Disability related to current disability

[Phil Wilcox]

I have a 30% disability on my left arm. After many years of not using my right arm for almost all acts of lifting and carrying I have herniated three disc’s in my low back. All my pain is on the right side of the low back. In my opinion this was caused by the lack of ability to use my left arm. Can this be used to receive more disability rating?

[GBArmy]

Hi Phil, welcome to Hadit. Sounds like a possibility to me. You can't do this without a nexus letter from a doc that says the s-c disability is directly causing the back problems. Get an IMO/nexus from a specialist with medical rationale that talks to the Medical reasons why it is his/her opinion. Best to have written medical criteria so it isn't "just" an opinion, but backed up by medical criteria. Definately worth going after.

[brokensoldier244th]

If you can get your doctor to agree, yes. Or your medical notes, somewhere need to say something to the effect that they are related. You can pull your VA notes off MyHealthVet, under Blue Button, and download them in PDF for a period of years going back, and then CTRL F search for variations of "arm", "left arm", "Right arm", "low back", "Lumbar", "spine", "back pain",  etc, You get the idea. Read through them and see what they say. Then, when you file your claim, CALL ATTENTION to those notes, either print to PDF those particular pages, or at the least list them on your 526 with dates so that we can find them when we pull them (we have to pull your records anyway, by law, but If I pull 800 pgs or whatever of your records from VAMC from after the last time that it was done, its going to take me a lot longer to find your needle in a haystack than if you just tell me/us where to look, or what dates and WHERE you were treated) 

[Berta]

If a VA doctor or any private doctor you have for this condition can give a good medical rationale why this would be secondary to the 30% disability ,then the claim could succeed.

My neighbor recently got an award  with a 10% service connected back strain granted in 1998, that a VA doctor service connected severe arthric problems in his hip to, as seondary to the 'strain', as he called it.

They upgraded him to 90% SC.

I had been telling him for years to apply for the secondary but he didnt until this past summer and got an award Very Fast.

It all depends on medical evidence.

[pacmanx1]

1 hour ago, Phil Wilcox said:

I have a 30% disability on my left arm. After many years of not using my right arm for almost all acts of lifting and carrying I have herniated three disc’s in my low back. All my pain is on the right side of the low back. In my opinion this was caused by the lack of ability to use my left arm. Can this be used to receive more disability rating?

I agree with the above posts but what most veterans don't consider is that if you have been having chronic pain and issues with your arm and back, and if you have been treated or if you are being treated for any type of depression, you can also file a claim for depression as secondary to your service connected arm issues. You would also need a medical opinion with a good medical rationale but that should not be a problem for your medical providers. You can have your PCP refer you to a mental health clinic for an evaluation. Keep in mind that it is not saying that you are crazy, it just supports your issues of being frustrated and being limited that your arm does not work and do the things you want it to do. That is if you are not already getting service connected for depression.

[john999]

Pacman

 

               I have been preaching about depression due to chronic pain for years.  If you go from being able bodied to being in a wheelchair or being in chronic pain you will probably be depressed.  File for it!  

[pacmanx1]

28 minutes ago, john999 said:

 I have been preaching about depression due to chronic pain for years.  If you go from being able bodied to being in a wheelchair or being in chronic pain you will probably be depressed.  File for it!  

John, I have been preaching filing claims for depression for about two decades. Back in the late 1990, I had a neurosurgeon counsel me about filing a claim for depression due to my fibromyalgia. I have had chronic pain for years, and he informed me that as a person that suffers from chronic pain, that person has to deal with limitations that a normal person would not understand. Living with things your body would no longer do and then things that your body would do that you had no control over could be very frustrating and irritating. So, I filed for and was granted service connection for depression, and I  try to tell everyone if they have chronic pain, they most likely have some form of depression.