Good Morning. Maybe it's time to diversify

It is actually a contributing factor and, although it could be argued that excessive exercise in the military caused some bone loss, it's usually such a large genetic component that I don't know if they would accept it separately. 

My guess is that it would be used to support your back claim but in itself wouldn't qualify as an additional disability.

The crazy things I did trying to stay under the weight limit and my celiac are the things I really think caused the osteopenia so young but probably not something I could claim because I chose to fight the weight by running stairs and going crash high protein diets for 30 years. Running stairs ruined my back for sure.

Since it could be a contributing factor, it would be one of those documentations to be submitted with an appeal... 

It all depends on who's reading your file at the time.  Somebody else might interpret it completely differently.  Appeals are not a waste of time.

No need to be sorry, because I'm in total agreement.

Please refer to my first (or second?) paragraph to Gina where I stated, "...a list of every single complaint you can think of that can possibly in any way at all be service connected..."  (I do see why that sentence is misleading though... I just envisioned if the first part were bolded rather than the last.  Sorry, it was not my intent to imply put everything and anything down.)

It all has to be documented and proven... and it is a laborious process enough that additional work load should not be piled on top while trying to prove a connection where there is none.

:-)

Whew...I'm glad you didn't take it the wrong way.  I re-read where you said "can possibly in any way at all be service connected" and I understand what you mean.

The list of things I've seen people request VA disability for is long, sad, and sometimes even funny:

- scar along cuticle of left 4th finger
- allergies
- scoliosis
- hearing loss (when the person has perfect hearing)
- gonorrhea
- small scar on penis from mole being removed
- flat feet

Oh and my favorite...melanoma on left buttock.   Last I knew the military didn't do any drills, training, or fighting with buttocks exposed

and many more!

LOL - it's all good!

Funny, my 2nd husband (they've ALL been soldiers & I'm an Army brat), received a rating for abcesses he had on his buttocks.  He came by them honestly though because they developed after he got shrapnel in his bottom.  Sucka shouldn't have been running away I say!  ROFL!

I understand your position totally, and wouldn't abuse the system.  Like you say though, if it's not presented correctly, a Vet may not get what they *deserve*.

My DH has a severe peri-anal rash that came about from toxins released through dysentery after he received all his vaccines & pills at the beginning of Desert Storm.  It's horrible.  They gave him 10% because it was feasible he "could" have picked it up while serving in the desert.

My DH has a Medtronics Morphine/Baclofen Infusion Pump implanted in his hip that distributes focally to the nerves in his spinal column what he has to have in order to control his severe spasticity symptoms.  Symptoms that began after exposure to nerve agents in Desert Storm.  They refused to acknowledge that his spaciticity was anything other than psychosomatic.  Consequently, we couldn't have him referred to a private neuro-surgeon for the pump until Medicaid kicked, in a year after he'd recvd his SSD approval.  Poor guy goes into a "fetal crunch" still to this day if he turns his head or waist the wrong way. 

He's a Vet.  Wouldn't you think the VA would have taken care of it?  We were told they do not use the pump except in terminal patients.  Go figure.

He's got an "unemployable" decision from the VA.  His 100% was granted for PTSD and we had to take the money and run so to speak, even though it should have been for the spasticity.  They were adament that we'd hit our own personal brick wall.

So, yeah... there are also those cases that may not have been fairly adjucated. 

Throw your 10 cents in anytime...  :-)

Yeah it gets tricky with the nerve agents, vaccination reactions, and such.  I know they have some special monitoring programs for those things and if they didn't get enrolled in the programs then the military says "what exposure".

It's largely political which really sucks!

I know I know....

His shot record says he got two flu shots.  Not a word about anthrax. 

Of course we don't have records of the CO ordering the chemical detectors be turned off because they were going off all the time and the men were getting in and out of their MOP gear over and over.

Of course we don't have records of my husband (a recovery specialist, took the big wreckers out to bring back disabled vehicles) being underneath the yellow cloud of gases that resulted from them blowing up the incriminating ammo dump at Khamisiyah.  The "war" was supposedly "over" and they'd confiscated all the men's epi pens or whatever they were called that were supposed to help protect them from the gases.  He put on his gas mask, it promptly filled up with saliva and mucus and he had to take it off and just tough it out.

The list goes on... yea, he's got some PTSD over it.  Not pretty.  He used to be a big, strappin', popeye armed farm boy...  :-(   I remember a high-ranking official saying something about, "chemicals??  DEET??  C'mon!  I don't see any soldiers on the ground quivering like a sprayed ****roach!!"

He's never seen my husband having an episode.

:-(

So... thanks for letting me vent.  I'm sure you've seen it all... both ways it can go.  :-)