Inspired by the PACT Act, I submitted claims to the VA in September 2024 and received a 50% disability rating as of today. The body of this post will give details of my journey.
2025.01.31 04:58 TripleChains Inspired by the PACT Act, I submitted claims to the VA in September 2024 and received a 50% disability rating as of today. The body of this post will give details of my journey.
Hi,
I read something recently here that says you should give back to this community for any and all help you've received. So I want to do that. I will try to be concise as possible because I often felt overwhelmed with information but my path to the news I received today was rather straight forward.
Preamble
- I signed up for the US Army my senior year of high school late 2001. Went to basic in summer 2002 as a 31R at Fort Benning followed by AIT at Fort Gordon.
- I was then stationed Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Arriving there sometime in January 2003.
- By March 2003, I was on my way to Kuwait to await the upcoming war. Spent a year travelling through Iraq. spending most of my days in Mosul. This experience had its ups and downs, but I think I was numb to most of it.
- I went back to Iraq in SeptembeOctober 2005 for another year tour. Although I was a "fobbit" for most of this, I somehow felt less safe and became more paranoid and had a very hard time. I was convinced bad things might happen, especially since I was due to get out in July 2006 but was stop lossed until the deployment completed. I'm saying this in case others felt these things which led to my discussion later with a psychologist that I spoke to because of my claim you will soon read about.
VA Claim Process
I tried to submit a PTSD claim sometime in 2009. That was quickly denied and I never really thought to fight back on it. I was young and just trying to get things together career wise and never really thought much of it.
Last summer, I heard about the PACT Act and that part of the focus on this was "burn pits" and that symptoms from being exposed to these burn pits were being considered more appropriately. The PACT Act covers people who were deployed to several countries during the ~1990's-2000's and exposed to all kinds of terrible things that were being burned. I very much remembering burning human excrement and also just generally always smelling something that I hope I never smell again in my life. I know I would recognize that smell if it happened to come across me today.
I then looked into what types of conditions might be considered tied to burn pit exposure. I must admit I got a bit lazy here while writing this post as I can't find the article, but I just now asked ChatGPT what those symptoms are, so please caution that there might be errors on this, but here is what those results are:
Respiratory Symptoms
- Chronic cough
- Shortness of breath
- Wheezing or chest tightness
- Asthma or chronic bronchitis
- Lung inflammation or scarring (interstitial lung disease)
- Brain fog or memory issues
- Headaches or migraines
- Dizziness or balance problems
- Sleep disturbances (insomnia, sleep apnea)
- Heart palpitations or irregular heartbeat
- High blood pressure
- Unexplained fatigue or weakness
- Nausea and vomiting
- Irritable bowel-like symptoms (chronic diarrhea or constipation)
- Abdominal pain or bloating
- Severe, persistent fatigue (possible link to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome)
- Frequent infections or weakened immune system
- Unexplained joint and muscle pain
- Respiratory cancers (lung, throat, larynx, etc.)
- Glioblastoma (brain cancer)
- Lymphomas & Leukemia
- Kidney, liver, and gastrointestinal cancers
The next thing I did was go to https://www.va.gov/disability/file-disability-claim-form-21-526ez/start and started my claim process. Not mentioned above in list of symptoms here was that I submitted for "major depressive disorder", which I believe (not 100% sure) is also somewhat tied to the PACT Act/burn pit exposure. I submitted claims for whatever I TRULY believed I have been impacted by in the years following my service. I listed out anything above that I thought might be issues for me, particularly my depressive disorder, chronic fatigue, and gastrointestinal issues. The only evidence I submitted was for some bouts in the hospital I had in 2009 with these stomach issues that I never really got to the bottom of.
****IMPORTANT PART OF MY POST***\*
I submitted that claim on September 29th, 2024. My claim went to stage 3 rather quickly, maybe a week or so later. I waited almost exactly 3 months, here in January 2025, before I randomly received a text message from Optum Serve that they would soon be scheduling an appointment for me. I had no idea this was even going to happen. I then was bombarded with e-mails, texts, and calls saying that an appointment would be scheduled for me. I was able to accept that first appointment, and was told in the messages that the appointment would cover the following:
"DBQ MENTAL DISORDERS EXCEPT PTSD AND EATING DISORDERS DBQ Medical Opinion CPT 96156 Health behavior assessment, or re-assessment CPT 90791 - PSYC DX INTERVIEW XM CPT LHI1150 VA health behavior assessment prolonged time, each additional 15 minutes"
I met with this psychologist on January 21st. Yes, just 9 days ago. I spoke to them for roughly an hour. The call covered everything from early childhood to what I experienced while in the military. I was honest and and made myself vulnerable to what I have experienced in life, and in particular the things I felt and experienced in the military. I assume this is how they tie your personal well being and what impact the military had on that. I had some incidents/episodes while in Iraq 2005-06 and while I cannot say for sure that is why she wrote in my favor for benefits, I think that might have been the tipping point overall.
I did not get any appointments scheduled that had anything to do with the other two issues, which I still have, which is chronic fatigue and gastrointestinal issues. I suppose I might have to independently get evidence of this through a 3rd party and appeal my claim if I chose to do so.
My claim went to step 5 maybe 2 days ago. I thought it would take another 2-4 weeks before I'd get to step 8, and I was in the mindset that I was going to be denied completely again. To my surprise, I received this information today when logging into the VA app:
- Service connection for major depressive disorder, moderate, with
anxious distress is granted with an evaluation of 50 percent
effective September 29, 2024.
- Service connection for chronic fatigue syndrome is denied. Service
connection for chronic fatigue syndrome is denied.
- Service connection for gastrointestinal issues is denied.
That's really it. This post was A LOT longer than I wanted it to be, but I want people to know that you can also submit claims like this without much prior knowledge and still get approved and get the help you deserve for what you have been through. I plan on using this funding to better myself and hopefully get back to the person I was supposed to become before I joined the military.
submitted by TripleChains to VeteransBenefits [link] [comments]
2025.01.31 04:58 Laiba_younas Account creator
I’m looking for someone in the U.S. who can help me set up accounts on different freelancing platforms using their details.
You’ll only need to create the accounts once, and after that, I’ll take care of everything.
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PS: 370 km is roughly 230k miles
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Alternatively, if there are other locations you think we should consider (brunch wedding, playing games instead of dancing, very nerdy) please share!
submitted by Rugbyandreading to Detroit [link] [comments]
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2.5 oz (75ml) aventu absolu (300$)
Slight cosmetic damage but bottle is fully functional
Full Bottle
No box
PayPal F&F only.
Link of photos of the bottle: https://imgur.com/a/xfMrbtL
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2025.01.31 04:58 Alternative_Owl_514 Hola! Estoy en busca de alguien que le interese hacer un rol largo, detallado, romántico y sexual, de alguna de ellas, arigameplays,mictia, nimu caprimint, staryuuki, didiwinx, novia, mary blogs, cristal molly, mayichi emikukis y más info abajo ya tengo varias trama^^♡
Solo hago papeles de hombre, soy bastante detallado y amplio al rolear, tengo experiencia, y si gustas rolear como una de ellas pero futansri pasiva, también acepto
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2025.01.31 04:58 Creepy_Challenge5562 来亲戚家串门，似乎明白了点什么
我的小侄子说我最烦苹果手机了，
我说为啥？
他说，apple下载个东西各种输入密码 权限等设置。华为多方便，下载直接就下载了。
我甚至不知道说啥🙄
直接就下载了，不危险么…什么权限不问你，都打开了，这不危险么😂
（不是段子，是真的）
submitted by Creepy_Challenge5562 to China_irl [link] [comments]