ptsd 6 Wek In-House Treatment Or 12 Weekly Individual Sesssions

[mrs rockman (widow of vet)]

I had an appointment with the mental health lady at my local va out patient clinic to do a PTSD evaluation. I had already had one session of about 2 hours and she wanted me to come back for the eval. She could not figure out whay I have not applied for PTSD before- since it had been 38 years since leaving Vietnam. I went in on 10-04-10 & I guess it was sort of an eval. She asked me if I needed any more sessions. I told her that I needed someone to talk to besides my wife and some co-workers. She then said that she wanted me to go to a 6 week in house thing at my local VA hospital or come to her office for 12 weeks for an hour each. Then she said that she wants me to come back in to see her in 1-3 weeks, but scratched the 1 off, since I was going to be out of town. I have an appointment on this Friday to do the rest of the eval, I think and talk about filing a claim.

Does anyone have any insight on this?

Since all of this VA claim "stuff", I constantly have nightmares and flashbacks. My wife has learned more in the past 3 weeks about Nam than she has in 26 years. All this is not helping at work. I really never forgotten any of the things, but just kind of put it aside.

Any help will be appreciated.

[Berta]

"I really never forgotten any of the things, but just kind of put it aside."

That is common to PTSD.The vet center group I worked with called it 'putting stuff in a mental drawer' to pull put once in a while or that sort of appeared all on it's own when something triggered it.

By all means file the PTSD claim and consider the inhouse program.

If you become unemployed file for TDIU and SSA benefits.

The new PTSD regs are in our PTSD forum and they should help you with your claim.

Do you foresee any problem at all in verifyng your stressors?

It is always a good idea to give them any stressor that could easil;y be confirmed.

If you received the CAR, CIB or PH, and this is on your DD 214 they will usually concede stressor 99% of the time.

Are you sure your DD 214 is correct?

[john999]

Can you afford to spend 6 weeks in a in-patient program? It would be good for your claim. What you need for your claim is a DX of PTSD from the VA. It might be easier to go to see her one hour a week. I don't know your situation.

[mrs rockman (widow of vet)]

"I really never forgotten any of the things, but just kind of put it aside."

That is common to PTSD.The vet center group I worked with called it 'putting stuff in a mental drawer' to pull put once in a while or that sort of appeared all on it's own when something triggered it.

By all means file the PTSD claim and consider the inhouse program.

If you become unemployed file for TDIU and SSA benefits.

The new PTSD regs are in our PTSD forum and they should help you with your claim.

Do you foresee any problem at all in verifyng your stressors?

It is always a good idea to give them any stressor that could easil;y be confirmed.

If you received the CAR, CIB or PH, and this is on your DD 214 they will usually concede stressor 99% of the time.

Are you sure your DD 214 is correct?

No, you never forget, you just have to be able to cope with it. It is kinda of like shutting the closet doors, but sometimes the door just pops open without any warning. You then have to get it back in the closet and shut the door.

I did fill out the form 21-0781 on the PTSD stressors. I mentioned 2 incidents, for I remember the approximate date and knew the location of the incident. I did not mention several several others, for I cannot remember the location or dates, but I do remember the names and all of the details concerning it. The form says your dates need to be within a 60 day window and I cannot do that. I will take this with me on Friday to the Mental Health lady at VA. I will keep one copy for myself and the other copy will go in with my PTSD Claim. She did say that she did believe that I did have PTSD. She said that I have dealt with it cognitively, but not emotionally.

At first I was not going to go to the sessions- 6 week or 12 week. I believed that she just wanted to "Milk" my insurance comapny. She did mention on the first visit that I had outside insurance. I do realize now that I need it and will go. It will have to be at the local CBOC, since it is only 20 minutes away and I cannot take off 6 weeks from work.

While in Nam, I did receive The Bronze Star with "V" Device and a Purple Heart.

I also have claims pending with agent orange for:

IHD

Chronic Lung Disease (pulmonary Fibrosis) secondary to IHD

Hypertension secondary to IHD

Parkinsons' Disease

The VA clinic before my current one,the VA doc said that I did have Parkinsons', but we cannot find it in the records and she is long gone. I thought I remembered seeing it and so does my VSO who sent in the claims. I am ging to Neurology on the 25th to see if they can diagnose it. I am also going to go to ROI and get them to print up all records pertaining to that CBOC just so we can look at it again. If they do say it is Parkinson's, I do hope they go by the original claim date of Feb. 2010. If I can find those records from 2007, I will have them to take to the Neurology doctor.

After all of the dust settles, I will be filing for: pulmonary Hypertension secondary to IHD. I do not know if you can file asthma, but just found o ut I had it.

When I had my private cardiologist do the heart cath in Aug. 2010, I sent the results to the pulmonary doctor at the VA and then one copy my VSO sent to claims. I then called the pulmonary doctor after 2 weeks to make sure they got it and they did. The heart C & P nurse tolld me when I had my heart cath to send it to claims and it would help my claim. I did and then the claim was sent back because of new information. I guess to help with rating, I do not know. It could only have helped it.

Sorry this is so long. I hope to work until at least the first of the year. If I get decent va disability, I will use up my leave and go on fmla then will file for SSDI.

Thank you for listening.

[john999]

Rockman

You have enough for a PTSD claim as long as you have the DX since you have the stressors. File for it. The PH is enough and the Brone Star with the V is also enough for the VA to accept your stressor.

[mrs rockman (widow of vet)]

Can you afford to spend 6 weeks in a in-patient program? It would be good for your claim. What you need for your claim is a DX of PTSD from the VA. It might be easier to go to see her one hour a week. I don't know your situation.

No, I cannot take that much time off from work. I will do the 12 week one that is only 20 minutes from home. I hope that the 12 week will be good for my claim also. The VA Mental Health lady said that she did think that it was PTSD. She will be doing more of an eval on Friday and said something about considering doing a claim. If she does diagnose me with PTSD, I do plan on filing. I do want to make sure it does not get mixed up with the agent orange claims that are pending.

With my pulmonary Fibrosis and IHS, I hope to be able to quit work after the first of the year. It just depends on what my agenr orange claims produce.

I do have people at work that I go see on a daily basis and talk out things.

[mrs rockman (widow of vet)]

Rockman

You have enough for a PTSD claim as long as you have the DX since you have the stressors. File for it. The PH is enough and the Brone Star with the V is also enough for the VA to accept your stressor.

Thank you and you have a great evening. I will keep all of you informed.

Once I get past all of the evals and the C & P, I will feel a hundred times better.