tinnitus Lijust For Kicks Who Wants To Take A Stab At What My Rating Might Be Hmm!

[DOMINIPINO]

I have a claim in for serveral disabilities. I'm on step 5 ( I think that's preparation for decision). Not taking this serious but I know some of you are really good at this by now so if anyone would like to take a crack at what you think my rating will be I'm interested in hearing it! here is a list of my disabilities that are on ebenefits:

1. Sleep apnea w/CPAP (sleep study on file) (New), Had the CPAP almost 2 years now, did 3 sleep studies to get it.

2. Bilateral heel spurs (New), (Dr.s while I was active duty said they were freakin huge, same with the VA doc)

3. Bilateral ankle instability (New), (related to the heel spurs/achilles tendon and plantar fasciitis)

4. Bilateral knee condition (New), (they click and pop all the time even when moved at rest)

5. Bilateral foot plantar fasciitis (New), (VERY high arches, I have insoles that were made for me before I separated)

6. Bilateral Shin splints w/stress Fx (New), (don't know why this would make the list I thought everyone gets these)

7. Bilateral achilles chronic pain on motion, Haylund deformity (New), (high arches make me step weird causes tendon to not line up properly and slide off those spurs metioned earlier, not cool)

8. Lumbar spine pain on motion, bilateral radiculopathy (New), (this can be chalked up now to sciatica in my opinion unless they found something on the xrays that I never heard about)

9. Bilateral hip condtion (New), (more so the left side of the hip than the right but right where the joint for where the leg connects painful numbing kind of sensation and a squishy/grinding sound)

10. Erectile dysfunction (New), (I know this is 0, moving on)

11. Cervical spine condition, (New), (limited range of motion at certain angles)

12. Bilateral shoulder condition; impingement (New), (to add to this, on initianl appt for VA doc noted both rotator cuffs grind and pop at certain points)

13. Residuals of left hand cyst excision (New), (hurts a bit where they cut it out, right in the crease of the wrist behind the thumb)

14. Right wrist numbness (New), (there's the carpe tunnel, has gotten much worse too, thumb goes numb or i lose control of it lol)

15. GERD (New), (I take 40mg of Nexium once a day, twice as needed as prescribed by doctor if I don't stomach pain is extreamly painful, will literally bowl me over and I'm worthless like i'm getting eaten from inside)

16. Hearing loss (New), (hearing test appt for VA showed my hearing is pretty good so maybe disregard)

17. Tinnitus (New), (ears ring)

18. Deviated septum; left (New), (almost completely blocks up left nostril)

19. Tachycardia pulse (New), (fast irregular heartbeat discovered while doing tests for ED meds)

20. Bilateral eye corneal scars, blephartitis floaters (New),

21. Dermatomycossi, tinea versacolor (New)

also noted during my initial VA appoint the doc took down that I have Carpe Tunnel and Lateral Epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow)

a few of those like the Ed and Tinea i think i've seen a lot of people getting 0% ratings so I didn't factor them in but I used the disability calculator at VV arizona and put in the sleep apena cause its the only one that had a clear rating on the regulations instruction and played with estimates for some of the others, worst case scenario I could come up with was 60% and best case I got 90% I refuse to believe I could get a 100 out of it haha. anyway what you guys think?

Edited June 13, 2012 by DOMINIPINO

[Stretch]

I didn't mean to distress you. The process is actually quicker now, for some, than it was when I started in 2002. I don't want to get negative, but it is a long wait for some of us. Shorter claims with documented Service Records take a while anyway.

The quickest I have heard about is about 3 months and the longest are still out there. Many die waiting in the process and the claim has to be handed off to the Widow.

Proactive, this is getting involved without going completely nuts, is the most important thing. If you are counting on a VSO to get information you will be disappointed. Try to get the records yourself and hope that the records are even there.

Keep a copy of your records for yourself. Sometimes the VA looses things, on a regular basis.

There are many more tips on hadit that will help.

[carlie]

holy crap a decade?! whats the reason for that? are they saying its cause you don't have enough evidence or something? to clarify everyone I'm not COUNTING on this, I'm just going with the flow if I get something I get something but if not no sleep lost here. I'd take all zero ratings if it meant I could get some assistance for some fo the things causing me a lot of pain

Do you need some VA healthcare ?

Just go sign in at eligibility and see - your probably eligible for

at least some health care.

JMHO

[Stretch]

This link if from the NY times. It should explain why the delay. Jim Strickland from watchdog.org makes a few comments in this article:

http://www.nytimes.c...ner=rss&emc=rss

[cooter]

Good read Stretch. The thing is, it's going to take more than just 1 RO to even open the eye's in Congress due to being only one RO (in their eye's) is just an isolated issue that don't effect the other ROs. It'll be nice to see what comes out of this on the next meeting with Congress.

Coot

[DOMINIPINO]

My claims were complex, like this one. It took seven years for me to get one of them connected. Three others followed 2 years later. One of them is still going for 10 years, and it is at the BVA (ALJ) right now after being denied about 20 times.

Ok so I'm confused even though those were put into one claim each is counted separately?

[DOMINIPINO]

I didn't mean to distress you. The process is actually quicker now, for some, than it was when I started in 2002. I don't want to get negative, but it is a long wait for some of us. Shorter claims with documented Service Records take a while anyway.

The quickest I have heard about is about 3 months and the longest are still out there. Many die waiting in the process and the claim has to be handed off to the Widow.

Proactive, this is getting involved without going completely nuts, is the most important thing. If you are counting on a VSO to get information you will be disappointed. Try to get the records yourself and hope that the records are even there.

Keep a copy of your records for yourself. Sometimes the VA looses things, on a regular basis.

There are many more tips on hadit that will help.

so maybe this is a silly question but since they have it on the preparation for decision phase and it says on the site that on that phase they've reached a decision pending approval, wouldn't that mean its waiting for a stamp(I don't really know if there is a stamp) from whoever the big cheese is in that office?

I know the BBD isn't as fast as they said it was in most cases but I only got out in 13FEB2012 so that would make my clam at just over the 4month mark. Seems to be moving along pretty fast, no?

Also, are VA medical records different from the medical records I provided them with for my appointments? I was able to get a copy for them and a personal copy for myself before I was discharged so I always have that one on me...just in case.