tdiu Lawyer For Dro Review

[abean]

My husband has a claim in for schizophrenia. We have PLENTY of medical records to document, our fight has been w/ service connection. We have a DAV guy, but I'm not impressed w/ him cause he hasn't even looked at claim. The DRO appeal has been pending for over a year now (Nashville) He was issued SSDI several years ago for same dx with no fight. I went ahead and filed a TDIU claim just to cover my bases...

I've been working/researching this claim myself since DAV is worthless. I try my best to keep hubby as stress free as possible. I have a full-time job and 3 teenagers, so needless to say, I've not been able to dedicate a lot of time to the appeal as I would like to cause his c-file is HUGE!

I'm seriously thinking of handing it over to a lawyer. It's getting a bit stressful for me. Good idea, or no?

[abean]

Yeah, I knew the sc would be the hard part since it took so long for him to get help, and even then it was done by force.

The letter for the dropped claim was for his previous claim of mycoplasma infection, joint pain, miagrane, fatigue, etc. associated with his time in the Gulf. He had a nexus letter for all of this, but was denied and was in process of appealing. The letter he sent the VA was before his dx of schizophrenia. It was very scattered, and paranoid and he apologized for any financial and political hardships he might have caused our country. The letter was dated 12/30/05. He started the house fire 1/6/06 believing the place was bugged. When he was in the VA hospital after the fire, a claim for schizophrenia was started for him by someone. I was unaware of this until we filed a claim for schizophrenia in July 2010 after my husband had been stable, and compliant w/ meds for some time and we no longer had a fear of a relapse.

[carlie]

The letter for the dropped claim was for his previous claim of mycoplasma infection, joint pain, miagrane, fatigue, etc. associated with his time in the Gulf. He had a nexus letter for all of this, but was denied and was in process of appealing.

Are the issues above, active claims at this time ?

Does the veteran want to continue a pursuit of SC for the issues listed above ?

If yes, please post the exact reason/s for denial, from the rating decision.

I would probably start this as a new topic, if the veteran has interest in pursuing

these any further.

[abean]

He still has the rash (just noticed I forgot to mention that one) from time to time, and he still has everything else but the headaches. He's not had one of those in years. He has smrs for all of the above as well as nexus letter from outside doctor who had treated him for many years after service. I'm not sure he still wants to pursue any of it because of his breakdown before while appealing it. He was granted 0% for a scar on his nose, but everything else was denied.

[john999]

As Carlie says the nexus will be the thing. If you can go over or supply the lawyer will all records both SMR's and personnel records there may be something in their that indicates he was breaking down before he was discharged.

[abean]

We've got to request his military file, but I know he had a few write ups for behavior (not respecting authority & wrecking a humvee are two that i can remember)so maybe that'll help.

I did speak to him about refiling the old claims since his knee has been giving him fits. He seems up for it, and we do have plenty of smrs for those.

[abean]

Oh, and another thing I forgot to mention. He has a family history of schizophrenia (dad), does this help or hurt?