Please Help-I Need Guidance And Reassurance!

[nicki]

I came across this website as kinda a fluke, but IM SO GLAD I DID! I guess god really does give you what you need at the right time!

My name is Nicki, I spent 11 yrs AD Navy. My husband Wade spent 20 years and was an AD1 (jet mech) from 1983-2004. He retired in 2004. august 2012 he was diagnosed with a rare form of bladder cancer (adenocarcinoma-lipid variant). At that time, our oncologist at University of Colorado said she truly believe it was from exposure to chemicals while in the navy (specifically benzene, but there were all sorts of crap he was exposed to) and advised me to file a VA claim and wrote a letter on our behalf stating no family history, non smoker, probably environmental related, etc. I met with an American Legion rep who started the process.

Since that time, he has undergone chemo, had his bladder, prostate and appendix removed. We went to MD Anderson in Jan 13 where he was diagnosed with plasmacytoid urethral carcinoma. The cancer has spread to the liver, colon, pancreas and adrenal glands.

He has about 9-18 months. He will be 49 years old on 6/13. He was in the best shape of his life.

The doctor is now adamant he was exposed to something in the Navy that is the cause.

He was also stationed at NAS JRB Willow Grove for 4 years, 1996-2000,which is a EPA Superfund Site (you would not believe all the people with cancer from there!).

I have kept the VA and our rep with the most up to date records. I have been getting letters stating they have the claim.

Wade was discharged with a 0% disability rating.

Am I doing this right? What am I missing? Please advise

[Pete53]

Welcome to Hadit and thanks for helping your Veteran.

[nicki]

Thanks everyone!

Hubby had an appointment today. Our physician is open to writing IMO, but is concerned that the IMO needs to be someone other than the treating physician. Is this correct? Obviously she would only be able to advocate for the cancer/chemical exposure claim.

I contacted dr. Bash but have not heard back.

Also found out today hubby has irreversible kidney damage due to chemo. Cancer sucks.

[john999]

I would consult with a lawyer who has done many VA claims. You can't hire them until you are denied and file a NOD, but I bet they could give you some guidance. Also, TestVet here was a chemical vet and he won his clailm. You are getting great advice.

[Testvet]

Yes I was exposed to chemicals in fact the EPA list for Edgewood Arsenal shows 77 toxic substances in the water wells the Army used until 1978 when they were ordered to cap them by the EPA and the Army had to pipe in water from the White Mountains for the base and town of Edgewood as the entire aquifer is contaminated. The War Department started using Camp Edgewood as the nations chemical weapon center in 1917 and they moved it out of the DC area to Edgewood. They are known to have poured waste into pits, buried wooden barrels and metal barrels for decades. The Army denies anyone was harmed by these exposures.

All of my medical issues caused by exposures are service connected as secondary to my SC PTSD, CAD and hypertension. I have been on O2 since June 2011 due to my congestive heart failure I used a lawyer as soon as the VA allowed it beginning in June 2007, that took a lot of the day to day stress of my wife and I, I had been fighting the claim since Dec 2002 they just kept denying anything I said about toxin exposures except one time they stated in one of the denials that I could not prove what toxins I had ingested in the water while I was there. They never addressed what I was intentionally exposed to in these experiments http://www.edgewoodtestvets.org/

I have 2 100% ratings a 60% rating and a 10% rating PTSD, ICD device, CAD and hypertension I am paid at SMC L rate these rating ensure my wife will keep her CHAMPVA and get DIC payments, I am done fighting with them.

File the claims get it started as soon as you get the first denial from the regional office then contact the lawyer you should have located by then to handle the claim, do your research and find a lawyer that you are comfortable with that is VA law approved it is a specialty area of law and not any lawyer will do, if they do not know VA law I don't care how smart they are they can mess up the claim.

this is my BVA results http://www.va.gov/vetapp09/files2/0912815.txt

focus on making your last days together as happy as you can, which I know is hard but at least leave the stress of dealing with the VA to a lawyer, you can still proceed with the claim after he passes and there are benefits that you will be entitled to

I have put my wife thru hell the past 2 years I had a major heart attack in April 2011 that put me on O2 and a wheel chair as my ejection fraction is now 10% I was in ICU for a month between 1 week in Columbia at Lexington Medical and they transferred me to MUSC for a evaluation for a heart transplant that is when they also determined my lungs were shot and I really need a heart and lung package transplant but due to the severity of my problems I am not patient they will put on the transplant list as they don't think I would survive the ordeal, they told my wife to take me home and make my affairs are in order and medicate only they said it was end stage heart failure, 2 years later I am still here, I spent 3 months of the past 6 in ICU units, I have had doctors push me to sign a DNR and I refuse, my wife and I have discussed our options and pulling the plug the day I go into a CHF episode seems idiotic, the last time I went to the ER they tried putting me into hospice and my wife thru a fit and refused she then handed them a copy of my legal papers giving her all my decision making authority. that pissed off that one doctor so I will not be going back to Dorn VA again, we can't trust them. That was in Jan I have been hospitalized 3 times at Lexington since then and the VA pays the bills since it is a SC issue. I see a primary care doc in Augusta.

do what is best for you and your husband the lawyer that did my VA claim came to my ICU room and did the will and documents for my healthcare decisions in my wifes hands then she refused to let my wife pay her for doing it, some of these lawyers are great people. She has since moved but she still practices VA law only and she teaches it also.

Just don't give up and let the VA win keep the appeal going and get everything you are entitled to.