ptsd 9 Years Later

[chinavet]

I will make a long story short. I am a Vietnam Vet with PTSD and autoimmune issues.

The VA lost my files and dismissed my case many years ago and I opted not to fight them

I applied again 9 years ago when symptoms got worse. I was living in China on pension. I had been on SSI and that ended with my pension.

I had a C & P and the doc saw me for 10 minutes. He said it was a 15% chance it was service connected.My GAF was 60

The VA denied the claim and I appealed. They ordered a travel board hearing. I wrote them to ask if we could schedule it at a different time. They gave me 2 weeks notice to appear. They denied the request and then denied my claim because I did not "desire" to show for my hearing. Nuts.

The BOVA remanded the case.

They scheduled a new travel board hearing and I flew to chicago and they did not have my records. They said they did not expect me to show up. The hearing officer used language from the doctor and said my PTSD was hard to figure out and my current symptoms were probably caused by other more recent stressors. and since I had held highl evel jobs I was probably not disabled--he did not note that i never held a job more than a few weeks.

I wrote angry objections to the finding and BOVA ordered a 2nd C&P

The examiner saw me for an hour and had worked with my case for 7 years. He said he was 100% sure I was disabled because of the Army, My diagnosis was PTSD and severe depression and my GAF was 30.

The regional office developed the case and said it was ready to rate in November of 2010.

A second doctor concurred with the C&P and it was added to evidence.

I asked Senator Kirk to get involved and he sent a letter and asked them to expedite die to financial hardship and sickness. My autoimmune is killing me.

They have not yet looked at the autoimmune issue.I filed that 2 years ago and they said they will have to rate the PTSD first.

The case was assigned to a rating specialist last month on the 21st. He requested clarification of the diagnoses.

He received a positive response about my condition--one that supported my diagnosis on the 14th.

Whew.

So two questions:

How much longer do you think it will be?

What are the odds of a positive rating?

9 years and counting.

Edited November 10, 2011 by chinavet

[tanker2]

china..........buddy letters can speak loudly too..

[chinavet]

who can those come from? a lot of folks who were there for all of this are now dead. I can get some back up from family, friends....

Will that bog them down? The C&P isn't substantial? 30 years of treatment is pretty clear....perfect ratings until the incident and then a total crash....

[chinavet]

DAV said final work done yesterday. No idea what letter will say.

Glad I am stateside for the news.