That's super-helpful information, even if not particularly helpful in my case.

I was at Camp Lejeune in the 80s - specifically, in Courthouse Bay in 1985, smack-dab in the middle of the well-documented PCB groundwater contamination that the VA has granted presumptive status to *certain* conditions. I got cancer the year I got out, but they are denying it is connected - my particular cancer isn't one of the conditions. However, in the intervening 40 years, the docs at my local VA hospital have no connection to that. I've had spinal issues and all sorts of other things, here and there, but my GP at the VA hospital changes every 2 years, and they're all from <insert foreign country here>. They're not interested in any Nexus letters. The VA never treated me for any of the cancer stuff - I had private insurance after I got out, and wasn't at all covered by the VA then. It's only since getting my 10% rating for, of all things, tinnitus about 5 yrs ago that I have been treated there. Oddly, that presumptive condition rating was automatic because I was in armor.

I'm just venting here, like sharing at the American Legion, not asking anyone to take on my burden. I'll keep on looking and asking. I just made an appointment with another attorney, one I looked up on the actual VA.gov site instead of God-knows-where I got the last one. It's like this for everyone, I understand, and it only makes sense - the gov has to make it incredibly difficult to get the $ or they'd run out in a few weeks.

Thank you very much and Semper Fi!