Documenting Your VA Compensation Claim

This my system, but you may have a better one so use it.

• First thing I do after receiving a service medical record is number each page when I get to the end I go back and add 1 of 100 and so on.
• Second I then make a copy of my service medical records on a different color paper, yellow or buff something easy to read, but it will distinguish it from the original.
• I then put my original away and work off the copy.
• Now if you know the specific date it's fairly easy to find.
• If on the other hand you don't know specifically or you had symptoms leading up to it. Well this may take some detective work and so Watson the game is afoot.
• Let's say it's Irritable Bowel Syndrome
  • I would start page by page from page 1, if the first thing I run across an entry that supports my claim for IBS, I number it #1, I Bracket it in Red, and then on a separate piece of paper I start to compile my medical evidence log. So I would write Page 10 #1 and a brief summary of the evidence, do this has you go through all the your medical records and when you are finished you will have an index and easy way to find your evidence. Study your diagnosis symptoms look them up. Check common medications for your IBS and look for the symptoms noted in your evidence that seem to point to IBS, if your doctor prescribes meds for IBS, but doesn't call it that make those a reference also.