Saturday, June 15, 2019
Detritus: Claim First Submitted, 8-22-2017
C&P Claim was submitted for the first time on August 22, 2017, after extensive research. After denial, Claim was submitted several more times until the VA reversed their initial decision, and granted approval in September 2018.
I spent many, many hours, many after midnight, accumulating thousands of pages in support of our claim. The VA's granting of the claim seemed as if it took a lifetime, though the average response time then was estimated at 5 to 7 years, and ours took little more than a year. He was eligible for expediting of his claim, but that was not automatic; we requested and received help from local politicians. Though the expedited claim was also denied, at least we could move on to the next course of action, whatever that might be. In our case, that involved seeking out a law firm who would agree to take our arcane and fairly rare basis of appeal, and searching for additional medical opinions. We finally succeeded in each of these pursuits, and happened upon a doctor whose extraordinary diligence led to the granting of our claim.
The process resulted in a vast amount of downloaded papers, of all types and from all available sources, and constant refills of Epson
Printer ink. After the appeal was granted, I attempted to sort through the unneeded accumulation, and discarded, at first about one-third of the mass, and a while later, about another third. I still have in my house 3 totebags of papers. I am again trying to reduce the pile. I tell myself that almost everything is now on the computer, in his C-file, notated on the ebenefits Veterans' page. I tell myself to just throw everything away: nobody's eyes are ever going to look at any of this, the hands of no other are ever going to try to collate the information. But so far, I am blocked as to further riddance. And, really,
no one wants to help.
I spent many, many hours, many after midnight, accumulating thousands of pages in support of our claim. The VA's granting of the claim seemed as if it took a lifetime, though the average response time then was estimated at 5 to 7 years, and ours took little more than a year. He was eligible for expediting of his claim, but that was not automatic; we requested and received help from local politicians. Though the expedited claim was also denied, at least we could move on to the next course of action, whatever that might be. In our case, that involved seeking out a law firm who would agree to take our arcane and fairly rare basis of appeal, and searching for additional medical opinions. We finally succeeded in each of these pursuits, and happened upon a doctor whose extraordinary diligence led to the granting of our claim.
The process resulted in a vast amount of downloaded papers, of all types and from all available sources, and constant refills of Epson
Printer ink. After the appeal was granted, I attempted to sort through the unneeded accumulation, and discarded, at first about one-third of the mass, and a while later, about another third. I still have in my house 3 totebags of papers. I am again trying to reduce the pile. I tell myself that almost everything is now on the computer, in his C-file, notated on the ebenefits Veterans' page. I tell myself to just throw everything away: nobody's eyes are ever going to look at any of this, the hands of no other are ever going to try to collate the information. But so far, I am blocked as to further riddance. And, really,
Friday, June 14, 2019
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Love in Lake Placid
Now it can be told: it is part of my life story. And a long, long time ago... It was a great vacation, and I was personally saluted from the hockey rink by the entire Ottawa Police Hockey Team. I am trying to clean out all the stuff from my house, and found this among a stack of love letters, if that's what they're called. And after the game, we went out dancing and whatever.
The Family United Untied
I assume this is a Madigan reunion. There were 5 Madigan brothers + Kate and Lizzie. I see Charles in the back row, 5th person from the right. Joe may be on the far left, or maybe the right, unless that's Walter or Edmund, or someone else. Frank, the youngest and tallest, may be that guy. Everyone else is lost to me, though we probably never saw many of them. I suspect these people pictured will remain unidentified from now '
til eternity. (I think the girl standing in the front wearing the floral dress looks something like young pictures of me. Not the legs though.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Flowers in June
Sort of like a memory garden: (1)Purple Butterwort (?) from Rosemary's front yard with yellow lillies, maybe from the VFL annual sale, (2) Honeysuckle bush that Dorothy gave me when she was re-doing her flower garden, (3) White Peony from Dorothy, (4) Pink Peonies from Matt's flower garden that Dave dug up before the house was sold. I think he might have brought them from "over home" via 10th Street. On the right end are peonies Ma gave us when we moved to this house.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)