I've been out since Jan 03 when I was Med boarded from the AF for my back. I had a tumor removed from my spinal cord l4-l5 in 2001. I had nerve pain in the left side since 1998. After the surgery it helped a little but the pain was still there. Pretty much from the left side of the back at the belt line down to my foot all day spiking and throbbing pain. Insomnia because of the pain and the joy of all the meds I have to take to relieve the pain. Not to mention during the service I had a break down because of all the pain and the constant torment from command NCO's and Officers complaining about my condition thinking I was faking, which was then diagnosed as depression and was in treatment.
I got of of the AF and immediately filed at my VA an thru the years have received the following SC ratings.
70& bi-polar
20% cervical spine,
10% post lumbar laminectomy with tumor resection,
10% for radicular symptoms left lower extremity secondary to status post lumbar laminectomy with tumor resection
0% allergic rhinitis ( can't get them to give me anything even though I suffer an take alergy medicine 365 days a year )
0% residual moles removed on back
So I tried school when I got out as I definitely couldn't do Aircraft Maintenance any longer. I tried for about a year in a half when I started to fail miserably. I took a job that a friend got me as a loss prevention person at a store. Watching store cameras for people stealing. Only problem was that I had a hell of a time staying awake with meds and sitting for long periods was torture but I did it. I was always on the edge of being fired for my lack of performance or my anger. So I knew my time was coming short so I hopped over to another store doing the same thing for about another year. I finally figured something isn't right and went in an saw the Mental health. They figured I was having depression again, but after several months they determined it wasn't depression but bi-polar. Which explained a lot. I worked for Ford for about 8 months doing inspections of vehicle claims an was always on the edge for being angry, or because I was out of work so much for my back or headaches. Seeing that my time was coming short their I found another gig from a friend doing photography business for about a year an a half. By this time my back was hurting more, my right arm was burning on fire which it had while I was in service but they never found anything. My bi-polar was getting worse but I still hung in there. Lots of percocet helped through the days and ever changing bi-poplar medicine. Finally in 2008 I was getting worn down and the economy tanked so they let me go and I haven't had work since.
I never knew about TDIU until shortly after in early 2009 my Mental Health doctor told me to re file my Bi-polar for more as it was at 30% as I had gotten worse in condition. I received a 70% bi-polar rating in Nov 2009. My right arm which had become a burning inferno of pain finally got the diagnosis from a doctor outside the VA because I refused to see the VA doctor again or I was going to throw her out the window if she told me for the 5th time that nothing was wrong with my arm. Come to find out, I had a severe ulnar nerve entrapment in my right arm. I got immediate surgery on it after having this pain for 10 years in December 2009.
That was when I heard about TDIU. So I went to DAV at the clinic and told them I wanted to file for it and for my arm now that I had a surgery and they found what was wrong. So I wait until June 2010 and find out the DAV rep filed for some kind of temporary out of work disability like a workmen's comp for my arm that I just had surgery on. I was PISSED that this jackass screwed up that badly! They denied me saying I hadn't tried voc rehab and that my arm was denied as non-SC. Which I have paperwork for an it is in my records for being sent to a neurologist while I was active duty, but I got med boarded before the nueroligist to see more more than a couple times to figure out what was going on.
Thankfully there was another DAV person out there that knew what they were doing and filed my now denied letter for appeal submission stating that it should have been for TDIU and that my arm was a add-on on claim for disability. Filed in August 2010 they finally got all the stupid job history info in from my previous employers in December 2010. Which I had no idea they were waiting on or I would have gotten in to them sooner. So now here I sit, knowing that it is sitting on the desk of some person at the VA to be combed through with a fine tooth comb. At least that is what they said this person is going to do on a appeal like this is that they go through the entire file top to bottom.
Am I being optimistic that I'll get TDIU? Should I be prepared to get a lawyer? I'm just so tired of fighting this paper war with the VA and the incompetent few physcians that they have at the VA I just don't have much fight left. I left a bunch of stuff out in between the years with filing and doctors. I'm just tired of trying to survive on nothing. Blessed that my wife has stayed with me this long. I'm in my 30's an this is all life amounts to an it is pretty sad state of affairs. No friends left as I've pretty much taken care of annoying them or they don't want to hang with a cripple anymore when they go hiking or boating. If TDIU isn't in the mail soon, I'm not sure what else to do....
These decisions have made a big impact on how VA disability claims are handled, giving veterans more chances to get benefits and clearing up important issues.
Service Connection
Frost v. Shulkin (2017)
This case established that for secondary service connection claims, the primary service-connected disability does not need to be service-connected or diagnosed at the time the secondary condition is incurred 1. This allows veterans to potentially receive secondary service connection for conditions that developed before their primary condition was officially service-connected.
Saunders v. Wilkie (2018)
The Federal Circuit ruled that pain alone, without an accompanying diagnosed condition, can constitute a disability for VA compensation purposes if it results in functional impairment 1. This overturned previous precedent that required an underlying pathology for pain to be considered a disability.
Effective Dates
Martinez v. McDonough (2023)
This case dealt with the denial of an earlier effective date for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) 2. It addressed issues around the validity of appeal withdrawals and the consideration of cognitive impairment in such decisions.
I met with a VSO today at my VA Hospital who was very knowledgeable and very helpful. We decided I should submit a few new claims which we did. He told me that he didn't need copies of my military records that showed my sick call notations related to any of the claims. He said that the VA now has entire military medical record on file and would find the record(s) in their own file. It seemed odd to me as my service dates back to 1981 and spans 34 years through my retirement in 2015. It sure seemed to make more sense for me to give him copies of my military medical record pages that document the injuries as I'd already had them with me. He didn't want my copies. Anyone have any information on this. Much thanks in advance.
Caluza Triangle – Caluza vs Brown defined what is necessary for service connection. See COVA– CALUZA V. BROWN–TOTAL RECALL
This has to be MEDICALLY Documented in your records:
Current Diagnosis. (No diagnosis, no Service Connection.)
In-Service Event or Aggravation.
Nexus (link- cause and effect- connection) or Doctor’s Statement close to: “The Veteran’s (current diagnosis) is at least as likely due to x Event in military service”
VA has gotten away with (mis) interpreting their ambigious, , vague regulations, then enforcing them willy nilly never in Veterans favor.
They justify all this to congress by calling themselves a "pro claimant Veteran friendly organization" who grants the benefit of the doubt to Veterans.
This is not true,
Proof:
About 80-90 percent of Veterans are initially denied by VA, pushing us into a massive backlog of appeals, or worse, sending impoverished Veterans "to the homeless streets" because when they cant work, they can not keep their home. I was one of those Veterans who they denied for a bogus reason: "Its been too long since military service". This is bogus because its not one of the criteria for service connection, but simply made up by VA. And, I was a homeless Vet, albeit a short time, mostly due to the kindness of strangers and friends.
Hadit would not be necessary if, indeed, VA gave Veterans the benefit of the doubt, and processed our claims efficiently and paid us promptly. The VA is broken.
A huge percentage (nearly 100 percent) of Veterans who do get 100 percent, do so only after lengthy appeals. I have answered questions for thousands of Veterans, and can only name ONE person who got their benefits correct on the first Regional Office decision. All of the rest of us pretty much had lengthy frustrating appeals, mostly having to appeal multiple multiple times like I did.
I wish I know how VA gets away with lying to congress about how "VA is a claimant friendly system, where the Veteran is given the benefit of the doubt". Then how come so many Veterans are homeless, and how come 22 Veterans take their life each day? Va likes to blame the Veterans, not their system.
Question
mav2u
I've been out since Jan 03 when I was Med boarded from the AF for my back. I had a tumor removed from my spinal cord l4-l5 in 2001. I had nerve pain in the left side since 1998. After the surgery it helped a little but the pain was still there. Pretty much from the left side of the back at the belt line down to my foot all day spiking and throbbing pain. Insomnia because of the pain and the joy of all the meds I have to take to relieve the pain. Not to mention during the service I had a break down because of all the pain and the constant torment from command NCO's and Officers complaining about my condition thinking I was faking, which was then diagnosed as depression and was in treatment.
I got of of the AF and immediately filed at my VA an thru the years have received the following SC ratings.
70& bi-polar
20% cervical spine,
10% post lumbar laminectomy with tumor resection,
10% for radicular symptoms left lower extremity secondary to status post lumbar laminectomy with tumor resection
0% allergic rhinitis ( can't get them to give me anything even though I suffer an take alergy medicine 365 days a year )
0% residual moles removed on back
So I tried school when I got out as I definitely couldn't do Aircraft Maintenance any longer. I tried for about a year in a half when I started to fail miserably. I took a job that a friend got me as a loss prevention person at a store. Watching store cameras for people stealing. Only problem was that I had a hell of a time staying awake with meds and sitting for long periods was torture but I did it. I was always on the edge of being fired for my lack of performance or my anger. So I knew my time was coming short so I hopped over to another store doing the same thing for about another year. I finally figured something isn't right and went in an saw the Mental health. They figured I was having depression again, but after several months they determined it wasn't depression but bi-polar. Which explained a lot. I worked for Ford for about 8 months doing inspections of vehicle claims an was always on the edge for being angry, or because I was out of work so much for my back or headaches. Seeing that my time was coming short their I found another gig from a friend doing photography business for about a year an a half. By this time my back was hurting more, my right arm was burning on fire which it had while I was in service but they never found anything. My bi-polar was getting worse but I still hung in there. Lots of percocet helped through the days and ever changing bi-poplar medicine. Finally in 2008 I was getting worn down and the economy tanked so they let me go and I haven't had work since.
I never knew about TDIU until shortly after in early 2009 my Mental Health doctor told me to re file my Bi-polar for more as it was at 30% as I had gotten worse in condition. I received a 70% bi-polar rating in Nov 2009. My right arm which had become a burning inferno of pain finally got the diagnosis from a doctor outside the VA because I refused to see the VA doctor again or I was going to throw her out the window if she told me for the 5th time that nothing was wrong with my arm. Come to find out, I had a severe ulnar nerve entrapment in my right arm. I got immediate surgery on it after having this pain for 10 years in December 2009.
That was when I heard about TDIU. So I went to DAV at the clinic and told them I wanted to file for it and for my arm now that I had a surgery and they found what was wrong. So I wait until June 2010 and find out the DAV rep filed for some kind of temporary out of work disability like a workmen's comp for my arm that I just had surgery on. I was PISSED that this jackass screwed up that badly! They denied me saying I hadn't tried voc rehab and that my arm was denied as non-SC. Which I have paperwork for an it is in my records for being sent to a neurologist while I was active duty, but I got med boarded before the nueroligist to see more more than a couple times to figure out what was going on.
Thankfully there was another DAV person out there that knew what they were doing and filed my now denied letter for appeal submission stating that it should have been for TDIU and that my arm was a add-on on claim for disability. Filed in August 2010 they finally got all the stupid job history info in from my previous employers in December 2010. Which I had no idea they were waiting on or I would have gotten in to them sooner. So now here I sit, knowing that it is sitting on the desk of some person at the VA to be combed through with a fine tooth comb. At least that is what they said this person is going to do on a appeal like this is that they go through the entire file top to bottom.
Am I being optimistic that I'll get TDIU? Should I be prepared to get a lawyer? I'm just so tired of fighting this paper war with the VA and the incompetent few physcians that they have at the VA I just don't have much fight left. I left a bunch of stuff out in between the years with filing and doctors. I'm just tired of trying to survive on nothing. Blessed that my wife has stayed with me this long. I'm in my 30's an this is all life amounts to an it is pretty sad state of affairs. No friends left as I've pretty much taken care of annoying them or they don't want to hang with a cripple anymore when they go hiking or boating. If TDIU isn't in the mail soon, I'm not sure what else to do....
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