AO UPDATE -our last chance

[Berta]

As all here know, if and when the Secretary adds any new AO presumptives due to the NAM ( formerly IOM) 2014 report it will be the last possible chance to have any other AO conditions added.

Yesterday I got two updates:

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/shulkin-says-he-would-if-he-could-expand-agent-orange-related-health-care-1.518135

http://www.thenewstribune.com/latest-news/article206376404.html

Possible additions still include bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, and Parkinsonian symptoms ( as compared to full flown Parkinson -already a AO presumptive.

However, the VA has stated in the past that hypertension and stroke could be potential AO disabilities too.I guess the Secretary ,in this artcle forgot about the "limited -suggestive" association that the IOM found in it's 2010 Update, not that this limited suggestive category also has applied to hypertension, in the IOM Updates of 2006,2008, and 2010 .

The second article brings up the cost factor found in the Philpott article.

What cost factor?  Vietnam veterans are dying and that also means their spouses and survivors are elderly and dying too!

My position  is that any veteran who has ischemic heart disease, awarded by VA do to AO exposure, and who also has suffered a stroke, ischemic in nature, should be awarded for the stroke , as due to AO.

I am writing to the Secretary to get his full medicale rationale ( since he is a doctor) as to how an ischemic stroke that occurs in a veteran who also has documentd AO IHD, could Not be an obvious AO presumptive.

It would cost a veteran in that case thousands to get an acceptable IMO to prove the CVA is secondary to the IHD, yet it just makes common sense that an ischemic heart would cause an ischemic stroke of the brain.

I am not considering Hemmorhagic stroke as that could have other causes not related tyo IHD.

Has anyone here with any disability that could possibly be related to their AO exposure, and that has been found to have ( per IOM /NAM reports ) a limited but suggestive association to Agent Orange, written to the Secretary to make their case as to why their disability should become an AO Presumptive?

"Limited" and " suggestive evidence"  is why we have most if not all of the AO presumptives we have now, per past IOM and now NAM reports.

If anyone wants Secretary Shulkin's address  ( I always send President Trump a copy of any letter to the Sec, with a brief cover letter)

They are here under a search or I can post those addresses again. Some input and pressure from veterans themselves might get this whole thing moving.

I never saw new presumptives take this long to be considered by the VA. And time is our enemy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Carl the Engineer]

11 hours ago, john999 said:

If a vet has SC heart condition is there any doubt that HBP has some serious interaction with existing heart problems.   I go 60% for AO heart condition and I take meds for HBP.  Which came first I do not know.  How in the world can VA separate out AO effects for vet with heart and blood pressure problems?  Where you have one you usually have the other because factors causing HBP also cause heart disease/heart failure.  How can VA treat or rate vets for AO conditions as if person were living in outer space and all conditions impact each other?

John,

I knew nothing about how the VA works when I made my inital claims.  I had HBP in the service, made claim for it, and was SC'd for it at 0% in 2008.  During a physical in 2004, I had LVH plain as day in a x-ray taken that day (thickining of the heart).  8 years later, while surfing on here and the innerweb, it became obvious that the VA only looks for what you tell them to look for.  I did file for heart disease (with the x-ray evidence from 2004) in 2016 and I did get 30% for LVH secondary to my HBP with the new claim date.

I'm thinking the LVH causes the HBP, but what do I know.

The chicken or the egg??

Hamslice

 

 

[Berta]

Medically it can work both ways----HBP can lead to CAD, and CAD can lead to  HBP.

But all that determines on how soon the HBP and/or the CAD is diagnosed.

And how often the BP readings are taken.

[john999]

I was diagnosed by the VA with high blood at least five years ago and DMII due to AO about ten years ago.  Now my HBP is not SC'ed,  but the DMII is as well as the CAD as secondary to the AO DMII.  I would like the HBP to get SC'ed just for the fact that HBP can lead to stroke, heart failure,  and kidney disease as well.  I just want to make double sure my spouse gets DIC by hook or by crook.  I am going to DMII specialist since the VA only recommends I lose weight and take pills.  Same for the CAD.  The VA is supposed to be the experts on AO related disease.  You must be kidding me.