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Related to fibromyalgia

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I just recieved my determination for Fibromyalgia. They listed it as a disability, denied SC, but in the notes listed enviromental hazard. What does this mean? I wasn't expecting to be approved, since at the last moment, my primary PCM declined to fill out the Questionaire. Just wondering if anyone had any insight. Out of all the labs they took, the odd one was the Epstein Barr. I am not sure if that is to confirm, rule out FM... IDK. Thanks in advance for any insight!

fibromyalgia Not Service Connected

Environmental Hazard in Gulf War

 
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The crazy one here, first things first, if you have a treating doctor who refuse to assist you or treat you, you need to change doctors.  The most important thing is when you feel the symptoms coming on that is when you need to be seen and make sure that your symptoms get documented. As to your claim, I am still under the understanding that VA is still working on denying veterans claim just to decrease the backlog.  I am not sure how you filed your claim but VA should have processed your claim as directly service related and as gulf war related.  IMHO, there are good doctors,  bad doctors, lazy doctors and non veteran friendly doctors but you will still need a medical opinion that your condition is military related with a good medical rationale and a clear diagnosis.  It really does not matter if you get it from a VA doctor or a civilian doctor.  As I stated above the most important thing you can do is when you hurt go see a doctor VA or not.  A lot of veterans file claims but fail to have the evidence they need to warrant a grant. I am not trying to put you or other veterans down, I am trying to say never go to a C & P exam without a clear diagnosis from a treating doctor.  Most people who suffer from chronic pain/chronic illness also suffer from some type of mental depression, you might want to ask for a referral to a mental health specialist.

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That's not the only condition that the VA tests for to try to deny claims quickly. If you try to file for reflux or IBS, they will probably test you for H. Pylori.

Agree with your write up on Epstein-Barr. It is so prolific that it is near impossible for people to have no antibodies by the time they turn 40. Some never become symptomatic.

With fibromyalgia being a diagnosis of exclusion, they will try to look for every other cause in order to rule out a known cause.

VA docs are not supposed to refuse to fill out DBQs. I can understand them refusing to fill out one if you plop it out and request they fill it out on the spot. A professional approach would have been to refer you to a specialist right away instead of taking the long route. Take another DBQ to your rheumatologist and ask them to fill it out. Look on the bright side. A DBQ filled out by a specialist carries more weigh than one filled out by an Internist.

One more thing. If you are having sleep problems or just being dead tired all the time, ask the rheumatologist about it. My rheumatologist referred me for a sleep study and I learned I had sleep apnea. He said some people with fibro have it. I got a CPAP machine and it helps when I can keep the darn mask on all night.

I did not ask a VA doc to fill out the DBQ because I trust a civilian MD more and do not go to the VA PCM but biannually. I just didn't expect my MD to refuse to fill out the paperwork. I will be much wiser picking out providers from here on out.

Sleep Apnea-(I had a study while on active duty and they refused to give me a cpap- my AHI wasn't high enough and had me have an ENT surgery instead). They never rechecked me while on active duty. SInce I reported that I no longer snore (due to the surgery UPPP) they equated that as my apnea being resolved.   I requested it but they said, while I was in the Warrior Transition Unit that the VA would provide a sleep study when I got out. My fully developed claim which was filed in 2011, wasn't dealt with till late 2014. It hurt me that I didn't have much treatment during those years. Everytime I went to the VA about something, they couldn't do much because during those years I was pregant and/or nursing and that OB/GYN was considered my PCM. But I brought up the stuff to them anyways... I am in the process of appeals to many of the things that I was actually MEB'd with.

I received a sleep study recently. After I knew my private insurance would cover it, I still contacted my VA PCM to see if he would put me in for a sleep study before I went ahead with it via my private insurance. He (the VA doc) refused saying that he didn't think it was a respiratory issue but rather a mental health one. I went ahead with my insurance and when I got the reulsts back my AHI is only 11, but my RHI was 19 (moderate) and my oxygen level was only 81% all night, which is dangerous. My ENT civilian doctor said that just bc you don't snore has no bearing to apnea, which is common sense- and that they should have rechecked after the surgery. I made sure to provide a copy of the results to my VA doc to let him know that it was indeed a respiratory issue, not a mental health one. I knew he was saying that to try to pass my issues off on something I am already rated for. Thats why I prefer non-VA.

I feel much better with the CPAP but am still exhasted, worn out and having the same issues, atleast I now can get oxygen-rich sleep even if I still feel like a train ran over me, daily. I am going to bring up my conditions from the military, and the "new" diagnosis. The thing is the complains related to fibro, I was complaining about while I was still in the military...so I think its just going to be an up hill battle, but one I am willing to fight.

 

 

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The crazy one here, first things first, if you have a treating doctor who refuse to assist you or treat you, you need to change doctors.  The most important thing is when you feel the symptoms coming on that is when you need to be seen and make sure that your symptoms get documented. As to your claim, I am still under the understanding that VA is still working on denying veterans claim just to decrease the backlog.  I am not sure how you filed your claim but VA should have processed your claim as directly service related and as gulf war related.  IMHO, there are good doctors,  bad doctors, lazy doctors and non veteran friendly doctors but you will still need a medical opinion that your condition is military related with a good medical rationale and a clear diagnosis.  It really does not matter if you get it from a VA doctor or a civilian doctor.  As I stated above the most important thing you can do is when you hurt go see a doctor VA or not.  A lot of veterans file claims but fail to have the evidence they need to warrant a grant. I am not trying to put you or other veterans down, I am trying to say never go to a C & P exam without a clear diagnosis from a treating doctor.  Most people who suffer from chronic pain/chronic illness also suffer from some type of mental depression, you might want to ask for a referral to a mental health specialist.

I totally agree with you, and would never take offense to you stating that. With my doctor treating me over a year, I never imagined he wouldn't fill out the papers. I never planned on going to my C&P without doctor documentation. But I was to trusting to my civilian PCM, and even though he was going to fill them out, he refused later. I learned my lesson. I have corrected my course of action and am going to specialists, and plan on getting both an IME and IMO done after I have been treated by specialists, even if the specialists fill out DBQs, too. Next time I am going to have stuff in hand before I file. And I am going through a private VA lawyer local to me.

Ironically the VA is fighting most of what I was medically seperated for, but I have a combined rating for mental health and IBS/Gerd of 60%. 50 for Chronic adjustment mixed anxiety and depressed mood w/ insomnia 50% and IBS/GERD 10%, but the things I have the most documetation from they are fighting.

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It is pretty interesting how folks who have fibro have a number of commonly related issues such as sleep, digestive, and MH problems. Fibro is pretty broad spectrum in its impact.

Unless you have a really good VA doc, you are likely to get a more accurate DBQ to a doc who you trust and has seen you for a while. Not all providers may opine in your favor either because they might say they did not treat you initially.

Sleep apnea is in the throat, not necessarily in the sinus, but it can have an impact on it. If a doc gave you a CPAP, you have SA. Those machines are pricey and insurance companies don't just give them out without medical justification.

I think we all were subject to things like this when we were getting out: "I requested it but they said, while I was in the Warrior Transition Unit that the VA would provide a sleep study when I got out."

Tell your private rheumatologist about the sleep study and bring the results and graphs with you. There's more to those squiggly lines that they can understand than we can. If you haven't yet, it could be grounds for filing a claim for SA w/CPAP, which is a 50% rating by itself.

I think that the VA doc was a jerk by not understanding fibro. A lot of them just think the patient is complaining and it becomes frustrating because they honestly have no idea how to treat it, so they just try to push some pills and get you out the door. A good rheumatologist is your best bet.

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VYNC, I totally agree. I will admit that I know I got lucky, in one of my VA PCA (Primary Care Appointments) years ago my PCP asked a rheumatologist to step in the room and to examine me. He did examine me and then he signed me up to his clinic and began my muscle and nerve treatment.  He later diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia, he also recommended that I quit work.  When I told him that VA denied my claim for Fibromyalgia he wrote directly in my progress report that I definitely had fibromyalgia. I could not believe it.  Ever since that note was put in my VAMC records I have not had a problem with VA.  This is what also pushed my rating up to 100% scheduler.

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It is pretty interesting how folks who have fibro have a number of commonly related issues such as sleep, digestive, and MH problems. Fibro is pretty broad spectrum in its impact.

Unless you have a really good VA doc, you are likely to get a more accurate DBQ to a doc who you trust and has seen you for a while. Not all providers may opine in your favor either because they might say they did not treat you initially.

Sleep apnea is in the throat, not necessarily in the sinus, but it can have an impact on it. If a doc gave you a CPAP, you have SA. Those machines are pricey and insurance companies don't just give them out without medical justification.

I think we all were subject to things like this when we were getting out: "I requested it but they said, while I was in the Warrior Transition Unit that the VA would provide a sleep study when I got out."

Tell your private rheumatologist about the sleep study and bring the results and graphs with you. There's more to those squiggly lines that they can understand than we can. If you haven't yet, it could be grounds for filing a claim for SA w/CPAP, which is a 50% rating by itself.

I think that the VA doc was a jerk by not understanding fibro. A lot of them just think the patient is complaining and it becomes frustrating because they honestly have no idea how to treat it, so they just try to push some pills and get you out the door. A good rheumatologist is your best bet.

 There is a whole group of conditions/symptoms that are related or commonly co-exist with Fibro. If you look at my original claim, I have basically most of them. I was amazed at the overlap, and many of the related symptoms/conditions are also other things that show up in unexplained illnesses of Gulf War. Just compare the lists in these two articles: http://www.cfidsselfhelp.org/library/overlapping-and-related-conditions and http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/medically-unexplained-illness.asp .

Right now regarding to my primary care civilian MD who "doesn't feel comfortable" filling out the Fibro DBQ, I am still going to try and get him to fill out other ones related to things I currently have on appeal. In addition to seeking specialists and eventually asking them also. Beyond that, I will probably seek a IME, even if I have to travel far for it, and make sure the MD is highly qualified and has much more experienced than whoever is reviewing my file at the VA.

While Obstructive Sleep Apnea is obstruction, normally in the throat, it is not always just there. Depending on the size and position of the tounge, basically anything related to airway that can become obstructed....whether it is the nasopharynx, oropharynx, larynopharynx, etc. In my case, when I first had a sleep study done, I presented with significant snoring, and the ENT evaluated me structurally, and based on my deviated septum, snoring, and sinus irritation, she did the UPPP, basically fixing my deviated septum, shrinking my turbinates, removing part of my uvula and soft palate, and tonsilectomy.

This surgery did eliminate snoring, but aside from that nothing changed. My actual obstruction is that my larynopharynx airway is smaller in diameter than it should be I think 3-5mm and it calapses partially while I sleep. I asked if it was possible it would be from structural issues in my cervical spine or what- and he said it is possible that my cervical problems could have redcuced the airway or contributed to other things that might also cause it- there is no way of telling definitively.

In the long explaination to my original claim determination, the only justification for denying SC for sleep apnea is that I have not had another study and that I report not snoring anymore. Hence why I had a sleep study done and am now prescribed and using CPAP. My ENT doc is double board certified, also holding a medical degree in Sleep Apnea related- so he is the one who both physically evaluated my ENT and reviewed and interpreted my Lab sleep study results. He actually also diagnosed me with plms, rhinnitis with atrophy, delayed sleep phase sleeping disorder, in addition to the OSA diagnosis.

What are you referring to "SA"? service aggrevated? vesus SC?

While I was getting out through my MEB, I had alot of documentation. I was complaining about symptoms back then, that are the same symptoms which now are identified as Fibro symptoms.

And I asked the VA doc for sleep study and he denied it saying he thought it wasn't resp but rather MH. My civilian doc is the one that was scared to fill out the FM DBQ. I might not have been clear enough on that.

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