SERVING
Those That
SERVED
Veterans Share How They Won
Sandra Hale, Army Veteran (Continued)
Use VA questionnaires for your doctors to fill out. http://benefits.va.gov/disabilityexams/
Get copies of your military, VA hospital/clinic and civilian medical records. Sort them out and put them in binders according to the conditions that you are applying for and take a yellow magic marker and highlight what you want the Doctor to verify and important parts you want the Doctors to read. Example: I took all my medical records pertaining to Neuropathy and bound it in a separate folder and then when I went to my VA doctor with the VA Neuropathy Questionnaire already filled out with any information that was documented in my records and let her verify it by looking at that info already highlighted in my records and she filled in the physical exam part. Then, when I went to my scheduled VA Compensation Exam, I took the same folder and added the VA Neuropathy Questionnaire to it and gave it to the VA Compensation Exam doctor for her review.
Have your Doctor write you a Letter of Unemployability stating your disabilities and medication and how these affect your activities of daily living and ability to be gainfully employed. Pain is a disability and the need for frequent pain medication that makes you drowsy/sleepy is something that would make you unsuitable for gainful employment.
Take copies of your military, VA hospital/clinic, or civilian medical records and your VA Questionnaires in a bound format that allows them to be copied and reproduced, to your VA Regional Administration office in person (if possible) or send Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. (Always keep personal copies of everything you give anyone for your home file.) Fill out a Statement in Support of Claim (VA FORM 21-4138) http://www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/VBA-21-4138-ARE.pdf and write on it:
I, (your name) hereby certify that a true copy of the following has been hand-delivered this day to the (name and address of your local VA Regional Office that you will be delivering it to): Then list the title of documents or folders (with a table of contents) and how many pages of each; Sign and date and make two copies. Have the VA Regional Veterans Administration office time-stamp your copy which you take home and file in your personal files and give the other copy to them.
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