Question:
Good Morning, Jim. I hope this is still an active site. Quick summary: Marine Corps Veteran - Infantry/Artillery - post-service diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes & Leukemia (CML) - no family history. Found your site while researching service connection to both conditions. Specifically interested in other successful claims relative to CML. Would be helpful to see how other veterans have successfully made the service connection and won their claim. Any assistance you can offer would be gratefully appreciated.
Jim's Reply:
Is this site active? You bet it is. I hear from a lot of veterans and enjoy meeting every one of my brothers and sisters.
To receive a disability rating requires a few basic elements. You need a current medical diagnosis of a disabling condition. You need an event while you were active duty that precipitated the disabling condition you claim. You need evidence of record that supports all this.
That you were diagnosed after service makes this a bit of an uphill climb. If you were diagnosed within one year of discharge the claim would be treated as if you had the diagnosis while active. Beyond that you have to prove what you believe was in your military service that could have caused or contributed to the conditions you claim.
Conditions like diabetes and any cancers or diseases of the blood and lymphatics always brings to mind chemical exposure. For example, Vietnam veterans are predisposed to those conditions because of their exposure to agent orange.
You can research this in depth for yourself. Go to the BVA search engine https://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva.jsp and enter key words <chronic myeloid leukemia> and choose a couple of recent years to get started.
As you do your research, use different key words to search as well as different years. Keep in mind that BVA decisions do not establish precedence so you can't make a claim and refer to a successful BVA appeal...you have to duplicate the path the successful vet took.
You'll likely need an IMO to support your claim https://www.vawatchdog.org/imo-ime-medical-opinions-exams.html
Good luck!