Re-evaluation Set For December 1st.. I Need Help Please

[CHARLES]

I was in the military from 1991 to 2004. I received a medical discharge while I was in the military and the military awarded me 10%. However, 3 months later the VA rewarded me 100% disabled and unemployable. How one can award me 10 % and the other 100% is beyond me, but that is a whole other topic… I have been 100 % for the past 2 years. The diagnosis is Major Depressive Disorder, Panic Disorder, and mild Agoraphobia.

They called me back to the VA on December 1st 2006 for a re-evaluation. I guess I am concerned that they will try to take away my benefits or reduce my 100 percent rating. Even a 10 percent reduction is a significant amount of money every month from 100 percent to 90 percent. I have three children so I am concerned.

I have been going to the VA for the past two years on a regular basis I see a psychiatrist and psychologist. They have me on Paxil and Klonipan for medication. I have tried to work two times in the past two years and each time I did not last very long because of my medical condition, and this is noted in my record.. and if I am not mistaken all the most recent notes from both the doctors I see regularly at the VA say that I should not be working yet, I think!! But here are some of the questions I have.

Is it easy for them to reduce me from 100%. Is it my word and the doctor’s word and that’s it?

Will me working two jobs in the past year, although for only a very short period and each of them I quit due to medical reasons that I am diagnosed with by the VA for disability, will this help me or hurt me?

Is their anything I can do to help prepare myself for the visit?

When I go for the re evaluation, will he notify as soon as it is over of his descion or are their others involved higher up , how long till I will know?

After this ruling, do I have to go in every two years or at some time does it become permanent?

[jessejames]

Charles; It sounds like you have everything in order by keeping up with treatments etc, also by showing you have tried to start back to work but could not hold gainful employment. I would make sure the C&P doctor KNOWS all this and I would tell him that it seems to you that with the records and what you have been told by your doctors that you feel the condition is permanent and you will not be able to return to work. It all depends on how the C&P doctor writes his opinion, so I would not overdo it (I think you mentioned this) but I would try to show him how hard it is to exist now without having the stress of working and that you have tried to go back to work with now success. Hope for the best, we are pulling for you!