VA Board of Appeal Hearing

[Scooter24]

If you are set up with a service organization like PVA or DAV contact them for assistance, my PVA rep said that is what he is there for to help us in any shape or manner he can including getting us the care we need. He is in contact with the Tysabri infusion center nurses on a reg basis and if they tell him someone is having problems as some of you have he jumps right on it for them.

He went to bat for me on my mileage payments, they were paying from zip code to zip code, problem being as I live out in the country a little I am not even in the same county as my post office and actually live 23 miles from it, so I was loosing out on 46 miles, as the zip to zip was 22 miles I actually doubled my payment, he made one call to mileage supervisor and they said no, his next call was to facility director and it was taken care of in about 15 min.

[Sailors Song]

Gomer,

"I have refrained from yelling at any VA docs/staff, but that does not mean I have not felt like it, at times. I try to be as civil as possible so as to not rock the boat etc (not easy). "

I have only yelled at one doctor at the VA and try to be civil as possible. The only reason I yelled at the cardiologist was because she was refusing to fill out the cardiac section of the form for my disability. Without that form filled out I was going to lose $1800 of monthly income.

I actually feel lucky that I have not used my cane on anyone yet. They get me that mad almost every time I have an appointment. The first time I saw my eye doctor at the VA see asked me for my weapon (referring to my cane) and I laughed about it then. But as the VA has gone down hill in care I can now understand why she said that.

[gomer]

Sailor.........

I use a solid acrylic cane. I call (her) Crystal, seems fitting. It fits me, as I consider myself fairly transparent. The material is also what bullet proof glass is made of, so I have also called it my bullet proof cane. While I have not used my cane as a weapon (YET), I have also called it my INVISIBLE weapon.....

So far, no one at the VA has asked me to surrender my WEAPON...........Ha Ha

Gomer Sir Falls-s-lot

[Scooter24]

I've never yelled but rather I inform them that I do know who the dept head is and that I also have the phone number and email address of the facility directer. That has worked quite niecly for me so far.

[alishape]

Did you go to the board yet?

What happened? You went at the end of last month right?

[Sailors Song]

What happened? You went at the end of last month right?

No it is the end of this month. 21st to be exact.

[Sailors Song]

Had the hearing

Had the appeal hearing on the 21st of Sept. I was the second hearing of the day and was freaking out pretty bad by the time I was called.

First off I was surprised that it was a video conference with the judge since they call it a traveling board. I was really expecting to have the judge right in the room with us.

The DAV SO had preped me prior to the hearing on what he was going to ask, but I still managed to have a complete blanking out of my mind at one point so he had to jog my memory during the hearing. I also had to have him repeat a question once as by the time he had finished asking the question I had forgotten what the beginning of the question was.

I was able to get some points into the hearing that I wanted to, but also forgot some others. And I could not tell from looking at the judge any idea of how things were going. In fact at times I was wondering of she was even listening to me. But the SO told me afterwards he thought the hearing went good. But he also said he was surprised the judge didn't ask me many questions.

He also made sure that my MS got into the record in the hearing so that once I get service connection for these issues he can then appeal with my MS as a secondary condition to get service connection for it as well even though I am well past the deadline for service connection as a primary condition. In other words the MS makes the problems of my other condtions worse so it needs to be treated just as if it was a primary condition with service conection.

He also got it in that I am having financial hardships to get the fast track on the decision. Before the hearing he had told me that right now it is taking 3 years to get a decision from the appeal hearings here in TN.

[Sirike]

My Few Words

I suggest you talk to the DAV immediately. This work is what they do for us. I had a friend, a Major going through the board several people told her not to wear makeup. Let them see you as you are so they can get a better indication of your life with MS. I'm also waiting for my board, a very very long wait. Good luck and don't give up. MDE