Lower Back And Neck Problems

[kris]

First of all thank you to this board. I ask some questions before and I feel they were probley pretty stupid questions by some of my responses. I will try to listen better.

First of all I am at 50% for Depression and Panic attacks.

When I was in the military I was seen quite abit for lower back pain. I had never had back pain before the military. After about a year and a half of military service the Doctors finally took Xrays not a MRI and here is the xray report.

LUMBAR SPINE: The superior endplates of L1 2 and 3 have depressions consistent with Schmorl's nodes. This is the result of old juvenile epiphysitis. In the frontal view there is a slight scoliosis toward the right. L1 2 and 3 appear to be slight diminished on their left side and again I wonder as to the relationship of the previous juvenile epiphysititis. This does not appear to be acute. The remaining vertebral bodies are of normal heights as are the intervertebral spaces.

CONCLUSION: Chronic abnormalities of L1 2 and 3 have been described probably on the basis of juvenile epiphysitis.

And crossed out with a line is except schmorl's nodes upper lumbar area.

I have had 3 back surg since I have been out of the military and not in one MRI report does it say I had Juvenile epiphysitis.

I do not see in my SMRs where I ever went ito the doctors for a injury, I just kept going to see the doctors for LBP when I was in the service. And sometimes was put on light duty or no duty for 3 or 4 days here and there.

Also I hurt my neck and head while in service with a pretty good fall. I am unable to obtain employment because of my neck right now because it is affecting both my arms, neck and shoulders. I am devastated (sp) to say the least with no income except my SC income.

I am not sure if I am able to file a claim for either one of these conditions.

I hope I explained myself right.

Thank you for your help and advise. Kris

[Guest terrysturgis]

kris, you said " I have no income except my SC income". I assume the SC means Service Connected (50%). Point being if you can't work you should file for Social Security Disability ASAP. I negelected to file for it till after I got 100% P&T. My mistake. Take care. Terry Sturgis

[kris]

Terry, I have already been out of work for 2 months. How do I file for SSD? Do I just go down to the office and bring a Doctor excuse. The VA just told me yesterday they are scheduling me with a nuero surg Doc. And the VA all though the care is good they are very slow. It took two months to get an MRI. I can not use my arms for anything right now.

Thank you Kris

[Berta]

Kris- I am not Terry but I understand that ALLSUP on line can quickly assess a SSA claim and then -for a fee they can help with it-

But it appears that you might not even need their help-you could start the application process on line at

http://www.ssa.gov/ a wealth of info there as to SSA for disabilties.

The critera is different than VA-who is always looking for the nexus factor-

SSA considers all of your disabilities whether SC or not-

"I can not use my arms for anything right now." if this limits your hands -that is factor they have to consider and if this is a lasting disability.

A friend on mine, a former medical transcriber applied for SSA due to neck and back problems that affect her hands and she can hardly use PC anymore and sure not for the job she used to do-the SSA doctor spent more time on her wrists and hands than he did on examining her back and neck-

but I explained to her that knowing she had worked on a PC he had to determine how extensive her other problems had damaged her hands-lots of nerve damage from a damaged disk or something-

The SSA has a legal criteria just like the VA does in the Schedule of Ratings.

They will send you a copy of it for your specific disabilities-at least they used to do that- and this info might even be at their web site-or you could request by email.

[kris]

Sixthscents or any other back experts;

These are 2 sites I have found pretaining to Disqualification codes for Juvenile epiphysitis. I am not sure if my xray report would fall under these codes.

Site 1 is DODMERB (This is the military medical examination review board) Look for code DD227.50

Site 2 is Joing the military- Military.com

F. Juvenile Epiphysitis

I see what happens on this board. You cannot help but start researching.

Thank you for all the tips

[Dean]

File your claim and submit your file. You stated that you hurt your back in the military. I fought mine and it took me a few years of not giving up before I won. Same thing as you. I never had anything but an exray and it did not show up anything. The doctor only put in that I had a pulled muscle. I faught it on the grounds that they never did a follow up with an MRI or CAT scan. It was what I stated that won it for me. I asked them in a letter how they could deny my claim if they did not have any proof that nothing was wrong with my back at the time. I guess they figured out that they could not prove me wrong and the benefit of the doubt rule went into my favor. You on the other hand have an ex-ray showing something wrong with you. Even if they try to say that it was pre-existing, they have to admit that they took you into the military and also kept you in after the fact that they found something wrong with you. That would fall under the case of aggravated disease that they military aggravated after they found it and kept you on active duty. Read this that I just found yesterday. It will help your case. If I had this when I filed the first time, I do not think mine would have taken so long to win.

You can find this and other things here. There is not much but what is there really helps a lot of cases.

http://www.veteranslaw.com/Law%20Update.htm

. VAOPCGPREC 3-2003 (This opinion discusses whether a claimant is required to show that the disease or injury increased in severity during service before the presumption of aggravation applies. 38 U.S.C. § 1111 provides that a veteran will be presumed in sound condition if his entrance examination does not note any relevant defects, diseases or conditions. The statute further provides that this presumption may be rebutted by clear and unmistakable evidence of both 1) that the condition existed prior to service, and 2) that it was not aggravated by service. However, 38 C.F.R. § 3.306(:P imposes an additional requirement on the claimant in order to receive the presumption in cases of aggravation. § 3.306(B) requires the claimant to show that the pre-existing condition increased in severity during service. The General Counsel opinion determines that this part of the regulation is invalid, as it is inconsistent with 38 U.S.C. § 1111.)

Practice Note

: VAOPCGPREC 3-2003 is a new General Counsel opinion, of which many of the regional offices may not be aware. Therefore, be on the look out for claims which have been denied on the basis that there was no evidence of

increased disability during service

. This showing is no longer required to obtain the favorable presumption.

[sixthscents]

Kris.........

READ THIS.. you need to file your SSA claim ASAP. They base your pay on a set formula, and if you wait any great length of time to file your disability pay can be DRASTICALLY lower. File, it can get denied, thats normal so dont stress it, then file the appeal and get an attorney. You have what looks to me to be a fine case. By the way thank you for the info, I will certainly look it up.

You can file your claim online easily at www.ssa.gov, but you still have to go to your local office... Try to schedule this for a Friday afternoon, thats the least crowded time. I helped file a claim once on Christmas eve... the office was dead, and we had like 4 comp people working the claim....

Edited January 26, 2007 by sixthscents