I had the PTSD C&P exam today that I've been worrying about for the past couple of weeks. The wife had us on a tight schedule so we made it to the QTC building exactly at the time of the appointment. Needless to say I was a click away from full freak out mode, but I refused to take any medications.
The staff was pleasant, took my paperwork, and the Doctor came out and got me and the wife almost immediately. Super friendly guy, he has a private practice and travels down to my neck of the woods once a week for QTC. I'm so glad he had the "bedside manner" he did, or I would have probably had a nervous breakdown in front of my wife.
The examination was like nothing I expected.
Since this was supposed to be a fully developed claim (initiated the old fashioned way over the phone) the VA obviously didn't have a lot of information to provide him with, but I brought him my 21-0781, the last couple of pages of my Statement in Support of Form (the pages talking about my current conditions), the private tests I had done locally (PAI, MPPI-2,ect) and a couple of other odds and ins.
Walking into his office he said the process had been streamlined recently and that a lot of the pre-military/childhood questions had been phased out. First question was about my childhood, ("Very close-knit family, no problems") second question he asked was I depressed. ("Everyday"), any Anxiety issues ("Through the Roof"), Short Term Memory ("non-existant"), Long Term Memory ("almost as bad") when I told him the dosage of Xanax I get every month from the VA (240 1mg pills a month) I swear his jaw literally dropped.
He asked the wife some pretty specific questions, stating that spouses often catch things a patient might overlook. He actually took the time to sift through my notes, he saw the part where the Cognitive Processing Therapy had made things considerably worse and agreed that it should never be the first method of treatment, that you need to learn how to cope with the symptoms before diving into the problems.
He really didn't proceed how I expected: I expected him to pretty much go down the list on a DBQ. We had some casual talk about the VA in general, life experiences, and such.
Two things blew my mind though:
He told me that he had recieved a formal email via his boss from the VA that he provided more diagnoses for PTSD than any other clinical psychologist employed by QTC in the entire country, and that it needed to be addressed. He asked his boss, "What do you want me to do? Lie?", and of course she said No, and he responded "I just examine them and call them like I see them."
Second, he asked about any substance abuse. I was honest in that I drank like a fish when I was in Mosul, and had recently began self-medicating with alcohol in the evening because of the lack of results from the previous 4 anti-depressents, that I just wanted an hour or two of happiness. He looked me dead in the face and said if yourgoing to self medicate toss the bottles and smoke pot. He said its several times more effective and a fraction as damaging to your health. I was incredulous, me and the wife looked at each other and said if I could find some I would! He said to toss the bottles again and keep your eyes open, this is a military and a college town.
Obviously I have no clue exactly how he wrote things up, I have a positive feeling but we'll just have to see how the RO interprets things. As soon as I can I'm going to try and find out how to get a copy of his exam, the regional office is only 2 hours away.
If your Examiner suggests that might want to take up smoking pot, I can't imagine what he wrote down....
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2E151
I had the PTSD C&P exam today that I've been worrying about for the past couple of weeks. The wife had us on a tight schedule so we made it to the QTC building exactly at the time of the appointment. Needless to say I was a click away from full freak out mode, but I refused to take any medications.
The staff was pleasant, took my paperwork, and the Doctor came out and got me and the wife almost immediately. Super friendly guy, he has a private practice and travels down to my neck of the woods once a week for QTC. I'm so glad he had the "bedside manner" he did, or I would have probably had a nervous breakdown in front of my wife.
The examination was like nothing I expected.
Since this was supposed to be a fully developed claim (initiated the old fashioned way over the phone) the VA obviously didn't have a lot of information to provide him with, but I brought him my 21-0781, the last couple of pages of my Statement in Support of Form (the pages talking about my current conditions), the private tests I had done locally (PAI, MPPI-2,ect) and a couple of other odds and ins.
Walking into his office he said the process had been streamlined recently and that a lot of the pre-military/childhood questions had been phased out. First question was about my childhood, ("Very close-knit family, no problems") second question he asked was I depressed. ("Everyday"), any Anxiety issues ("Through the Roof"), Short Term Memory ("non-existant"), Long Term Memory ("almost as bad") when I told him the dosage of Xanax I get every month from the VA (240 1mg pills a month) I swear his jaw literally dropped.
He asked the wife some pretty specific questions, stating that spouses often catch things a patient might overlook. He actually took the time to sift through my notes, he saw the part where the Cognitive Processing Therapy had made things considerably worse and agreed that it should never be the first method of treatment, that you need to learn how to cope with the symptoms before diving into the problems.
He really didn't proceed how I expected: I expected him to pretty much go down the list on a DBQ. We had some casual talk about the VA in general, life experiences, and such.
Two things blew my mind though:
He told me that he had recieved a formal email via his boss from the VA that he provided more diagnoses for PTSD than any other clinical psychologist employed by QTC in the entire country, and that it needed to be addressed. He asked his boss, "What do you want me to do? Lie?", and of course she said No, and he responded "I just examine them and call them like I see them."
Second, he asked about any substance abuse. I was honest in that I drank like a fish when I was in Mosul, and had recently began self-medicating with alcohol in the evening because of the lack of results from the previous 4 anti-depressents, that I just wanted an hour or two of happiness. He looked me dead in the face and said if your going to self medicate toss the bottles and smoke pot. He said its several times more effective and a fraction as damaging to your health. I was incredulous, me and the wife looked at each other and said if I could find some I would! He said to toss the bottles again and keep your eyes open, this is a military and a college town.
Obviously I have no clue exactly how he wrote things up, I have a positive feeling but we'll just have to see how the RO interprets things. As soon as I can I'm going to try and find out how to get a copy of his exam, the regional office is only 2 hours away.
If your Examiner suggests that might want to take up smoking pot, I can't imagine what he wrote down....
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