Lemuel, Whodat, GBArmy and anyone else!

[Kitkat]

Sorry I crashed the other post. I thought I would start a fresh one here. I picked success stories because in 2005 I found the help I needed to understand everything to put in my claim and got 100% P&T. No I had no idea that I was eligible for more. I’m at a point that I have an Home Aid 4 days a week and my son the rest. My ex-husband that shares a bank account with me has been making sure everything is paid and managed because I don’t have any understanding of time. In the back of a car sitting in park we were hit by a truck going 55+ and smashed enough that I was cut out of the car after being overlooked at first. My entire body has muscular, nerve and joint damage. My head suffers from everything. TBI, Mental, ears, sinus infections, jaw misalignment, TMJ, teeth ground down from nigh terrors, vertigo, low vision and on/off hearing changes. I don’t remember much and the stuff I do might be from learning about it and it becoming part of the story thousands of times and feeling like I remember parts. I thought I remembered before the accident but after my son helping me straighten paperwork and put it  chronologically in order I was once again trying to pull my thoughts together so it would make sense. I have proactively gotten tests every few years or so trying to see if anything shows but it all comes back normal. I was 19 when it happened. At some point I met and married my first husband but I have no memory of it at all. I became pregnant and stopped all the pills they had been shoveling at me for 8 months. Real life had taken a wrong turn when I was checked out. My husband threw away my shoes in front of me, I asked him why? He looked at me and said he didn’t and I must be having one of my crazy moments. Then blamed me for the shoes. Several more incidents like that followed over the next week or two. I then walked in on him snorting crystal meth with a friend of his. He flushed it and swore it was a one time thing. I was pregnant, young, confused and scared. I found him doing it again not 5 hours later. I called his father who was a Master Chief and told him. He said I was confused and there was no way that could be. After that things got worse. He no longer cared if I saw him and he worked at the Base hospital. I had met him there I guess and saw his name in my medical records starting about 2 months after my accident. He had everyone thinking I was getting worse with my pregnancy in connection to my head injury. So my last few months active duty I was a bit crazy and missed a lot of what was going on with my PEB and medical discharge. Until about to months ago, almost 30 years later I had not idea I was discharged for Post Concussive Syndrome with skull fractures and lacerations to my face. My TBI residuals are listed as an Adjustment Disorder with them all listed under that. Post Concussive Migraines, TBI, and muscular injuries throughout my entire body. I thought I was discharged for my back injury and just connected by my medical records for everything else rated with the VA. In 1998 I was given 30% for depression. I live in a very rural area and our out patient VA clinic didn’t have mental health until around 2009. I have scattered records for the late 90s, then have documentation for my health care from 2000 until 2006 with my local Dr. Over that period of time I was sick with various illnesses every few months and exhausted. He ran tests for everything and I was always positive for some viral infection. Around my 30th birthday I thought I had gotten bitten by a spider that night. I was horrible! I stopped by his office before work, I had shingles. He had talked me into taking a Federal job years before because he explained how the retirement if I became disabled was worth taking a pay cut. He had given me till I was forty. That day he showed me how I was getting sick more often and my body wasn’t fighting things off. I didn’t want to stop working and he gave me until I was 35 until I had no choice. I made it to 33.  I got sick during a business trip to San Diego and never got better. I was treated for bronchitis, strept throat and sinus infections. I kept going to work until one day my boss said I needed to go home, I hadn’t been myself for a few weeks. My memory loss issues had started to show and I had no concentration on top of being really sick. At home I just got worse. My Dr ran tests on everything. Then my EBV Ab and Ab neuclarantibody test came back over 2600 and over 1600 for the second. He told me I had to retire or my body was going to keep getting sick until it killed me. So I retired, put in for VA increase and got 90% P&T, then was given SSDI after my disability retirement that was approved in 1 month and 2 days. Getting sick with no answers for months killed my marriage to my second husband. I thought maybe it was in my head because I was so tired. Lemuel- that’s why finding out I was so sick before my accident has made me wonder if it is connected to why my TBI recovery was so bad and if it has been the root to my chronic viruses. Looking at the medical records with my son we found sinus infections, bronchitis and URI’s every few weeks to 2 months. Then the pattern continues with the medical records I have after the military. I’m not in my prime and fall regularly because my limbs aren’t under my full control. My cognitive and mental health left the building year ago. I’m retired so I just have to deal with it privately which isn’t as bad as it could be. My claims in the past 2 years is trying to get the proper disabilities connected so I will get the right medical care in 10 years when I don’t have enough of myself left to make sure I’m medically taken care of. I don’t want my son to be my care taker so I’m fighting now while I still have good moments so he isn’t left with me as a burden. So I have no clue how everything has changed and I’m here again to try and pull things together and navigate the VA system again.

 

so that’s my tale condensed a bit. I back to try and learn from everyone once again.

[GBArmy]

I repeat, contact someone like Dr. Bash

[broncovet]

I agree with GB Army.  The Maryland Board of physician contact information is here:

https://www.mbp.state.md.us/contact.aspx

So, before you base your decisions on rumors, go to the source. 

This said, I dont have an opinion as to whether an IMO will help you or not, because I have not read your file, and dont know if your claim already has the evidence needed to suceed or not.  But, evidence wins claims, and appealing without good evidence is not likely to be productive.  

 

[Stayfocus]

33 minutes ago, broncovet said:

I agree with GB Army.  The Maryland Board of physician contact information is here:

https://www.mbp.state.md.us/contact.aspx

So, before you base your decisions on rumors, go to the source. 

This said, I dont have an opinion as to whether an IMO will help you or not, because I have not read your file, and dont know if your claim already has the evidence needed to suceed or not.  But, evidence wins claims, and appealing without good evidence is not likely to be productive.  

 

I’m in total agreement with my colleagues.

The more “Objective” evidence the better.

[broncovet]

To add:  Being on the list of the Maryland board, above, is not a conviction, but an investigation.  Instead, you need to check the following list, too:

https://www.mbp.state.md.us/terminations.aspx

There is a big difference between an accusation, and a conviction.  In America, a person is innocent until proven guilty.  Apparently the Maryland Board lists "accused", and you have to check the termination list also, to determine if these accusations were valid, or were they unfounded.  

Dr. Bash's name appears on the termination list, meaning that, after an investigation, he was found innocent of the charges.  

[Kitkat]

I think I got lost in this conversation. I’m not sure what’s going on.