Filed what should have been a simple, single condition autoimmune claim.
VBA refused the claim, required I file for the myriad of symptoms instead. (first I'd ever heard of that path)
So, I file about 20 contentions to cover the symptoms. (don't normally agree with the spaghetti on the wall technique but that's what they asked for)
Get 2 denials based on conflating muscle death injury claims with previously denied joint/arthritis/pain claims
File supplementals to appease the denial gods.
1st supplemental is the 1st overall to get approved (yea! they service connected the autoimmune condition).
Took me a while to realize the 2nd had vanished; (got a decision on a 3rd denial, reduced my active claims to 1)
Schedule a VERA call to find out what happened to the claim.
Turns out, the good folks at the VBA cancelled the supplemental because they are still working on the original -- you can't have duplicate claims in the system at the same time. WTF??? They keep working on a denied claim so the supplemental is a duplicate? Get outta here!
At the 16 month point on the claim, think it's winding down to a final decision. Next up is the A&A battle.
Good lord, they just can't keep it simple, can they?