ptsd Cpap Machine

[bojack]

According to myhealthva blue button, it says I have sleep apnea and I have been b using cpap machine for 3 months now given by VA Hospital. I submitted claim for sleep apena, do I have chance of winning this claim?

Currently 70% ptsd right now.

Thank you

[ArNG11]

I have to agree with this. You need to show a timeline of when symptoms started showing up with Inservice documentation of the illness. Even with the buddy statement you are going to need a medical nexus to relate it to service along with contemporary records that attribute it to service. I've had a daisy of a time trying to get mine connected and I have plenty of private medical records that prove when I started showing signs and that I require a cpap. The VA still denied. An IME/IMO will help you immensely to get it connected, but it is a hard fight even with that. Also keep in mind that the VA will try to avoid giving a link or nexus to sleep apnea being related to your SW Asia tour. According to the regs even with showing signs of sleep apnea as an undiagnosed illness before 2016, they still deny. It's a difficult fight. I assure you. I'm still in my fight and have been unsuccessful. JMO

[bojack]

Thanks everyone, right now they have me 0% for my tbi.... I just completed 6 c&p exams for it. I am really hoping for 40% on tbi after taken bullet twice and 4x unconscious while I was in iraq.

I honestly think I am going to win this sleep apena battle as well.

[john999]

You should worry more about treating the apnea. If your oxygen levels drop too low at night you won't be around to collect SC. Do you have PTSD claim? Were your ever treated for or diagnosed with a sleep problem in the service? How long have you been out of the service? Are you obese? Perhaps if you get decent ratings for the TBI you can win the apnea claims. I have severe/profound apnea. I have been out of the Army for many years. I don't know where it all started, but I know where it ended. If I was shooting for 100% the apnea unless it was dx'ed in service would be the last place I would start.

John

[bojack]

70% ptsd, got out service bqck in 2008.. so far I lost and gain over 40lbs eating disorder yearly. . Sometimes I would eat alot and sometimes I wont eat at all....

[john999]

If you are unable to work for TDIU. Getting 100% one disability at a time will take you a decade. I am at 90% and have 7 different disabilities. You never get there.

[TiredCoastie]

These guys are dead on, Bojack. Without a nexus from your SMRs, you've got a terrible uphill battle. Your other option is to try to make OSA secondary to TBI, and I don't know a thing about whether or not that's possible. Either way, you've got some work to do to connect the dots between OSA and something that occurred or started while you were on active duty that was hopefully documented in an official record somewhere.

Meanwhile, gotta get on the machine and use it. I'm grateful for my CPAP. Thanks to using it and getting an upgrade more recently, I'm not so tired-a-Coastie as I once was.

Using my hearing loss as an example, just because you have it and the VA treats you for it doesn't mean you can prove it happened on active duty. I'm SC for tinnitis but not hearing loss. Yet the VA is paying for my hearing aids thanks to being above 50% overall. Go figure. But that's the VA for you. The main job of the RO is to deny your claim so that you don't take up more of that limited compensation pot.

My guess is that OSA is such a big ticket item at 50% to start with then potential secondaries that VA is very reluctant to grant it. I was fortunate. My wife made me to go to sick call after I woke up in the middle of the night gasping for breath. I was diagnosed at a Navy Hospital with sufficient proof in my SMR. When it came time to file upon discharge, it was no sweat proving I had it. But it took my wife getting after me to do something about it while I was on active duty.

We really ought to do a better job getting vets to be screened for OSA while on active duty if it seems like they have any sort of symptom. The services aren't going to do it or recommend it, and the VA certainly isn't going to recommend it, so we're going to have to get the word out.