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    Denied!

    Sorry boys girls - this one is kinda long.

    Five months after being discharged from active duty I went to a VA clinic (1998) because my right leg started to feel numb from the toes up. Their records indicate “possible neuropathy of R leg” and that I was to follow up if it didn’t get better. It got better...

    Fast forward to the summer of 2015 and both of my hands started going numb from the tips of my pinkies up, just like my right leg did. So after several blood tests, MRIs and a lumbar puncture - RRMS. Now it started to make sense why I would almost melt like a snowman every summer and why I was always unexplainabley tired. So I joined this forum and contacted the PVA to file a claim. I dug up my VA record from the 1998 appointment, gather my buddy statements, and had my neurologist write a letter that, after reviewing my history and VA record, it was her opinion I showed signs and symptoms prior to the seven year presumptive period expiring.

    The VA denied my claim this last September based on no direct service connection...and they never cited their own medical record from 1998 in doing so. The PVA filed a notice of clear and unmistakeable error due to their...well...clear and unmistakeable error of not reviewing or considering their own record showing leg numbness five months after discharge. So the VA brought me in for a C&P exam, and the PVA submitted a letter to them explaining the seven year presumptive period with the prior case laws cited. I took this letter in to make sure the physician assistant who was examining me was aware of the difference of a direct service connection and a presumptive service connection.

    The week after my exam my rep from the PVA (retired VA nurse, very knowledgeable) calls and asks if I know why the examining PA hasn’t released the results of her findings. I told her I didn’t, and she said she would find out and get back to me. I waited until after the holidays and called the PVA back to see what she had found out. She apparently resigned shortly after we had last spoken. My case was now turned over to the PVA regional director in Montgomery, AL. He called me right back and read from the computer system that I was being denied and to let him know when I received the letter stating so.

    I received my denial letter a few days ago explaining (sort of) that their C&P physician assistant’s medical opinion trumps that of a neurologist whom specializes in MS and did her fellowship at a VA MS Center of Excellence. (Insert government worker joke punchline here:___________)

    I looks like I have one year to appeal, so it’s not something I have to scramble to do. Now what? This is where I need some advice on how to proceed. Stay with PVA? Go with DAV, VFW or AMVETS? Hire a lawyer, and who? Write my congressman and senators? Marco, somebody - anybody.....help!!!!

    #2
    They did the same thing to me giving more credibility to their doctor than a Board Certified Neurologist and MS Specialist. That's not a mistake the PVA made, it's just the government often messes over veterans.

    What did the PVA suggest?
    Did you already use your notice of disagreement?
    Talk to the PVA about requesting a new C&P exam with an actual neurologist.

    There is also a Facebook group named Veterans with Multiple Sclerosis where you can get additional opinions (over 500 members).

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      #3
      Btw, Did your neurologist fill out dbq?

      Comment


        #4
        I went thru HELL, more than a time or two with the VA on this issue. In 1986, the VA entered in my VA record, "Vet is certain he is seriously ill & that it just isn't showing p in the medical wok-ups". I as sent to the VA shrinks, who determined I was NOT nuts or depressed, just "adamant" something else was wrong. The VA did not even believe their own shrinks.

        I went thru my Navy records, found MS a Sx recognized by NIH as a MS Sx. to clinch my case.

        For MS service connection all you NEED is any documented MS SX while on active duty, even if not formally DX w/MS till decades later. (actually I had more than one)

        GOOD LUCK, Keep up the fight!

        This reply has been a struggle against MSworld's editor.... I Seldom post anymore.

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          #5
          They did the same thing to me

          I don’t know how many times my claim was regected. I was only after a letter from my neurologist stating “more likely than not” and a trip to the Board of Veterans Appeals in Oakland CA that I finally got 100% service connected. I also received 9 years of back pay.
          Rich

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            #6
            Originally posted by richjh101 View Post
            I don’t know how many times my claim was regected. I was only after a letter from my neurologist stating “more likely than not” and a trip to the Board of Veterans Appeals in Oakland CA that I finally got 100% service connected. I also received 9 years of back pay.
            Rich
            Good for you.
            The future depends on what you do today.- Gandhi

            Comment


              #7
              My Kaiser Neurologist in Redwood City CA just typed a letter stating, “More likely than Not.” The fact that he was the head of Neurology sure didn’t hurt. I took this note to my BVA appeal in Oakland CA. She quickly looked through my file and when she saw my letter I was given 100% service connection with 9 years of back pay. My VSO was the PVA.
              Rich

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