Well....I finally heard back from the VA Disabilty Review board. First of all, they break PTSD down into 2 basic ratings.....30% and 50% disabling. 30% is pretty rough at its upper limits....sleep disturbences not more than once a week, hyper awareness, irriatibilty, easily startled and so forth. 50% is bad....up to and including sleep disturbences more than once a week, suicidal or rage related feelings that can lead to physical action, inability to maintain a job, severe memory issues and so on.

I never thought that so much could be part of this thing. Hell, when I went in for the interview I was rated on speech, hygeine, dress, locomotion, comfort level, cooperation and more. It all is affected by this thing.

I fall in the 30% range.

Now, with two bad shoulders, one bad knee and one just waiting to get bad enough to count, hearing loss and my back I am rated at a 60% disability rating on the VA 'slide-o-matic' (tm) scale though the aggregate is in the 80% range. What does all that mean? I have no idea but I need to find someone to explain it to me.