63Sierra - New Member Looking For Guidance

[63SIERRA]

Troy I would like your opinion on a claim. I was in an on post car accident while on active duty. The civillian wife hit me in the rear with her car, into the back of my car at a redlight, she had break failure. her husband had did a not so good break job on thier car the day before. I was in alot of pain, and went on sick call. I was diagnosed initially with a fracture pars and spodylolysis and put in a back brace and put on a dead mans profile . I went back in a week, saw another doc, and he said back was broke, but not in accident. He put on the medical record . " old seat belt injury " with a question mark behind it. like he wasnt sure. So ok, I was on active duty for abt a year after that. with frequent visits to sick call with back pain complaints. all documented. So when my tour was up, I filed for several different contentions, with back condition as one of them. The va deny me in 1996 said the back condition know as pars defect, with sponylolisis is a congenital defect, and no related to millitary service. I didnt think to much of it at the time, burt recently started research. I looked thru my active duty medical records, and another doctor diagnosoed my back condition as spondylolysis thesis. I recently went to a chiropractor, and his diagnosis is L-5 spondylolisis thesis. He showed me the xrays and told me my back had been jacked up for a long time, and would take years to get results, and there basically were not alot of good options. He told me what happens is the pars bones, that hold the vertebre in thier proper alignment, can fracture from either blunt force inpact such as car accidents. or if they are weak for whatever reason. Then it lets the vertebre shift forward, out of alignment. Then u start getting nerves pinched an pain, such as I have now, and have been having since the accident while on active duty. So I sent the chiropractic diagnosis to the VA. I also sent a copy of the in service medical record where the doctor diagnosed me with spondylolysid thesis. Which is alot different that just spondylolysis. I had never had, nor complained of any back pain, or problems anytime before the on post car accident. I have had pain and problems with my back ever since the accident, and recieve pain meds from the va for it even now. So my questions are, being I filed for a back condition as a generic term, and the VA assigned the wrong diagnosis, and denied me on that wrong diagnosis,. do I have grounds for a CUE claim. ? if not, should I at least win my current appeal?

2. How can I find out, exactly what evidence the Va had at the time they adjudicated my claim , in other words, how can I find out if they had access to the medical slip where the doctor clearly wrote. " sponylolislis thesis. (I have sent the va a copy with my appeal, so they have it now, but I want to know if they had it then.

Edited September 16, 2013 by 63SIERRA

[free_spirit_etc]

"There was a suggestion of compression fracture at L-3. A bone scan was done, in 12-93 showinf no spondylolisis or fracture, and was said to be within normal limits. The veteran was diagnosed with acute lumbar muscle stain due to the accident. In 12-94 he complained of low back pain following heavy physical activities, and was diagnosed with muscle spasms do to overuse. In 5-95 there was a full range of motion of lumbar spine with all test being normal. (I dont recall them ever checking or xraying my back in 5-95). No seperation examination is on record."

They sure have a tendency to misplace the discharge physicals.

Edited September 17, 2013 by free_spirit_etc

[63SIERRA]

WOW that is some good information, yall keep the ammo belt chain going. and I will keep sending evidence in. I can now see that doctor jargon, is unique, and isnt always as it seems. Back injuries are complicated as well. what you all are helping me see though. is that thru all the mumbo jumbo they are trying to call it, a spade is still a spade. I have an ongoing injury that was either cause d or aggraviated by my millitary service. they must pay. u

[63SIERRA]

"There was a suggestion of compression fracture at L-3. A bone scan was done, in 12-93 showinf no spondylolisis or fracture, and was said to be within normal limits. The veteran was diagnosed with acute lumbar muscle stain due to the accident. In 12-94 he complained of low back pain following heavy physical activities, and was diagnosed with muscle spasms do to overuse. In 5-95 there was a full range of motion of lumbar spine with all test being normal. (I dont recall them ever checking or xraying my back in 5-95). No seperation examination is on record."

They sure have a tendency to misplace the discharge physicals.

I was looking thru my records last night, They had the back part of my examination record, in my C-FILE, but not the front part, which is where it has a check mark in the box for ongoing back pain at my exit physical exam, they copied the part they wanted, and probably threw the other part away.. thats ok,, I will send them another copy of the part that proves back pain ongoing at time of exit from service. I will do that today. Thats 2 years after initial complaint. And still ongoing after I got out.

[63SIERRA]

"The condition identified as pars defect L4 with spondylolysis is considered congenital or developmental defect which is unrelated to millitary service and not subject to service connection."

Did they even get you a C&P for this? It seems like the fact that there are various types of spondylolysis, with only one of them being congenital, they would have to have a doctor say it was congenital before they could deny on this basis.

never had a C P for this.

[63SIERRA]

Most likely, if the car wreck had occurred after you were out of the service, the RO would agree the car wreck caused your back pain.

yes , I thin k if I had a foot amputated, they would say,,, theres no problem... one leg is just a little shorter than the other. ,, congenital defect.

[free_spirit_etc]

"yes , I thin k if I had a foot amputated, they would say,,, theres no problem... one leg is just a little shorter than the other. ,, congenital defect."

LOL

I am learning something that asknod says in his book. That it is better to seek SC on a more general term - like back condition - than it is for a more specific diagnosis like " spondylolisthesis due to car wreck." Granted, you need to have a diagnosis for the condition to be SC, but when you ask for a SC for a specific condition from a specific cause - then they can get you caught up into arguing whether it is one condition, rather than the other, or whether it was caused by this or that - and lose site of the fact that no matter what you call it, and no matter what caused it - my back did not hurt when I went in and it did hurt when I went out.

It is interesting looking at some of my husband's old claims. He said he had joint pain. There was no diagnosis. He said he was constantly tired, There was no diagnosis. He said he had headaches. There was no diagnosis. No diagnosed illness = no SC. When they changed the law to where you could get SC for Desert Storm for undiagnosed illnesses, he reopened his claim. Guess what! They were able to find a diagnoses for each and every thing that bothered him then. That time he was denied because all the illnesses were diagnosed. Geez... But they lost site of the fact that they were conditions he claimed when he retired, that now had diagnoses, so they may have been able to SC some of the conditions that way (except for, of course, that they weren't diagnosed in service).

I am still looking into the idea of whether any of those can be claimed as unadjudicated pending claims, since they said they couldn't be SCed as undiagnosed illnesses (i.e. Desert Storm) without really looking to see if they could otherwise be connected to the military. Gads! As far as his headaches were concerned, the C&P doctor diagnosed them as having two causes, one chronic sinusitis, and the other cervicogenic headache secondary to hypertrophic degenerative osteoarthritis. My husband had frequent sinus infections in the service, and had been diagnosed with chronic sinusitis (with a pathology report), and he had claimed for a cervical strain when he retired, but they said there was no current disability. So the C&P examiner showed my husband had a chronic illness that was diagnosed as chronic while on AD (sinusitis) and that he now had degenerative changes in the cervical area that were to the level they were disabling. But they denied the condition because it was not an undiagnosed illness.

So you always need to look past their reasoning and see if there is another way something can be SCed. (And if you ever need an illness diagnosed, just tell them you want to claim it for Desert Storm as an undiagnosed illness - and they will find a diagnoses real quick!)

I love the line that states "We denied service connection for headaches as due to an undiagnosed illness because the headaches have been clinically diagnosed as headaches."

Classic!

Edited September 17, 2013 by free_spirit_etc