Web Board?

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