My Most Recent VA Claim . . .

Like most of us that have to deal with the Veterans Administration (VA) and its processes, I have had a claims status change.

My claim for Coronary Artery Disease, an Agent Orange issue, has moved from "Gathering of Evidence" to "To rater for medical Opinion" with a top line note of "Pending Decision Approval."

A first glance that sounds very encouraging but in reality it is not, it is progress and a status change but that is all it is.  I am frequently on Veterans Benefit Network forum and have learned much about how the VA works.  It does mean that the VA is dealing with my claim and that is a good thing in and of itself.  But it is by far no final conclusion and is yet months away from finality.

I take a positive view of this news, positive in that the VA has finally recognized my claim for the condition.  I filed once before and they wrote it all off.  And I can understand that because my evidence was shaky at best.  But this time the evidence is pretty damning.

My heart attack risk has gone up.  And all the information I can find says should I have a heart attack I have about a 30% chance of survival.  It is a sneaky condition and other than the drugs I take is to exercise to keep my self in shape.  The exercise is at once both good for my Diabetes but also for my cardio-vascular system.  So I keep on walking five or six days a week.  That keeps the blood flowing to the right areas.

Any way the VA has my reports from the testing recently.  I had a Nuclear Stress test, and it seems as though my Cardiologist puts me through one of those every year, and Computing Tomography Angiogram.  The first pointed towards the disease and the second one confirmed the prescience of artery blockages due to Calcium.  In simple terms that means "Hardening of the arties around my heart".  Either term of Arteriosclerosis or Atherosclerosis applies.  It means in time as the calcification continues the blood flow will decline leading to oxygen starvation or Ischemia.  That's what leads to heart attacks.

The VA is often slow but it always seems to get it right.  So I patiently wait for the results.