22 Year Old Troubles Finally Diagnosed, What Next.

[James123]

I got out in 91 with an honorable discharge.

Through out my 8 year military service i had issues with my arms and legs going numb and tingling. I have copies of my old military records as well. I filed for upper and lower back issues because what else could it be??! was my thinking.

I initially did my C&P in Madison Wi where they did a full body MRI and found signs of MS.They did scans and spinal taps every 6 months to monitor for changes. In the mean time i was awarded 10% upper and 10% lower back compensations due to the tingling in my extremities. I moved to Philadelphia where miraculously they found no signs of what the VA hospital in Wisconsin was monitoring so the monitoring stopped for ohh 18 years or so. This year after a massive episode where half my body literally lost all feeling, the VA Hospital in Texas did MRI's and seen exactly what the VA hospital in Wisconsin was Plus more.

They have Diagnosed me with MS. My VA Neurologist said you showed documented signs of it in your C&P exams in 91 so it is service connected and that its should raise me to 100% SC.

My question is will i get back pay to 91 at 100% if they award it?

[James123]

I successfully got 30% disability back in 1992 ish after filing in 1991, I had filed for an increase a couple years ago and was granted another 10%.

Now i just been hit with a big time issue that explains my medical history and issues everything all the way back to 87 when i was in the military. The VA recently diagnosed me with MS. They originally saw the signs in my MRI's they took for C&P and documented it back then as suspected MS. Now some 20+ Years later they have come to the conclusion that I do have MS and are starting me on treatments. Mt VA neurologist told me that it is SC and it should raise my disability to 100%.

If it is SC and was originally seen in 91 but not diagnosed conclusively till now (MS is a difficult disease to diagnose) If it is granted as SC will i receive back pay to the original file date or will they consider it a new claim?

[carlie]

James,

Welcome.

I have merged your two topics into one as

they have duplicative information and question/s.

A VBA decision maker has the authority to decide if an issue is

SC'd or not and with what evaluation for percentage level -

not the doctor's.

FWIW - If and when MS is SC'd, I personally do not see any way

for the effective date to retro back to 1991.

JMHO

[Philip Rogers]

If you had signs & symptoms of MS back then you could receive SC from then but it could be at "0%." Anything from then until now would probably be paid as a staged rating, so don't go spending it yet. jmo

pr

[Berta]

“They have Diagnosed me with MS. My VA Neurologist said you showed documented signs of it in your C&P exams in 91 so it is service connected and that its should raise me to 100% SC.”

Carlie is right. It is up to the rater to determine SC and the rating.

MS is a chronic presumptive disease if the criteria here is met:

4. multiple sclerosis developing a 10 percent degree of disability or more within seven years from the date of separation from such service;

   source http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/1112

It is well known in the standard medical community that the documented inservice symptoms you had, as to numbness and tingling is symptomatic of MS,when every other etiology is ruled out.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000737.htm

We have MS vets here and this thread might help you.

“My question is will i get back pay to 91 at 100% if they award it?”

I think you could possibly get a 1991 EED, but only by filing a CUE claim on the diagnostic code they used in 1991, if VA does award for MS under your current claim.

A CUE claim isnt for a wrong diagnosis, however the diagnostic code was wrong too, and diagnostic codes can become a legal error, necessary for CUE.

I am sure you are not the only vet whose MS was not diagnosed for many years. It can be a difficult diagnosis.

I will look at the BVA web site to see if any MS vet,whose SMRs entrties were in fact early manifestations of MS, got a better EED under CUE when they were finally given the correct diagnosis,after the original claim was denied.

The VA did SC the symptoms...did they call it peripheral neuropathy or extremity weakness when they SCed it?

Do you get SSDI and is it solely for the MS?

If so, does VA know you get the SSDI and have you signed and sent to them an authorization form for the SSA records?

[Berta]

Sorry for some repetition here.......I couldnt remove this post to start all over again....

“They have Diagnosed me with MS. My VA Neurologist said you showed documented signs of it in your C&P exams in 91 so it is service connected and that its should raise me to 100% SC.”

Carlie is right. It is up to the rater to determine SC and the rating.

MS is a chronic presumptive disease if the criteria here is met:

4. multiple sclerosis developing a 10 percent degree of disability or more within seven years from the date of separation from such service;

   source http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/1112

It is well known in the standard medical community that the documented inservice symptoms you had, as to numbness and tingling is symptomatic of MS,when every other etiology is ruled out.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000737.htm

We have MS vets here and this thread might help you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“My question is will i get back pay to 91 at 100% if they award it?”

I think you could possibly get a 1991 EED, but only by filing a CUE claim on the diagnostic code they used in 1991, if VA does award for MS under your current claim.

A CUE claim isn't for a wrong diagnosis, however the diagnostic code was wrong too,in your case in 1991 and diagnostic codes can become a legal error, an error necessary for CUE, that has cost the claimant money.

CUES are explained here in our CUE forum.

Decided at CVA , No. 94-688

Joseph R. Beyrle, Sr., Appellant v.
Jesse Brown,

and my favorite Myler V Derwinski COVA No. 90-1098)

Both were CUEs awarded due to wrong diagnostic codes, causing a detriment to the veteran.

Also my SMC CUE award last year was due to part to the VA using the wrong diagnostic codes for my husband's 1151 stroke.

(stroke was due to a misdiagnosis by the VA)

The VA corrected the diagnostic codes, and then awarded the 1151 100% for 6 months, (I cued that too,it is wrong,they forgot 16 more months) and then awarded SMC S and paid for the 100% plus the SMC and sent the cash. The veteran had been dead for 18 years and this was a posthumnous accrued award.

CUEs depend on

1.established medical evidence (whether a misdiagnosed condition or not as my AO IHD claim involved –I keep forgetting the VA awarded that CUE too under Nehmer to me...I filed CUE on no rating or DC whatsoever on his misdiagnosed IHD)

2. and a legal error.

3. Which hindered the veteran or spouse from attaining their rightful comp award.

What VA lingo calls , a manifested altered outcome.

In my opinion, if VA awards for the MS (and they should) you need to dig out the 1991 decision and the rating sheet and we can help if that decision meets the criteria for CUE.

I just spent a lot of time at the BVA site looking for some CUEs granted under wrong diagnostic codes . We do have some here in the CUE forum.

The problem with the CUEs I found is that they were denied because the veteran had question the way the medical evidence was weighed.

That is not a basis for CUE.,

If the medical evidence was in fact imroperly assessed or weighed,leading to the wrong diagnostic code, and not a DC that would give the veteran comp,then the CUE must be filed on the legal error VA made when they used the wrong diagnostic code.

I bet that happens more then we think.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Berta

[James123]

When i say documented signs, i mean its says in my MRI's and spinal taps indicated damage in the brain and spinal cord that could possibility be MS, not just the symptoms. They never gave me a rating on it, cause they don't give you anything if you din't ask for it back then and i had no idea what demyelinating disease of the central nervous system even meant or if i could claim it, That's what they diagnosed me with in 91 during my C&P exams but i never knew to claim it and they did not give it. there was not a lot of help with claims back then. However, I was undergoing every 6 month full body and brain MRI evaluations for it the entire time i lived in Wisconsin as they monitored for changes so they COULD diagnose and start treatment. I was being taken care of so it never crossed my mind to claim it.

Its when i moved to Philadelphia i started to think i should see how to go about claiming it, but Suddenly I was fine... nothing to see here... move along ... The Dr is Wisconsin don't know what they are talking about is the kinda thing I got from the VA hospital, they did not have time for me i guess. took 9 months just to get that appointment too.

Move up to June 2013, My last episode made half my body completely numb on the left side, literally split down the center from the shoulders down. The VA DR here said "You just have knots in your back, have your wife give you a massage. " The Dr even noted that in my medical records ... then when things got worse the dr tried to send me to physical therapy. The therapist was like.. "what am i supposed to do with him." Finally after raising my voice in anger the Dr gave me steroids and set me up for an MRI. then allllllll the new information just poured right on in and an entire medicine cabinet for of new meds, supplements and needles.. The VA scares me some times it really does.

As far as what i claimed , i am not a Dr i claimed best guess, i had numbing and tingling in my arms and legs, i figured had to be upper and lower back, and that they gave. so i don't know if i have a chance at back pay or not but clearly its SC at any rate, well in my eyes anyway.

The plus side is, even though my left arm never fully recovered and i am in pain all the time now, i am still working, its rough at times, i am drained, worn out but i refuse to stop working on the grounds that i need to eat so there you have it.

Here is a couple of snip its from the MRI back then.

june 1993 MRI

*Snipti 1*

The signal abnormality in the corpus callosum is most

consistent with demyelinating process.

*snipit 2*

There is abnormal signal within the spinal cord on the

T2-weighted images;

*snipit 3 1994 MRI's*

Two very nonspecific areas of abnormally increased signal in

the white mater of the left cerebral hemisphere, as described

above. These could relate to vascular injury, old infection, old

injury or a primary demyelinating process

*Snipit 4 Philadelphia MRI*

1. Normal MRI appearance of the brain. 2. Partially visualized

changes of mild paranasal sinus disease. T: 2993\356896\3963

So suddenly i was fine as per Philly... so i really could not file for it then...

Edited November 29, 2013 by James123