Greetings fellow Veterans. Jerrel called up asking for a good subject to discuss. Boy howdy was that a wide open invitation to ask what VA litigation subject wasn’t a good one to take a lip whipping to. So, to go out and take a gander at OSA seems like a good candidate as any. Considering they’re going to give that and tinnitus, the two most awarded ratings in the VASRD, a major haircut in the very near future, it behooves Veterans to know what cards they’re holding and which ones they aren’t. VA is well-known for changing the poker rules and trying to convince you it’s to your benefit. Kinda like someone peeing on your leg and telling you it’s raining.

At any rate, it’ll be a rip snorter. Maybe you’ll learn something. Maybe not. I guess what concerns me the most about the OSA gig is that I got bitchslapped by the rater three times and even had a dyno-mite IMO that cited to VA’s very own peer-reviewed study on the correlation between OSA and PTSD. The VES booth bitch took the IMO cite and reversed it to say the cause of the OSA was upper throat collapse. Only at the VA, folks. Only at the VA could they think you might not read the private IMO and even if you did, you’d know it was bogus because it wasn’t conducted by the VA so the Vet is cheating and attempting fraud. And then drag in obesity. Talk about post hoc rationalizations for prior Agency actions…

Can you imagine being obese in the Marines? I can almost see it now if it were to happen. Think back to the old TV show Gomer Pyle, USMC. So Gomer’s overweight and been told by Sgt. Carter to reduce his BMI RFN. Come Friday afternoon and Gunny shows up and says “Everyone’s confined to barracks this weekend. No town passes, girls. Pyle here is 10 lbs. overweight so you all have a date with your toothbrushes and the latrines until Monday morning. Make ’em, shine for me. You ladies are dismissed.”

Gomer would have two black eyes, a broken arm and three teeth missing come Monday morning and report to sick call saying he slipped in the shower Saturday night. That and a few piss poor performance reports about disobeying a direct order to shrink. I reckon the VA rater figures if he’s a bit “portly” right now, he must have been so in service. How else could you get OSA, right?

We’ll talk about that tomorrow and the new haircut tinnitus appears destined to get, too.

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