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Am I On The Right Track?

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Hello all. I am a 12 year army veteran investgator who started having problem in 11th year of army. Left army in May 1992 with an OTH. the army and the VA held hearings on my discharge and VA concluded my time was all HOnorable. THe DRB after a full hearing in front of a board of Officers upgraded to full Honorable and RE Code of 1 and discharge authority "Secretarial Authority". Have been seeing private doctor for depression since leaving army. I am being treated by VA Hospital for PTSD and they confirm the diagnosis. Dr. there told me I should file a claim. I did and am waiting. I included photos of the murder crime scenes I attended as precip stressors, as well as autopsies which I was required by my job to attend. I included some of the photos of crime scenes where parents had killed thier children which were the toughest for me, letter showing last salary and release from employement due to excessive time off due to meds, etc; provided names of deceased, letter from my wife, and provided all medical reocrds from private physicians including psychiatrist which has diagnosed me with major depression. When he saw me in 1992, he made a comment of the symtpoms appearing as PTSD but diagnosed with Major Depression. The Dr. at VA says clearly PTSD, both in psychiatry and primary care. I am on several meds per day, included all pharmacy records. I was recently told in a letter I should know something within 60 days. I do not work and essentially do not leave the house. I dont like to be around people and dont answer door. At one point for almost a year, I slept with a 9mm under pillow out of fear. I can tell you that the VA hospital here in Virginia has been very helpful to me and has taken great care of me. I was concerned that I would not be taken seriously but they took me as soon as I applied for help and have done quite a bit of counseling including the new EMDR. Can anyone tell me from thier experience if I am on the right track here? Am I sending the right stuff? Am I doing the right thing? Also do I need to tell the VA if I receive some type of inheritance? I am not destitute but have not worked in two years afer losing a 100k a year job due to the depression. Thank you for your help.

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Hi Berta, I printed and read the decision, and perhaps because I have been involved with the law all my life I understand everyones frustrations. This may not come accross the right way, but this is a lawyer issue. If the Veteran had an attorney or a better understanding of evidence and evidentiary procedure, he might have more of an understanding of the evidence needed and would not have needed to go this far. I do not doubt that with all the evidence I have submitted, I will be declined given what I read here. So, I am preparing my case as we go along and ready for the day.....

I felt the frustrations myself when I would take cases to prosecutors and they would tell me its not enough. I mean here I was a professionally trained criminal investigator with addtional training at the FBI Academy and FLETC in Georgia. I know how to put a prosecutable case together and some young just out of law school government lawyer is going to tell me I dont have a case. SOmetimes I had to break down so that even my ten year old could understand it.

In court, the term where there is smoke there is fire doesnt always equal justice. I even had one murder of a soldier that took me two and half years of work flying all over the country working it; find the primary defendant in california with an extensive state and federal criminal history as he was now a civilian; obtained a CONFESSION from the co-conspirator along with the prime suspects wife telling us he admitted to the murder and the US Attorney looked me in the eye and said, "son this here is Texas. The victim was sleeping with another man's wife, that just might be looked upon as justifiable homicide" and then declined to prosecute. I received an ARCOM for this case, but for what? I didnt obtain justice for anyone. The only thing I do know is that the subject is out there and he has to be thinking that one day the long arm is going to stop him for good.

On my ETS physical, the physicians checked off depression or excessive worry, frequent trouble sleeping, frequent or severe headache, dizziness, and fainting spells, eye troible, sinusitis, pain in chest, pressure or palpitation in chest. It talks about nasal problems with the left nasal completely blocked. My claims are for PTSD, Sinusitis, Migraines and Hypertension. Five surgeries to fix the damage to my nose post service with frequent nosebleeds, and treatment for Depression and PTSD post service. Records of hospital admissions for migraines about thrree times a year, the rest I dealt with pain medication and such. The hypertension started when I had surgery on my right foot to remove a cyst. Surgery was great, but at 21 I shouldnt have HBP. The HBP is not documented on my ETS physical. However it has become worse over the years.

So now they called me at home yesterday and told me to expect a package in the mail about attending a C&P exam in Alexandria only for the PTDS. I assume the claim is moving along. I dont know how long it takes from the C& P exam to get to the next step but we will see where this takes us.

In reading the opinion, the PTSD seems to me a no brainer. I believe I received a proper VCAA since it asked me to provide all medical recods; records of medications, evidence of stressors. I included an affadavit from another individual who worked these cases with me who is not on disablity.

I now have to wait and see what happens. But thanks for your input!!!

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I do feel you have very good evidence-

someone asked- maybe you?

Here is a link to all blank VA C & Ps -the PTSD one has three parts and is near the bottom:

http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/Benefits/exams/index.htm

shows you what to expect.

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Hi Oneshot:

Thank you for your input. I wore civilian clothes all the time when I was in the army. Had to buy a uniform when outprocessing, but I mainly dress business casual so thats what I will wear while at the C&P.

I have been treated for depression since 1993 just after leaving service, was diagnosed with PTSD by the VA with formal intake. It was the VA doctors who advised me to submit for compensation. My wife will be taking me to the appointment. I am currently in VA treatment for PTSD, elevated cholesterol, HBP. Lots of meds but I finally came off of Effexor and Wellbutrin. In its place they put the one drug called the cadillac of drugs for Depression and PTSD, Mertazapine. I slept well first week. But now it will make me drowsy but I cant fall asleep on my own. We are trying to mix the drugs I am on to find the right combination to allow me to sleep. The one significant advantage of the Mirtazapine is that it gives good dreams along with the bad dreams I have had. The problem is the dreams feel tremendously real to me, and no from a distance as before. Kind of like the movie Scrooge, where you're in it but your not.

I take Mirtazapine, Altenol, Benicar HZT, Klonopin, Lipitor, Trazedome, Tramadol, and Ultram, plus a one a day vitamin.

Again thanks, and thanks to you Berta for the reference to the exams.

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hi all:

Received a letter from the VA the other day which had some errors in it but told me my case was on its way for a C&P. this was after phone call from the doctors office to schedule the appointment. I have the PTSD C&P scheduled for next week. Called VA to make sure there was nothing else I needed to do and to confirm information in the letter was in error, the VA phone contact gentelmen said, and I quote, "your claim is proceeding so quickly and throughly that its almost scary". He further said, "nothing works around here this well". COmforting thoughts. The letter they sent indicated that I had not sent them anything and they needed evidence. But when I called they acknowledged receipt of all four packages (containing nearly five hundred pages of documents.) I was told after the doctors visit he has less than 30 days to get the information back to him. From there I was told it goes to the rating board unless something significant jumps out and needs to be investigated as a result of the doctors visit. About six weeks later is when I should have some answer. Dont know how this tracks with your experiences but I was shocked to hear the phone service guy tell me what he did. It didnt fill me with a whole lot of confidence.

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  • In Memoriam

Jerry --

Anticipate that VA is going to challenge those photographs on the basis that they don’t show you were there and did not get them from a buddy who was. Also anticipate that, unless you had an infantry MOS there, VA will send the file to the military historians to attempt to verify these incidents. So be sure to have your ducks in a row.

Alex

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