I just found this reddit page a couple days ago. It's awesome seeing so many vets help each other out with their ratings.
I had a few questions about my situation, hope it's okay to post here. I've tried to research based on other posts here, but I feel like everyone's situation is so unique.
TLDR:
- Is it okay to file for a rating for 4-5 items at the same time? Or is that frowned upon by the examiner?
- If I have been prescribed medicine for an issue (IBS), but didn't take it and have since canceled the prescription, will that ensure I don't receive a rating?
- Any advice on getting upper body issues approved while only having lower body currently? I never saw a doctor regarding my shoulders while I was active duty, so I don't have any firm documentation that it is service connected.
I got out of active service 6 years ago and received ratings for both knees, back, and asthma. I had multiple knee surgeries, including ACL reconstruction. I still receive gel injections about every 6 months for one of my knees. I have a 60% rating.
Since then I have had a few more issues I've seen the VA about. In 2022 I went to the ER for essentially IBS, over the next few months I got the whole workup and colonoscopy. They found some mild inflammation but nothing too bad (I was worried about cancer or something). They gave me some fiber powder to drink daily but I didn't like it and didn't really feel like it helped, so I told my doctor as much and she stopped prescribing it.
I specifically found this reddit because my achilles have been giving me lots of issues the past year. They get super tight and it leads to a strain if I push it too much when they're tight. I was planning on filing a claim for my achilles since I assume it's due to my altered gait because of my persistent knee pain. I feel pretty confident this should go through.
The last thing is shoulder pain. I mentioned to the doctor when I was leaving Active Duty (during my outgoing VA Rating appointment) that I had shoulder pain in my L shoulder. I messed something up while I was rehabbing from the ACL tear and doing only upper body workouts. I didn't feel the need to go to sick call or document it, since I was already on profile for my knee. Hindsight, that was a bad idea obviously. They annotated it in my chart, but it is labeled as "Not Service Connected".
Once I left active duty, I did do physical therapy for a few months on it, and it seemed to help. But it has been getting increasingly painful the last few months. I have an appointment with my primary care this week to try and restart physical therapy.
Do you think there is any way I could ever get this as service connected?
Sorry for the long post. Overall, should I file all of these claims at one time or will the VA view that like I'm just chasing a higher rating? I just didn't realize you could file claims for all this stuff (IBS, GERD) until I found this page a couple days ago. Otherwise I would have filed it when I was going through all the testing.
Also, I am meeting with PCP this week to try and do physical therapy for my shoulder and achilles. Is there any benefit to waiting to file until after physical therapy, or does that not really matter?
Thank you guys and good luck.