If medication successfully treats your condition, or lessens the severity, how do ratings work?

[Wico1337]

Hello all,

Ever since the desert, I have had weird migraines and extreme pressure/pain in ears about once every month-2 months. I have been to the VA doctor many times for this and they tell me my ears just have wax, or that I have an ear infection. After 2-3 days the issue always goes away. Their water blasting my ears and medications never help with the ear pain. I also get Migraines with the classification of "prostrating" where I am in extreme pain and I have to lay down in darkness. Finally comes the issue of coughing and clearing throat. For the past 8 years, I have been in a constant state of feeling like i have to cough up stuff, but nothing ever comes up. I had lung tests done long ago and my doctor told me that since the test results for breahting/lungs didnt reveal anything, theres nothing she can do and its probably my weight that is causing the issue.

Fast forward 8 years of this happening and my VA doc not caring, I get a new doctor. I tell her my frustration of the coughing and ear issues/headaches. She tells me to start taking Zyrtec and Flonase. After one week, I noticed that my throat issues and coughing are gone. I also no longer have ear pain. I still have slight migraines but they are not nearly as severe. My new doctor also scheduled me for an ENT exam where the ENT specialist called me and asked me of my symptoms and such. I told him that the zyrtec/flonase has fixed all of my issues. He immediately diagnosed me with Allergic Rhinitis. Pretty cool, I hear that thats some sort of presumptive condition. So I filed for that one. 

My question is... Now that Migraines have been improved with the medication, do I not get rated for the prostrating condition of my Migraines? The ear pain has subsided with the meds, so I dont think I would qualify for a VA rating for the ears. But how does a rating work if taking medications for your VA service connected issue reduces the severity of a condition? Would the Rater rate you at your condition with the improvement from meds? Or would they rate you at your condition which forces you to take meds at the severity of not taking the meds?

Does this mean that if you have a condition and take meds, which fully fix your condition, do you get rated at the lowest severity of the condition regardless of the extreme severity before?

[broncovet]

Wico..you have been given some great answers!  I liked the advice which included the CAVC case, (Dustoff), especially.  

    Some Vets have difficulty reading and understanding CAVC cases, and how, or if, it applies to them.  So, once in a while I like to offer an example or summary.  

    In short, if meds control your disorder, you should not be reduced.  However, check the criteria for your disorder(s) and whether or not it mentions "control with meds".  

    I like to explain it like this:

Quote

"Gee, Veteran, thank you for your service.  Sorry you lost your leg with that IED.  However, we see you have been fitted with a prosthesis (wood/metal leg), and you are walking just fine.  So, what are you complaining about, why should we give you additional comp for your lost leg?

If you ever see a decision like this, be sure to appeal it.  It wont stand on appeal.  

     As a real world example, I have hearing loss rated at 20% and also wear hearing aids.  The VA tests my hearing "without hearing aids", not with them.  Yes, the aids do help, but they are never as good as my real ears were before military service, even with  new hearing aids.  Not even close.  

     My hearing aids get clogged with wax and dead skin, the batteries fail, and they dont work as well as the human ear, even when conditions are perfect.  

    The VA hearing loss ratings include speech discrimination.   Speech discrimination means that the brain sometimes losses all or a portion of it ability to interpret.  For example, if you say "spoon", my brain can eventually lose its ability to interpret it to mean that eating utensil we use for cereal.  Its "as if" someone said "spoon" in chinese.  I may hear what they say, but I have no idea what they are talking about, even if I heard it perfectly.  This is called speech discrimination, and, its tested when you get tested for hearing loss for VA.  

      Speech discrimination is often in terms of percentages.  50 percent means you speech discrimination means your brain has lost half of its ability to convert words you hear into something meaningful.  

Edited June 25, 2022 by broncovet

[JustGettingStarted]

Using medication is not supposed to affect your rating, unless the rating for the condition specifically mentions medications and how they affect the rating.  For instance - "skin condition with use of systemic medication, 60%".