hypertension Rating Claim

[COOL BREEZE]

I finally got my faxed copy of my claim so I thought I would type it up as I don't know how to scan-so I can get some good advice from the members about dealing with this-

They are going to pay my dependency claim-excellant(was requesting additional info-decided at the last minute it was good enough and closed the case)

Now here is the claim.

1. I receive the special K for sexual dysfunction(All effective from 1-27-2010

2. Functional heart murmur and cardiomegaly-30%

We have determined that the following conditions were not related to your military service, so service connection couldn't be granted:

Arterosclerotic vascular disease

nocturia(nighttime urinary frequency)

We have determined that the following service connected conditions haven't changed:

Cervical strain-0%

Bilateral heaing loss-0%

The overall or combined evaluation is 30% effective October 30,2009, it becomes 50% effective January 27,2010(what does that mean)

A couple of major issues which will have to be addressed in an appeal

1. I am service connected for hypertension-I am taking a lot of drugs for this, and a letter from a doctor on base wrote a letter to my job about me having to go the bathroom excessively due to the medicine I am taking-I believe this could be called a nexus letter-A md on Davis Monthan wrote 2 letters saying That I am under treatment for high blood pressure and one of his medications is a water pill which makes him urinate more frequently than would otherwise be the case Due to the medication, he is unable to go more than 60-90 minutes without urinating. He cannot go the longer period normally possible not on this type of medication. Please grant him dispensation to leave his workstation for this necessity. This was not on the comp exam-doctor put urinary frequency at night-4-5 times-I beieve that is rated-30%

2. The big one they really goofed on-the cervical-thats rated at least 30%-flex 0-20 degrees-how did they screw that up-get that confused with the 20% from the back.

3.. Nothing was put in for tinnitis that the audilogy stated there was a current complaint, location-bilateral-and is constant. I never was asked if I had that till the exam-she put down that I had that when I was in active duty-around heavy machinery.

3. Nothing was mentioned about the peripheral neuropathy at all on this decision at all?

4. How could they say that the atherosclerosis is not related to my military-wouldn't this be secondary.

I can see some serious issues here-they obviously made a lot of major mistakes

I would appreciate any input how to resolve this-I know the 1st thing I am going to do is request a complete copy of my file

[RH6]

Is this your SOC or is this the results of your C&P

[Berta]

"How could they say that the atherosclerosis is not related to my military-wouldn't this be secondary."

Boy that jumped out at me right away too-

Yesget copy pof your C file and also your med recs if you don't have them yet.

What VA BS (ooops) I mean what medical rationale did they say as to why they did not service connect the atherosclerosis?

[john999]

If you have very HBP that should support DX of secondary Athero. Does not HBP lead to hardening of arteries? I am not a doctor, but I sure as heck would get outside opinion on this and appeal. How are your kidneys?

[Berta]

BTW-you did good here because ANY award is good!!!! But there is much to work with on appeal.

"The overall or combined evaluation is 30% effective October 30,2009, it becomes 50% effective January 27,2010(what does that mean)"

I don't know what they mean as to the October date-what was your rating prior to that date?

Was that the date of this claim?

When they send the retro (and it pays to check retro against the historic rate table at the VA web site and also to see if they properly included any dependents- they snookered me out of a while year of DC once and it took me over a year to figure that out)

you might want to consider investing in an Independent medical opinion.

Then again maybe they overlooked some critical evidence.

They should have listed all the evidence they considered in the decision and there might well be something missing.

It seems that maybe they made what is called a "staged" rating?

Hard to know-wish we could read the decision.

Congrats Coolbreeze and relax a little on this.I agree that it appears they made some errors here.

[COOL BREEZE]

Is this your SOC or is this the results of your C&P

This was the SOC-thanks