Waiting on the VA . . .

As a veteran I have number of disabilities due to long service to the nation.   The VA, Veterans Administration, generously gives me compensation for those disabilities.  No one wants these disabilities but they are the result of exposures to the rigors of military service.  And it is damn decent that the VA compensates you for those disabilities since they are not going way.

When I first retired, I took the local military doctor's advice and had the VA look me over.  They gave me a physical, asked questions, looked at my records, etc.  I filed for arthritis in both knees and for Gout.  At the time of the examination I had a raging case of Gout.

The VA sent me a letter and said essentially I did not have any service connected (SC) disabilities.  Upon advice from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), I appealed that decision.  I had to drive into Los Angles to the Federal building where the VA appellant hearing was conducted.  The DAV sat in with me while the appeal was conducted.  At the end of the appeal, my testimony, the DAV representative advised me that I did not have leg to stand on.  He was wrong, I won my appeal, had a reexamination at the Jerry L. Pettis VA Hospital in Loma Linda, CA. 

I lived in Redlands at the time, it is the next town over from Loma Linda.  They x-rayed my knees and I had a doctor examine them.  It was not the same physician I had originally.  They also confirmed by original examination did indeed show a case of Gout.  The upshot was an award of 30% disability for my knees and the Gout (which is believe it or not a form of arthritis).  It all transpired over a year.  There after I was able to collect a disability compensation of a couple of hundred dollars a month.

The compensation was deducted from my military retirement (ugh) and paid to me by the VA (yeah).  That is sort of a zero sum thing but the VA compensation is 100% tax free from local, state and federal income taxes.  So there is a little gain there.

After moving back to Texas in 2002, my local physician diagnosed me with Type II Diabetes.  I was heavily exposed the Agent Orange, a defoliant used in Viet Nam.  Agent Orange had a very powerful chemical, Dioxin, in it.  It seems dioxin gets into your liver and never leaves.  The upshot was the VA under pressure from some many claims, made a unilateral decision that all veterans with Type II Diabetes that had "feet on the ground" in Viet Nam were automatically covered with a disability.

My net SC ratings jumped to 60% total disability.  The VA had requested and received my medical records from my local physician (known in our lingo as my PCP).  The PCP diagnosis is not refutable by the VA, they accept it and of course validate it.  But along with Type II Diabetes comes a whole subset of issues.  Diabetes attacks your nervous system, it may effect your heart, your skin, your sense of feel and your vision.

A subsequent examination showed I had developed Peripheral Neuropathy in both feet and left hand.  I had other issues with the 5/6 cervical (read that as neck) disc, it had collapsed.  That resulted in sporadic pain across my chest and down my right arm to my hand.  My right hand today is partially numb from the disc damaging the nerves feeding my hands via my neck.  That is know as Radii Colapathy.  The VA also picked up on my cataracts from the medical records of my PCP.  And the VA gave me an examination for the Cataracts and indeed confirmed they were Agent Orange/Diabetic related and awarded me additional SC ratings for that.

The final is that all my little disabilities are assessed in the VA mathematics.  The VA takes your highest individual rating of say 30% and subtracts that from 100%.  They use the "whole man concept" and the process dates from the Civil War.  So that means you have 70% remaining non disable functionality.  Then the take the next disability, lets say it is 10% rating and the multiply the 10% times the remaining 70% which gives you a net of 7%.  That 7% is added to the 30% for a total of 37% total disability.  It continues that way for all your ratings.  I think my net number of ratings is 170% but using the VA mathematics it comes out to a net of 90% total disability.

90% disability is a substantial amount of tax free compensation for me.  One can look it up on the VA web pages, I also get a little extra for being married and yet another Special Medical Condition award, type K.   And Congress in its wisdom has seen fit to stop deducting from my retirement and pays the VA as a total separate issue.

With the two recent wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, the VA has been overwhelmed with claims.  Adding to that the Agent Orange issues has further complicated things.  Thus if one files for a Service Connected disability, it takes as much as two years before one gets an answer from the VA.  The good news is the award of a disability is back dated to the date one files for the disability (or as our lingo says a SC).

Why am I now waiting for the VA?  Well I have developed hearing issues.  I have lost all my high pitched ranges of hearing sensitivity.  I retain what is generally referred to as the telephone range of hearing, the normal voice range so to speak.  A private ENT physician conducted hearing examination confirmed the hearing loss.  The VA itself has conducted a hearing examination and confirmed the hearing loss and has equipped me with hearing aids.  And finally, an independent VA compensation examination has also confirmed the hearing loss.  All there examinations also confirm I have Tinnitus (no apparent way to test for that except question and answer). 

My people, the DAV, have notified me that the VA has awarded me a SC rating of 10% for Tinnitus, and nothing for the hearing loss (one has to be literally completely deaf to get a hearing loss rating).  DAV notified me in mid December 2013.  The VA says they will make a decision between February 30, 2014 and April 23, 2014 as to the final award for Tinnitus.

They are thorough, but agonizingly slow because of the massive backlog they are dealing with. And yes, they are bureaucratic as all get out.  They have red tape on top of red tape.

I do not expect the additional rating of 10% will change my overall total disability rating.  As an estimate 10% times the remaining 10% works out to net gain of 1%.  They are good about rounding up from the nearest five to the next whole number.  So my current net of 90% may in reality be 85%.  And of course using the VA method it would add only 1.5% rounded up to 2% added to that 85% which would round up to again 90% ergo no change.

Diabetes is an auto immune disease and will progressively get worse.  Sometimes very slowly and sometimes very rapidly.  My Cardiologist advises me I have the onset of PAD.  That is Peripheral Artery Disease where calcium builds up in the blood vessels in the legs.  It can lead to amputation of toes and even worse to Coronary Thrombosis, or blood clots going up into your heart (or lead to a heart attack).  I will have a further examination this year sometime to reconfirm the PAD.  I do not expect the PAD to decline, but rather will progress.  We will have to wait and see.  But that will start another cycle of VA claim filing, examinations and a long wait.

Diabetes marches on, it never ceases, is with you always and always doing further damage.

Cold Again . . .

Another cold blast has arrived, gusty northern winds and down right unpleasant to be outside.  But not a drop of precipitation.  Dry as a bone. 

Snow down south of us and over in Louisiana.  They are suffering from freezing rain and all that calamity.  Not us, we are just shivering along with heavy coats and gloved hands, even watch caps to keep my ears warm.  Every thing looks drab and brown to tan, dry and crisp.  Fire danger is way up.

Did see a few Gold Finches check out our feeder out front.  That is a good sign.

Car Speakers, Good Weather and Model Airplanes . . .

Car speakers, good weather and model airplanes, not necessarily in that order.  Good weather first.

We have had a couple of rare fair weather days her in the middle of January.  Temperatures huddling around 60 to 70 degrees in the last three or four days.  That is above normal for us.  And Sunday the wind god kept the flow of air down to a reasonable rate and down the runway.  So it was a great day to fly.

Speakers next  With the advent of hearing aids I detected a left rear door speak as being noisy.  It had a voice coil squeak that was driving me crazy.  So I shopped around for new speakers.  I figure good old Radio Shack was the place - not.  They used to have a nice selection of speakers but not no more.  At least nothing like I wanted anyway.

So then I went to Best Buy and they had a ton of them for a big price.  Found a reasonable set but not in stock.  Par for the course.  All the other speakers required considerable more power than my vehicle could generate.  I just want to get rid of squeak not provide sound for the neighborhood.

Next stop was Walmart and I found a reasonable set for $30 (plus tax of course).  I had to later go to a Walmart and pick up a little kit of connectors.  I am guessing low end speakers like purchased do not come with bells and whistles, that you gotta furnish yourself. 

Well I had ton of speaker wire and made up a little harness.  And then I went to the Internet and checked out a couple of how to videos.  They were mostly correct in getting the door panel off and access the old speakers.  Enough info so I could do the job with a tad bit of guess work.  The panel is held on by five screws, four large ones around the door handles and one at the bottom.  I remove the screws as per the videos but the use of "Panel Removal Tool" was not necessary or required.  I gave the panel a nice up ward thump and it came loose.  Turns out there are six hooks that hold it in place on the door, the screws are to keep it in place.

So I had access and removed the old speakers and installed the new speakers.  They are not quite as efficient as the factory specification speakers but close enough.  No more squeaks and no I can use the back speakers again (a little more pleasant that way).  The new speakers are three way meaning they have small high frequency speakers in the center of one large speaker.  And the new speaker cones are plastic, a little more rigid (ergo more power required) but do a better job of covering all ranges.

Model airplane last  Model airplane I flew is the Stik I bought used.  I had to do several things to it.  It came with servos but no main landing gear.  I had plenty of landing gears from previous Stiks so that was easily solved.  I installed the same kind of engine that the owner had so it balanced real well.  But I had to modify the throttle servo position.  That mean making a new mount and gluing it in and using some of the old screw holes.  So when I installed the servo, the rear mounts when though the old mount shelf as well as the new mounting box.  I had to cut a notch in a cross piece and reinforce that too.  Later I had to add a bit of control rod tubing, that keeps the control rod from bending.   Finally I had to install a receiver and set up the transmitter.

I flew it twice Sunday.  Not to much trim problems and made a nice landing the second flight.  It is in the tricycle configuration, that is the model has a nose wheel.  I generally convert them to tail wheel configuration but elected to stay with the current configuration (no weight changes and tail wheel installations).

That's good weather for you.  You get outside and get a few things done.  Turned the sprinklers and had a humongous water leak at the well.  It was the same "Carl Causey" glue.  He got it for me and every joint that was glued with that stuff came apart.  Most of them are under ground and press fit so they will be okay but one shows here and there.  I got that glued back together.  Turn on the water again and found a faucet broken, frozen I guess.  I had to go get a pipe, elbow and new faucet.  Got that installed and now the system is up and running again.

Judie filled the bird baths and ran the sprinklers last night.  We will do it again and then stand by for ram, another Northern blast is on its way.  I will turn the system off Thursday.

Not Spring yet! 

A New Year . . .

2014 is off and running.  I have paid my 4th quarterly income tax for year 2013, it is due on the 15th.  So I got it out of the way. Next will be the dreaded tax time.

2013 was a pretty good year of us, well at least for me.  I got the VA to give me hearing aids.  After three different hearing tests all of which show that I have the typical high frequency hearing loss, one test of which was conducted at the VA facility in Fort Worth, the VA ordered up hearing aids for me.  They are pretty high quality Phonak Q90's.  The Q means Quest program.  90 is the top of the line model for that kind of hearing aid made by Phonak.  Phonak, by the way, is a Swiss company not that it means very much to me.  So I have good stuff and can not hear the clicks and clacks that I have been missing for years.

I have two hearing aids one is right ear and the other is left ear.  They are distinguished by a tiny color dot located in the battery compartment.  Red is the right ear unit and blue is the left ear unit.  Easy enough, besides the configuration of the connectors are such you can not get them in backwards without noticing it.

The Veterans Administration did award me a "service connected"  (SC) disability rating for the Tinnitus.  I got nothing for the hearing loss itself.  You have to be virtually deaf in all ranges to garner a service connected disability for hearing.  Fortunately, nothing wrong with my "telephone" range of hearing.  I have been advised by my VSO, Veterans Service Officer, who is a member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) organization, that the VA is going to give me a 10% rating for the Tinnitus.  I am a life member of the DAV and they have represented me well over the years. 
So now I wait for the VA to act, they are slower than cold molasses syrup and cold winter day.  But the VA back dates everything and are very thorough.  So the waiting time just takes a little patience (no pun intended).

The SC rating does not mean very much except that it will give me free hearing aids for the rest of my life.  The 10% addition to my present ratings will probably not change anything.  The VA has a funny "whole man" rating process that they have used since the American Civil War for aggregating SC disability ratings.   It is too complicated to discuss here except to say I do not expect it to change any compensatory findings. if it does I will be surprised (and pleased).

2013 has not been so nice to Judie.  She has developed lung problems caused by her hiatal hernia which has allow stomach fluids to invade her lungs (when prone as in at night sleeping).  The lungs do not like this and she has had a couple of case of pneumonia caused by it.  She takes daily lung treatments using a machine that literally shakes her from stem to stern.  The idea is that it breakers up formations inside her lungs.  She also uses a breathalyzer machine simultaneously.  So she gets a treatment into the lungs at the same time as the shaking process.  She wears a vest with air pipe connections to the machine and it pulses at a rate 10-12 cycles per second for 20 minutes.  She also has hand held breathalyzer much like asthmatic patients use which has a steroid of some sort in it.

She does her treatment twice a day, in the AM and later around 9 PM at night.  She is very tolerant of doing these treatments but I know she hates them.

Otherwise, we had a good year.  At least the stock market was up and thus a good thing for us.

It Is Brutal Outside . . .

Gee, how I wish Al Gore was right with the Global Warning.  Boy is he ever wrong.  While it borders on freezing outside the gusty North winds make it unbearable.  The cold dry air is ripping across the yard.

We, here in North Texas, are at the bottom end of the Great Plains.   So cold air flows all the way from Canada down to us.  Often if the winds are absent, the cold will reach the Red River valley and turn left heading towards Shreveport and points East.  This time Mother Nature was in high gear and the cold air just plowed on through the Red River valley down to us and beyond.

Those who are South and East of us who are used to more balmy weather better gear up for the cold.  No moisture to speak off, no rain, sleet, or snow, just cold air.  The winds took care of all the remaining leaves on our Shumarc Oaks (Red Oaks) in the front yard.  The early freeze we had set the leaves for a while.  But now they are down and around.

Yesterday, a balmy day for us, I got out the leaf vacuum and sucked up about five bushels of leaves.  When it sucks them up, it also kind of shreds them, not all of them but most of them.  I take them out back and toss them in the compost pile.  Maybe by spring, they will be good compost - not.  They just sit there with no moisture do not decompose very much at all. 

The wind is also moving a lot of the leaves off to other places, like next door, the vacant lot next to us.  And maybe even further, I hope move further or they will return by the South wind that surely will return.   Then we will have to get the lawn tractor out and "mow" the leaves up.  The mower deck is closed off, so all that is cut gets ground up.  Beats raking by a long shot.

 We have one volunteer oak on the side yard by the driveway.  It too is a red oak variety but it is a Barkley Oak.  Barkley's do not drop their dead leaves but hold on to them until they get pushed off in the Spring.  The Live Oak next door holds its leaves too, but they remain green all winter.  The deer rutted against the little oak and almost debarked the trunk.  I was able to cover the scars with some spray paint and the tree has soldier on with a good recovery.  It is a bit too big for the deer to attack  now and so they have left it alone this year.  I am sure a bird deposit the acorn from which it originated.  There are a number of them scattered around in the neighborhood.  It is a very local variety of oak tree.

It is odd the Barkley is the same age as Post Oak in the same area.  The Post Oak better than five years old is about three feet tall.  The Barkley, same general age, is about 20 feet tall.  It is all genetics.  So small Post Oak trees are quite old, and large ones are very old.  We have one that is large, very old and probably dying too.  We keep treating it and it hangs on.  But we will lose it sooner or later.

Stay warm.