Success - Va Does 180 On Reduction

[USMC_VET]

Contacted my rater friend and she checked again after i inquired about the letter. they said the formal "claim" for the hearing has been closed so thats not happening at all. she said what probably happened is that the letter was created, the VSO got it first and then contacted the rater at the VARO i go through and thats what got this started. I do believe i was not being looked after.

Will let you all know when the official letter comes in

[Berta]

"Headache" is a vague term , that could be lumped into a TBI residual ,

but diagnosed Migraines can be rated.


"The Veteran has appealed the denial of a higher rating for migraines. The Veteran's disability has been evaluated under Diagnostic Code 8100, which provides as follows: A 50 percent rating for very frequent completely prostrating and prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability; a 30 percent evaluation for characteristic prostrating attacks occurring on an average once a month over the last several months; a 10 percent for characteristic prostrating attacks averaging one in 2 months over the last several months; and a 0 percent rating with less frequent attacks. 38 C.F.R. § 4.124a, Diagnostic Code 8100."


http://www.va.gov/vetapp12/Files2/1213528.txt

"Will let you all know when the official letter comes in"

Good, they might have committed CUE in the migraine decision.

[USMC_VET]

Berta this is the decision letter from January.

JAN 14 2015 DECISION upload_Redacted.pdf

[USMC_VET]

my issue is with migraines....not a normal headache. i have had headaches and these are not them.

I have been on a medication since right after the decision roughly around the same time. i didnt like it, so they have changed it and now am on a couple new ones. MRI was good, no infarctions or noticeable issues. so they only thing i can think is from a tbi from the IED blast. the level II team at the VA said i did not have one since i had not passed out.

My issues after the IED was sever disorientation for a period of time right after the blast, people were yelling at me and i didnt hear them. i was ina slow motion state watching the dirt lift off my arm form the blast and was just staring at it. i finally came to and pushed through the ambush that had started right after the blast. I somewhat remember going into the platoons area that was right outside where we got hit. I dont remember much after that, by that i mean i forgot the week or so after. people tell me about what happened. i dont remember. I was naive and still pretty young, barely 21 when i got out so went into the va to register right after and they screened anyone from oif/oef who had checked the "i saw combat box". I feel like they did this right off the bat to help lay the foundation for denial of tbi by denying it for everyone there. They said (paraphrase) "Since you didnt pass out and go unconcious you dont have a TBI" so i took that as the truth at the time and did until recently.

[Berta]

TBI does not always result in a loss of consciousness:

"Traumatic Brain Injury Definition
The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs (May
2007), by consensus, have defined traumatic brain injury (TBI) as any traumat­
ically induced structural injury and/or physiological disruption of brain function
as a result of an
external force
that is indicated by new onset or worsening of
at least one of the following clinical signs, immediately following the event:
1.
Any period of loss of or a decreased level of consciousness;
2.
Any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the injury;
3.
Any alteration in mental state at the time of the injury

(e.g., confusion, disorientation, slowed thinking);

4.
Neurological deficits (e.g., weakness, balance disturbance, praxis, pare­
sis/plegia, change in vision, other sensory alterations, aphasia.) that may
or may not be transient

5.
Intracranial lesion.
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/docs/vhi/traumatic-brain-injury-vhi.pdf "

I didnt see anything like this phrase in the redacted decision:

They said (paraphrase) "Since you didnt pass out and go unconcious you dont have a TBI"

and they did SC the migraines but not enough there to determine whether they committed a CUE or not.


Your SMRs and buddy statements could possible support a TBI claim but if the migraines are the only residual, the best thing you can do is see if they missed any evidence at all that would have garnered you a higher migraine rating.

They attributed the migraines to something but redacted decisions do not help us figure out anything VA awarded or denied.

[USMC_VET]

The redacted portion was where the next sections started refarding proposal to reduce my ptsd. what was in the doc was all that was mentioned regarding the headaches