Everyone needs some sunshine on Friday and so we are glad to announce that member SquidlyOne, who has been hard at it for years, finally got another piece of the vA pie today. Squdly, for the uninitiated, has been up against  against a set of nasty circumstances. He filed about 20 years ago in San Diego when he got out and won a 40% rating. Several years ago he discovered the bug.  Everything went south except Squid and his trusty dog.

He filed anew for this and an increase on the neck. vA went into paralysis. Nobody could locate his C-file. It’s almost as if it had been…shredded. Gone. Sayonara. Mawt lao. Il est passé. Nobody had any ideas on how to solve this dilemma except the Squid. He still had a handful of  80s medrecs about his EMG tests and we know what they are. Long skanky, dirty needles that didn’t get sterilized very much, properly or maybe ever. vA doesn’t seem to think that’s much of a risk factor. This is an interesting concept considering needles full of drugs seem to be the primary cause in their mind. Since these EMG needles didn’t involve drugs, they are not willful misconduct. Denial is an automatic given under these circumstances.

Well, you know those funny guys down at the VARO . They took one look at this and started scratching their heads. They shredded all this once. Where was he getting this stuff? With very little to go on, they started a new C-file and tried to squander as much time as possible hoping the Squid’s liver would blow out first. It didn’t. He’s sicker than a dog and ten steps from homelessness, but he hung in there.

Today the vA saw fit to award our Vet hero a whopping 20% more for Degenerative Cervical Disc Disease, 20% for nerve root impingement, and bemoaned the fact that his 40% rating is over twenty years old so they are unable to take that away from him. Damn it!  So, did they use the EMG records for the hep claim? Hell, no. They only used them for the spinal ratings. Dense. Very dense.

As an aside, last year in an attempt to get in to see a doctor, which is a little harder than it seems these day at vA, he journeyed south to Nevada and the Las Vegas VAMC. They blew him off and refused him.  Over thirty percent (or a Purple Heart) is Priority 3.  It doesn’t make any difference where you are. a VAMC in EBE is still your VA entitlement. Squid meekly beat feet back to the Dakotas and froze his ass off last winter. VA is going to try to buy him off with this and prays he drinks himself to death or gets lost in the forest. He’s 10% away from TDIU and if he’s not careful, vA will keep him there. Fortunately, he’s been to the asknod academy and doesn’t have a VSO “minder” to misguide him. He knows the drill.

I suspect we’ll be seeing some kind of resolution to this during the coming months. He’ll have a good nexus based on the EMGs and a 2B genotype (Japan) in his new, paper- thin C-file. vA can hardly claim there’s no evidence now. They’re the chowderheads that almost succeeded in fixing that. If not for the Squidster’s footlocker prowess, he’d be up broken paddle creek. What a great story. Destroy records. Apologize for being unable to rate you, no C&P and now this. The smart money says Pony Express will soon ride in from SDRO with the old C-file in desperate hopes of finding some UCMJ violation to ice the hep denial.

Squidly’s inside the wire now and chances are the RO is going to settle this without a big DC production. We all know the only thing that saved his bacon is the old 40% rating. That proved there was a C-file somewhere at some time in the past.  They know its time to piss on the fire and call in the dogs.  The sad thing is this just didn’t have to happen, yet the same scenario plays out in one iteration or another every day in ROs across America. We look forward to welcoming him into the ranks of the 100% soon. He’s long overdue-but then aren’t a lot of you?

Perhaps he should send in a picture of these hummers. Maybe vA would “get” it. They look exactly like the willful misconduct version.