rpowell01 Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Its been a long, long road, well since January 2010 whenever I first started having all the upper bilateral radiculopathy pain in my arms, December 11, 2010 whenever I joined Hadit, then on June 18 (I think that was the day) when all the lower bilateral radiculopathy started, to currently today. Its been a long tough mountain I have been climbing and at times it feels like there is no end in sight. Some days are better than others but lately its just been that bad. Whenever I say bad, my life is good, family great, finances great, its just all the pain, all the depression that I've been going through. I've begged many times for the VA to do something, some type of surgery on both of my cervical and lumbar spine but nothing, the surgeon keeps denying me. Back in March 2014 I was granted SSDI retro back to April 2012 the day I went out of work. Not even two weeks later I received a packet from the VA granting me TDIU. Since then I've had both legs and both arms granted serviced connection along with a couple of other things which put me up at 90%. I still had two contentions left, bladder and bowel incontinence. The VA knew it has been diagnosed by Dr. Bash, a VA MD and a VA Surgeon. The only thing that stopped the Regional Office from really approving the bowel incontinence was me getting a colonoscopy completed just to rule out anything else. Too be honest, I've been proned and poked and I have had enough of it and missed that procedure and decided I will take my chances at BVA. All this went on back in 2015. Last month I received my SOC for the bladder and bowel issues and requested a delay so I can get the colonoscopy completed outside of the VA, as I quit going to the VA back in March of this year. Since they do not want to do surgery on my neck or lumbar spine then they are not going to treat me any longer as I felt I was being badly treated. Whenever I sent that Form back I request the RO to complete my request for Permanent and Total Disability that they actually put under the rug back in I think June of 2015 or 2016 ( I cannot remember). I had the C&P Exam but they really never answered the P&T issue nor sent me a packet, nothing. Today I get on ebenefits and what do I see? A commissary letter showing: "This is to certify "my name" is an honorably discharged veteran of the Army and is entitled to disability compensation at the 100 percent rate due to service-connected disability(ies). This total disability is considered permanent. You are not scheduled for future examinations." So I am done!!!! You hear me? I am done!!! I want to thank JBasser, JDorle and ALL OF YOU, the WHOLE HADIT community for helping me these past 7 years. You don't know what this means to my family, as my daughter was crying because I told her the Permanent and Total Disability was for them, not me. Its always been about them since I realized I could not ever go back to work back in April 2012. I know this is hard for people to say but I want to thank that person, whoever you are the St Pete Regional Office, for doing your job and doing it correctly, doing it per the CFRs and what the medical evidence shows you. Palma114 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3dneck Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 The fights never over buddy. SMC time if you wish to pursue it. 100% ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpowell01 Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 You are correct R3dneck and with all the pain I am suffering with down in my lumbosacral joints I may go ahead tomorrow and setup the colonoscopy. Trust me if it wasn't for the pain killers I take which is 15mgs of Oxycodone 5x a day and 30mgs of Morphine SR twice a day I would have to wear a diaper and me being 49 and stubborn I just cannot do that. This is how bad it is, July 6 I go outside to help my son mow the yard, I don't have a big yard so I mowed the front side with my self propelled mower. Just because of doing that I ended up at the Emergency Room on Saturday July 8 because I could not walk, severe pain in my thighs (all the way around) and pain in my calves. To be honest it was the worse pain I have ever felt in my entire life!!!! I was given a Morphine shot (which was worthless IMHO) but what helped was the steroid shot. Since then I have been living with severe left calf pain. My Pain Management PA was thinking "CLOT". I told her no its my nerves so she wants me to get the ultrasound done. I know my body, been through this before but not this severe. This is how I know its from my sacral joints. This evening I had my wife massage my left buttocks (cheeks). Just with her touching my butt cheeks I was screaming in pain. So I told her to use her elbow right next to my butt crack and man I almost passed-out because of the pain. Its the worse burning pain ever there is. I know it no clot but its the nerve. My family, no my dad we don't have heart issues but I do know people can get leg clots because of spine issues due to lack of exercise. So I will get it setup to be checked out next week. Anyway I appreciate your comments and I will keep fighting and fighting since I feel a substantial portion of my spine issues could have been resolved with surgery but that VA Surgeon refused to grant me surgery I am going to make them pay because what they did is now cause severe nerve damage. I cannot even poop without pain shooting down my legs, thats how bad it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest L Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 rpowell101 - I received TDIU 12/2016 - I decided it was time to live my life, in answer to your question. I am done also..... I too, thank the RO at Houston who finally read my file.... actually called and spoke with me like a "person". Congratulations, prayers for pain & healing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R3dneck Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 I hope you get some relief soon. I myself am going through something similar so I can attest to the pain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpowell01 Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 (edited) R3dneck you were correct "The fight is never over"....Why? Because for sometime now I have been problems swallowing liquids and foods. I told my VA primary doctor about this and his reply was "This would be caused by the brain"...I told him I didn't think this is the case and of course the guy didn't do anything!!! Yesterday I had a new Cervical MRI, upright MRI at that because its been found with my case that upright MRIs shows everything different than the types of MRIs where a person lays down. Its unbelievable the difference upright MRIs show and these MDs are not being honest with people about MRIs. Gravity is a HUGE, HUGE problem for our spines and whenever you lay down Radiologist will not see the true problems that radiologist would see if you were sitting or standing in an upright MRI. Gravity and weight causes the spine to collapse and its proven that it can be 1/2 up to 1 inch. So with that said I brought the MRI CD/DVD home and behold the very first thing I seen what C6-C7 actually pinching my Esophagus!!! No wonder I have been choking and in pain whenever I swallow!!! I was looking in the regs but cannot find exactly what claim I would file this under. I do know that if a diagnosis is not under the regs they have to properly align it up to the closest diagnosis. So the diagnosis is called Dysphagia. From this website: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1144952-clinical it reads that "Rarely, dysphagia or airway dysfunction has been reported secondary to cervical spondylosis." Well from what I've been reading its not that rare because a lot of people get this same exact issue at the same exact level, C6-C7...So I am asking to see if anybody can help me find exactly what diagnosis do I file a claim under because this is a serious problem for me. EDIT: I want to add something. Originally the VA rated my legs and arms at only 10% each. Whenever I confronted them with the Permanent and Total Disability issue that I was going to bring up at my BVA hearing and why the St Pete RO actually in fact tried to hide it and actually refused to decide on even though all the evidence showed that my conditions are Permanent and Total Disability, they finally approved the P&T. Good!!! But as I was talking to JBasser yesterday over the phone I realized they increased both my legs and arms from 10% each to 20% each. So I was hoping that would put me over the 100% mark but a no-go, it only put me at 91%. So the St Pete RO increased my arms and legs to 20% each and then gave me P&T. The way the VA rates people is actually very unfair because the more contentions you have the harder it gets to get 100%. Think about this for example, I have a friend who was rated 100% just for PTSD alone. That is his only contention and he gets 100% while I have 7-8 contentions that I am only rated at 90% TDIU with P&T. So, the way the VA rates people is a scam and unfair, big time and it really needs to be fixed. Somebody who has more problems with their body should be rated higher than somebody who only has one problem. You ever heard of this saying, its not he one big thing that hurts people but all the little things that hurts them. This saying is true and should be for VA Ratings. O' well maybe they will get it right one day. Edited July 27, 2017 by rpowell01 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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