Five Ways Google Is Your Friend

Google Friend To Veterans

I know.

You’re thinking, “Did this dude just use the words Google and Friend in the same sentence?” It’s like when people said Lost in Season 3 jumped the shark. Way out there.

But it’s true. Google can be your friend, at least when it comes to researching disability compensation claims. Maybe not when it acts like a creepy big brother, but we’ll ignore that for now.

Here is why I bring this up. You don’t have to be nervous about the process of researching your claim, because your buddy Google has your back.

There’s nothing wrong with being afraid anyway. After all, you aren’t alone. Most veterans are get confused and easily discouraged when it comes to benefits. Nerves get triggered along the way.

And who can blame you? There are literally thousands of websites out there espousing how they are the best thing since sliced bread… There is a lot of data out there.

When armed with the five steps I’m about to lay out, you won’t need to worry about it. Easy peezy.

 

If God wanted you to have benefits, you’d be born with them

That’s what my old drill sergeant used to say about anything from girlfriends to bad habits.

In the military, you were trained to follow technical data. Tech data was your step by step guide on how to do everything. I bet somewhere there is tech data on how to wash your clothes and scrub floors.

You may be surprised to learn that this works to your advantage. You can follow guidelines once someone gives them to you or explains the process once. That’s the military advantage that most civilians never learn.

Sadly, many people working at the VA never learned it either. Luckily for us, the VA, believe it or not, has their own version of tech data they need to follow. Once you find it, you can learn it and check their work to be sure they are doing things the right way.

This post is all about helping you connect the dots on any disability claim or veterans benefits issue. But first, there’s someone I want you to meet.

 

Meet Jane Smith

Jane isn’t real. She is your fictional character for this post. Let’s pretend she is from the big city of San Francisco.

Jane was a specialist in the military changing widgets on dohickies and flimflams. Not the small, cheap ones you get as a kid. No no, these dohickies and flimflams were the real deal, and she changed widgets faster than anyone. (Of course, these aren’t real either.)

When she was in the military, she hurt her back. She just got out of the military two months ago, and the back pain is getting worse, numb feet and everything else along with that.

Luckily, someone from her local county veteran service office (CVSO) suggested that she file for disability. Jane fired off her claim for disability with the help of the CVSO.

They wrote up what Jane’s basic symptoms were and sent it off. If Jane is like most veterans, she probably has a confusing medical file in paper copy at home that the CVSO did not go through. Or, even if he did, Jane needs to do her due diligence.

It will be up to her to be sure her statements in the letters she submits to the VA are correct. She will also need to connect the dots between reality and what her medial records say. This means she will need to research a little medical information, rules and regulations to make sure she gets a fair shake from the VA.

This is important both when writing letters to the VA and during the medical examination. You need to know what the keywords are.

Now what?

 

1. Choose disability related keywords to start your research

Jane isn’t sure exactly what the Dept. of Veterans Affairs will be looking for with her back injury. She just knows it hurts like hell with shooting pains and numbness. There is a simple solution if you have a computer and an internet connection.

Google it. Go to “Google.com” and type in exactly how you feel: “back shooting pains numbness.” These four words are a great start.

Here are the first five technical keywords that pop up after the search:

  1. Sciatica
  2. Herniated disc
  3. Pinched nerve
  4. Spinal stenosis
  5. Neuropathy

Now Jane is ready to move to the next step – pick a keyword to see if her symptoms are similar to what the condition means.

Odds are, Jane has a pretty good idea of what her condition may be from her military or VA doctors. However, she should not assume the doctors she saw in the military or at the VA diagnosed her properly.

Jane’s first stop will be to research sciatica.

 

2. Read up on your disability keyword

Jane first clicks on the link Google.com provides her with from the list above. She finds a new list of articles that is 7,890,000 long.

“Wow! How do I know what to read?” she asks. This is easy. Look at any government website or WebMD. Jane clicks on the first article which is listed on the website for the US National Library of Medicine. It brings her to their page called PubMed Health.

Jane reads immediate that sciatica is defined as:

Sciatica

Neuropathy – sciatic nerve; Sciatic nerve dysfunction

Last reviewed: June 7, 2012.

Sciatica refers to pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling in the leg. It is caused by injury to or pressure on the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is a symptom of another medical problem, not a medical condition on its own.

This definition gives her a good overview of what the condition means. She things, “That sounds familiar. I wonder how it is caused?” The next 3 sections explains what causes it and what the impacts are of the condition.

 

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Sciatica occurs when there is pressure or damage to the sciatic nerve. This nerve starts in the lower spine and runs down the back of each leg. This nerve controls the muscles of the back of the knee and lower leg and provides sensation to the back of the thigh, part of the lower leg, and the sole of the foot.

Common causes of sciatica include:

    • Slipped disk
    • Piriformis syndrome (a pain disorder involving the narrow muscle in the buttocks)
    • Pelvic injury or fracture
    • Tumors

Symptoms

Sciatica pain can vary widely. It may feel like a mild tingling, dull ache, or a burning sensation. In some cases, the pain is severe enough to make a person unable to move.

The pain most often occurs on one side. Some people have sharp pain in one part of the leg or hip and numbness in other parts. The pain or numbness may also be felt on the back of the calf or on the sole of the foot. The affected leg may feel weak.

The pain often starts slowly. Sciatica pain may get worse:

    • After standing or sitting
    • At night
    • When sneezing, coughing, or laughing
    • When bending backwards or walking more than a few yards, especially if caused by spinal stenosis

Signs and tests

The health care provider will perform a physical exam. This may show:

    • Weakness of knee bending or foot movement
    • Difficulty bending the foot inward or down
    • Abnormal or weak reflexes
    • Loss of sensation or numbness
    • Pain when lifting the leg straight up off the examining table

3. Pick out what is important and leave the rest

Now Jane has a solid understanding a few important things. She knows that the other key words are that explain sciatica.

Jane wonders,” How do I know what words are important?”

Keep it simple. Stick with words you know and can easily understand and explain to another person. Jane knows she is not the doctor. Instead, her job is to merely explain her symptoms to a doctor. Here are words she picked out that fit her symptoms:

  • Sciatic nerve
  • Pain down the back of the leg
  • It gets worst while: standing, sitting, or lying down
  • Foot flexibility is affected
  • Lifting the leg hurts
  • Numbness or loss of sensation

Jane is confident that this is the injury she has or at least related to it. She now knows related keywords. This will help her explain the condition properly to the VA medical examiner.

Now, Jane Googles each of these again, only this time, she includes “VA” with the other term. What I mean by this is she typed the following into the search bar, “Sciatic nerve VA.”

This brought up more data, including good forums like Hadit.com and Vets.Yuku.com. She read what these veteran have to say.

For you, jot good points down in a note pad if you think a strategy or idea sounds like a good one. Or, bookmark that page.

 

4. Learn what the VA says about the condition

For Jane, her next step is to find out what the VA says about sciatica. Since she chose a government website to help with her diagnosis, the keywords will probably be similar to what the VA understands sciatica to be.

There is a caveat.

VA does have some ways of diagnosing conditions that are different from how civilian and military doctors diagnosis things. Sometimes, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) will say things that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) disagrees with.

This may seem strange. If it does seem odd, don’t worry, most everyone else is confused about how one agency can have two different diagnosis for the same condition.

There are two places to look for information. Again, say hi to your new buddy, Google.

First, read what the VA says.

For the VA, there are two sources of information: 1) the VA regs; and, 2) a Board of Appeals claim.

For any condition, you will want to start at 38 CFR Part 4, Subpart B – Disability Ratings. Type it into your Google search bar and push “enter.”

Once you are on the page, you will see a huge table of contents. Rather than read every line, the quick trick here is the press Control + F. This will pull up your webpage’s “finder” box. In this box, type in the condition we are searching for.

Jane types in “sciatica.” She notices that there are 10 mentions for the word “sciatic” but none for “sciatica.” Rather than giving up, she starts reading what the page says and eventually finds “sciatic nerve.”

Jane eventually finds a chart with rating codes, key words, and the rating percentage. This is the “meat” of keyword searching.

 

5. Google some VA Board of Appeals cases

This is the second source of VA data that I think is important.

Type into the search bar, “VA Board of Appeals Sciatica.” This will bring up many appeals cases and specific forum comments on those cases.

Remember, Board cases are not binding. However, they will tell you how the VA interprets the regulations that you just learned about in #4.

Within these explanations, the Board will explain how certain keywords will be used to determine the veteran’s disability rating.

The rating is the thing you need to know about. It is both subjective and objective. For example, you may have mild back pain or moderate back pain. You may have mild limitation of motion. You may have moderate limitation of motion.

These are very similar, and many of us may not know the difference when it comes to pain. Nonetheless, use of either of these terms could mean the difference between a 10% disability rating and a 30% disability rating.

After reading the cases, Jane concludes that she has moderate pain in her back with numbness with pains running down her legs to her feet. She summarizes what she discovered through her search process on a pad of paper or on her computer.

Then she waits two years for her VA appointment. The reason it is important to write your research down is for the very reason that it could take years for your VA claim to go through the system. You may be called up for an appointment on a moment’s notice. If that happens, you can reread your summary and be ready. Attorneys do this for certain high priority cases so that they are ready to answer any questions from the judge.

Now you’re done, and so is Jane. I hope you enjoyed learning about how Google is your friend.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many privacy violation issues that I have with how Google does what it does. However, when it comes to researching your disability claim, Google is the way to go.

Good luck!

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7 Comments

  1. Usually I don’t learn article on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to try and do it! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, quite nice post.

  2. i dont know much about this have been trying to access my ebinifitis canot they say I don’t have the right password but have tried others but when I get they they say who I am I knoe that already just need my status of my clain can you help

  3. Left an informative comment and of all websites, would never have thought comments would be scrubbed here with no explaination. Was it fact there was another helpful website to search that would also benefit Veterans? Would like an email explaining because otherwise will really make me re-think subscribing when ANY useful help from another Veteran’s success via web-searches, and on topic!

  4. Totally!
    Back in 2007-2008 I had never come across THIS website of Ben’s and it may have not been existing then either BUT I learned EVERYTHING to make a successful first time application for SERVICE CONNECTED Disability and what exactly the VA defines as such AND evidence is in-FACT pretty much the burden of THE VETERAN by using Google Searches or Ask.com and all this info including links to various VA Regulations, what to expect and realistic expectation of what not to expect via website called https://www.forums.military.com and simply join for free and use search function to find threads of MANY brave souls, fellow brothers-in-Arms, whom are or were once on same path you may be on. https://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/6080003861001
    Also, here’s a search done to find on their website, “people that had too much income in present year or previous that could be one more medical prescription or appointment/hspitalization, no job, from losing home and want to know if they can use the VA.” With that as written, it would obviously be way too many words to bring about a surgical strike of a search. One needs to limit any search whether it be on Google or that great website to the basic subject matter and then further limit search by key words, phrases, topic/thread, etc. THAT question is a very nebulous one because the FIRST President George Bush actually made some changes to whom qualifies for VA care to ensure Veteran’s with service connected and poor Veterans can indeed get past the means test even if made too much money until recently: https://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/assets/documents/publications/Hardship.pdf

    There you are, a one page official pdf doc explaining this and ALSO informing you that if you already are a service connected Veteran, even rated a zero percent service connected, (as crazy as zero percent actually is, but the VA indeed uses such a measure), you are service connected all the same and it is also one of the categories in which you no longer have to be means tested to rec’v VA Care.

    I thought I’d give an example and reference a very helpful website that really has some educated moderators on there and I was never given misinformation. There’s more than likely other forums out there but the VA is never going to hold one’s hand and give you that information; it DOES take patience, determination, etc.
    Lastly, be very careful of ‘ambulance-chasing law firms’ looking to supposedly help you with your Soc Sec SSDI and/or VA Disability Claim!!! I had one even in my own State for Soc Sec SSDI and I did ALL the work and as much as I pleaded to meet with the man, not knowing what I know now, even through two denials and a few years down, that same attorney was telling me I SHOULD NEVER try to get my Senator involved, telling me, “…it will only make things more drawn-out…”. Well, when I was told it was going to take THREE YEARS for an Admn. Judge to even give light of day for my already denied three times for SSDI, almost literally homeless, going to food pantries each week, losing ALL pride, I CALLED/WROTE email to my Senator whom had my claim on an Admn. Judge’s desk AND APPROVED all within three months!!! Sure, not ALL attorney’s are this way! However, these attorney’s for Soc Sec SSDI and now VA Disability Attorney’s are dependant on their 25% of your back-pay and do the math–there’s ABSOLUTELY NO INCENTIVE for them to work to push your claim fast because the ugly truth of matter is the LONGER it takes, regardless of your sanity and health, the MORE the attorney makes!!!
    Again, am SURE there’s exceptions to this but if this information only helps ONE VETERAN, I think The Lord will smile upon my efforts in sharing my success. I also happened to be stationed at an Air Force base for 4 1/2 years that was closed under the Pres. Clinton Admn. and it was immediately thrust to the VERY TOP TEN EPA Super Fund Environmental Clean-Up List due to the HUGE amounts of toxins in water supply and alot more crap in the radioactive family. Guess how I found that? I searched that AFB by name and State on the VERY EPA website. That’s evidence, baby!! Unfortuately, the beast of burden falls on the Veteran to ESTABLISH a link to service connection for your medical/mental disabilities/ailments.
    Peace!

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