lumbosacral S/c For Knee And Seconday Back/hip Issues?

[spearhead91]

I've only just started the VA Claim in the past few weeks. I've learned a lot so far. But the more your read/learn the more questions you have. So I'm reaching out to try and understand the following. I've had multiple injuries to my knee while on active duty and in my SMR/STR which I have my 3 paper copies, 1 in firesafe and, 3 digital storage locations and a USB stick I carry with me. I have done absolutely NO damage to my knee since I left the service. I drive a mouse for a living and a liberal work environment where we can get walk around etc so no sedentary work and I was fortunate enough to be able to do that once I left the service voluntarily and honorably. Gulf War Vet. I would not have been able to do physical manual labor or standing anything for long periods of time if I had too. If one looked at my records while in service they would ask "where are your other records" because it's almost 70% knee issues. My knee story in a nut shell: injury/injury/ACL tear/surgery/injury back to the grind of full time active duy while nursing a messed up knee pain/swelling/lockups continued up until the day I ETSed. I hobbled around the last few years to sick call/ortho/profiles for running my last few years. My impression was they were never ever never going to send me to a MRB or whatever it's called. So I had two choice stay or leave and I didn't want to but I did.

So I submitted for left knee pain and back pain among other issues with VSO Rep.

I had an ortho DR visit and X-ray done for my knee this week and now MRI getting setup(I had an MRI right before I got out says Mild PF arthritis, loose body laterally Possible PFDS?). I haven't even started neck/shoulder issues but listed them also when starting claim with VSO rep.

I have searched these individually and sort of understand them isolated but what is it altogether?

Knee

*Derangement of posterior horn of medial meniscus

*Chondromalacia of patella

*Localized, primary osteoarthritis

*Localized, primary osteoarthritis of the pelvic region and thigh

Back

*Displacement of Lumbar Intervertebral Disc without Myelopathy

*Degeneration of Lumbosacral Intervertebral Disc

*Compression Deformities

*Low Back Pain

*Pain in Limb

I'm trying to wrap my head around all this. And suffering through PAD both legs and had surgery on one already. I feel like I'm truly falling apart. I only be 49 in two months.

Edited July 28, 2015 by spearhead91

[spearhead91]

Thanks Berta for the response and info links. Much appreciated.

Yes the PAD is result of the atherosclerosis I suppose. They had PVD and PAD listed also.

Well I have been outside for a lot of deployments/FTX/training etc. A REFORGER 89 or 90 don't remember exactly but that was so cold and snow and ice on the trees we had to use axes to chop through the treesto get into the tree line to put up GP smalls(tents). CPT didn't want us out in the open. A cold you never forget I guess.

Cholesterol meds: Crestor and fenofibrate last 2 years. Along with lisinpril-htz for HBP. And 1 a day aspirin post bypass surgery.

I have a family history of diabetes and mother passed from diabetes and cerebral vascular accident or something to that affect. I can see in my prior PCP records random high glucose readings but nothing high the past year. And nothing in service for checking of diabetes that I know of. In my copy of SMR/STR I only see one lab with a Trace of bacteria(not sure what that was/is about). My current PCP DR(not VA DR) will not order a lab for checking A1C levels. Even with my prior family history. They said not warranted. Kind of made me upset about that. I suspect I'm pre-diabetes maybe but don't know without the test. So I operate as if I am just in case.

Edited June 27, 2015 by spearhead91

[spearhead91]

SC knee to secondary back issues this is my situation, except the herniated disc part.

http://www.va.gov/vetapp05/files2/0508095.txt

[Berta]

"My current PCP DR(not VA DR) will not order a lab for checking A1C levels."

That is very concerning.

In my dead husband's VA med recs, they put check marks against some high glucose reading as well as his high tryglycerides but never gave him a diabetes diagnosis or any HB1AC tests.

After I won my wrongful death case against them for undiagnosed, untreated heart disease, stroke, and HBP (they misdiagnosed the stroke for 3 weeks but then sent him to Syracuse VAMC for stroke treatment and those VA doctors tried to cover up the malpractice on his heart disease)

my daughter, in service at the time, insisted that she was beginning to think dad had undiagnosed diabetes as well and kept after me to review the med recs again.

I did and filed a claim for DMII due to AO causing death.I couldn't file 1151 again for the same death so I filed for direct SC death

The BVA agreed and awarded.

If VA had done anything right at all in his care,. he would still be here.

I think the fact that they consistently overlooked medical evidence that would have lent to diabetic diagnosis and treatment ,

when he first presented heart disease ( he had a heart attack while on the job at VA and they diagnosed it as a sinus infectiion) would have extended his life.He was only 47 when he died.

I had 3 IMos for my DMII claim and Dr Bash also diagnosed my husband with PAD, under 1151 due to DMII and medically confirmed all of my other lay medical evidence..

An HB1AC test is the best way to confirm or to rule out diabetes.

[spearhead91]

Berta it is quite astonishing that my PCP DR had said this even after I said I had a parent with a known issue with DM and ultimately caused her death. I have one lab slip and saw the same thing that you describe just has slash marks in the readings. I'm not sure why they did that back than and I sure hope they don't continue to do that now. Or was it just that on lab work they were only looking for 1 or 2 things and discard the rest? Why would they do that when they already have the sample?

I'm sorry for your loss Berta. And glad the VA corrected for you and your family but having to have you get all the IMO's etc and putting all the work on you as a Veteran spouse was terrible. The Surviving spouse should be assigned a patient advocate to assist and be the main interface with the VA and take the burden off the spouse. Not a VSO rep or a lawyer but someone from the DOD and not the VA and someone impartial but supportive and caring.

As I think back now I remember a few NCO's that passed within a few years or a decade maybe after serving for a full 20 years. So that would put them in their 40's also. I did not serve a full 20 because of my knee and would have loved to serve my country for 20 or more. I was an exceptional NCO(assigned a position 2 full grades higher because other NCO's did not want to do it and were higher ranking than me) and I have the NCOER's and awards to back that up.

[Berta]

Proving my husband had DMII wasnt too easy...and they had 2 C & Ps from an Endocrinologist against me, but I had 2 IMOs from Dr. Bash and a freeby from a former VA Neuro (it took me many months to find him) and he had an entry someone crossed out in the med recs when he was part of thr treatment team at Syracuse.

I could barely make it out but it said DM and then "conf diag". He remembered my husband ( probably because he also knew they were trying to cover up hos true condition.
The BVA gave his short email statement (that Dr. Bash asked him to put on his Neuro Practice Letterhead) as much weight as the IMOs fom Dr. BAsh because he co oborated Craig's IMOs.

My VARO had refused to read or consider the IMOs from Dr. Bash. A DRO told my vet rep she couldnt read them.I said to him did you get them into the record and he said Yes, but he didnt. The Dro however could read the VA C & P exams.

I used my dead husband's drivers license, and even his dental records, to prove he had DMII.
The sole medication he was given for the stroke was Swish and Swallow which I think is also an over the counter med.

It was major evidence however to prove my DMII case.

I found hints of it in the entire med rec profile,but had not concentrated on that for my FTCA case at all.

One medical entry said DVD.
I stated this was Diabetic Vascular Disease as described within Merck , the same med manual VA used.
The endocrinologist said I misunderstood the acronym, and it stood for "Denies Venereal disease"

BS to that . My husband Never denied he had VD in Vietnam. He was even rated at '0' for it on rating sheets

Also the fact that he had ischemic heart and ischemic brain disease ( confirmed by VA for FTCA case,) showed 2 conditions that can definitely derive from untreated, or poorly controlled diabetes.

The coroner asked me also three times if he had diabetes and was shocked when I said no.he had never been diagnosed with diabetes by the VA..

Oddly enough after I won the DMII claim, I was still in an evidence seeking mode....it was hard to believe that claim was over and I then had to fight to get the retro FTCA offset refund.

The only thing on his autopsy I had not studied well were the heart slides.I studied the heart slide report again and suddenly, a medical word I thought I understood was really a major medical linkage to heart disease directly due to diabetes.

Sometimes we cannot leave a single stone unturned.

[spearhead91]

MRI for knees coming up and Hearing Aide fittings also. So slow steady progress.

Edited July 2, 2015 by spearhead91