[Eric Hofacket]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by Eric Hofacket on Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:55 pm

Here is what I have learned about VA claims for disability from cancer.

By Congressional Law, if you are a Vietnam Veteran, meaning you served in the Vietnam area of operations, including ships off shore, as defined in the language of the law, and you develop one of the cancers listed in the law, which includes most cancers including multiple myeloma, then the VA must automatically approve you disability claim without having to prove that your cancer was caused by your service in Vietnam, it is just assumed it is. This also applies for veterans who participated in atomic testing.

If you were in the military during the Vietnam era, but never severed in Vietnam area of operations, the automatic assumption of cancer being related to military service does not apply to you. The cause of your cancer must be investigated by a medical review board to be linked to military service, and these claims are often rejected. This is why Vietnam veterans talk about how fast their claims are approved and processed, while other veterans seems to drag out for extended periods of time and are often rejected.

It used to not be this way. Before the law was passed, the VA was slow in processing Agent Orange claims and many were dying before they were resolved. Congress became tired of this and passed the law giving this broad assumption of cancers being related to military service in Vietnam without requiring medical proof other than the veteran was in Vietnam or at nuclear weapon test event.

If you were in Vietnam, and you develop one of the listed cancers at anytime in your life, the VA must approve your disability claim uncontested by law. All others get contested.

There are links on the VA website that describe all this. Some think this a pretty unfair policy. Let’s say, for example, you were in the Navy and your ship sailed for just one day in the Vietnam area of operations waters and you never saw the coast of Vietnam, much less stepped foot on it. Your VA disability claim for multiple myeloma would be automatically approved at anytime in your life without being contested. You do not have to show any evidence you ever worked with or were exposed to Agent Orange, the law assumes everyone was.

If, on the other hand, you fueled jet planes at Air Force bases stateside and spent decades breathing jet fuels or other toxic chemicals, your claim would have to be reviewed by a medical review board and could be rejected if sufficient cause is not found.

[musher26]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by musher26 on Wed Jul 04, 2012 2:21 am

December 23 of 2011 my wife Cindy and I were told that I had multiple myeloma and it was at stage 2. They started me on Revlimid and Velcade. I served 25 years in the Navy and have Tricare. Was using the VA, but no doctors ever caught on that the protein in my urine was tho high, not even the private ones.

I have head of progress made by the VA in this and it is good, but, really, if I had not seen a private doc, I would not be here today. On August I go to Dana Farber for a stem cell harvest and a transplant. and hope for the best.

I have to laugh as the VA said it would cut my benefits when it got better. One has to wonder if they have a clue that there is no cure, only control, and none can say how that will last. My VA rep had to call our state senator, who is a Vietnam vet, to get action, as the VA was taking it's sweet time. My doctor and my rep will fight any reduction in disability from the VA along with my senator.

I also have PTSD, IBS, and a 40 percent of hearing. .

To all my brothers and sisters who have this, may GOD bless, and you are in our prayers. We fought then and we will fight now for what is right.

I was in Nam, 68-69 Brown Water Navy.

[Nanette]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by Nanette on Wed Jun 12, 2013 1:57 pm

First the GOOD NEWS. Dom has been in complete remission for almost 4 years. (He'll turn 4 years old on July 17th.)

Now, the BAD NEWS. The VA knocked him down from 100% to only 20% because he's in remission. They're paying him for his peripheral neuropathy.

This pretty much bugs me. I could understand if there was a CURE for cancer.

Oh well. Wanted to give you guys an update.

Good luck to all of you. Stay tough

[ckpars]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by ckpars on Thu Jun 27, 2013 7:50 pm

My husband was diagnosed in Oct 2009. We applied for benefits from the VA May 2010 and were approved within a week. We applied for permanent and total disability in 2011 and were approved with a letter from our oncologist stating that multiple myeloma is incurable. So now he no longer has to be reviewed for his cancer.

He has been in remission since July 2010. My suggestion would be to appeal the decrease in your rating since he is still in treatment.

[Nanette]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by Nanette on Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:13 pm

ckpars,

Dom's no longer under treatment, but we see his oncologist every 3 months for a check up. We no longer go to the VA. (Cheaper to go to Tulane.)

Is your husband still in treatment?

Would love to see the wording of that letter from your oncologist. If you see this, I'd love for you to send me a copy via private message.

Many thanks.

Now I'm all riled up again!

[jfr]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by jfr on Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:22 pm

I have been diagnosed myeloma on left side of face. I was on a ship inland waters Vietnam. Myeloma Is a presumptive, with Agent Orange.

Does any one know how much rating this would be? I got a 20 percent for prostate cancer in 1997.

And what happens to rating when in remission?

[jfr]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by jfr on Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:05 pm

My recent post was incorrect. I have melanoma, not multiple myeloma. Does VA recognize this connected to Agent Orange?

[Larry Petrisky]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by Larry Petrisky on Sun Jul 12, 2015 9:35 pm

I was not in Vietnam, not exposed to Agent Orange that I know of, but I worked in a cargo hangar 1970-1973. I have multiple myeloma and my only risk exposure was my military service. There are others like me. The Agent Orange connection may not be the end of the story. In my case, I cannot prove I was in a "known" Agent Orange exposure area, so the VA will not give me a disability rating.

What's more, the VA is not reporting multiple myeloma cases to the national cancer database or the CDC. Many multiple myeloma patients die of heart, kidney or liver failure, further relieving the VA of facing this issue honestly. We need to come together or die alone.

[Nancy M]

Re: Vietnam veterans diagnosed with multiple myeloma

by Nancy M on Mon Sep 21, 2015 3:32 pm

Hubby served in Nam. I sent the VA a copy of his DD214 and a list of everything he now has, which started with multiple myeloma (diagnosed December 2013). On the DD214 he had a medal of combat for Vietnam. I listed all his medical problems, operations, doctors and cancer treatment centers he has gone to. They took almost a year to tell me I did not have enough proof he was on a ship or in Vietnam! They instead asked if he happened to have pictures of Nam or letters from family ... 40 some years later? They even had the nerve to ask where he went on land (like he knew then or now). I have gone to so many sites that say multiple myeloma is covered no matter what. Even VA sites!

Then they said if he was along the coastal waterways ... and if I could prove it. I looked up his ship history, and it tells how the ship replenished the fleets along the coast of Vietnam. Making six swings to the Gulf of Tonkin. Even says she earned one battle star and a Meritorious Unit Commendation for service in the Vietnam War. This is on a web site!

Why in the world do they make this so hard? Are we not going through enough learning that he has an incurable cancer? The pain, and the man he has become. How about they prove to me he wasn't? I feel I work 24 hours a day and still don't get things done. And now this proving stuff stinks!

I want to tell everyone who joins the service to document everything they do!! Near the point of waving a white flag!!