Hi Jason and Builtgypsy,
Mew to this forum as I have been searching in vain trying to find information on , well, this topic. I came across your forum and immediately signed up as I saw so many military people out there that have a plethora of information they are willing to share.
As we all know, Uncle Sugar (aka Uncle Sam) is going save as much money as possible even if that means hurting those who served diligently. It is great to see that there are so many "priors" out there that are willing to help another out.
I do have a question if anyone is willing;
Without going into elaborate detail, I will give the skinny:
I enlisted into the Army in '95 during that time I served in combat and earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. I left Active Duty in 1999 after my spouse died and then re-enlisted in 2001-2002, left and went into the Reserves in 2006. In 2007, I transfered to the Air Force Reserves and this is where the "story" begins.
While in the Army, I suffered a back injury (many other things to while in Saudi, but this is the main one), and sought medical treatment at the Aid Station. They in turn gave me M&M's and sent me on my way. I returned countless times for treatment and they finally got sick of seeing me and sent me to the Army hospital in Germany, I believe in Frankfurt. At the Hospital, they performed an MRI and took x-rays, that showed two herniated discs and sever disc degeneration.
The doctor wrote up a temp profile, gave me M&M's again and sent me back with no lifting, no this, no that, yadda, yadda, yadda and told me to schedule a follow up with my Aid Station to go back up to the hosp. for more procedures.
I set my appointment up and was all ready to go and my spouse died. I blu-bark PCS'd back to the U.S. to bury her and decided to stay CONUS. I signed in at the local Army post and initiated paperwork to leave the service.
(TIME NOW) I have been working (mostly on my own) in getting all of my paperwork started for the VA for disability and have been submitting it to them.
One of the problems I ran into is that my entire medical records and service records are MIA. I wrote to each and every unit I was with, each hospital, with the proper forms for request and came up with nothing. I went to the VA website and got the St. Louis address and the other one (I forget the name) to request a formal "investigation" (maybe not the right term) asking them to aid me in finding my records. To this date, they cannot find them either.
As aforementioned, I sent the VA everything I had, including my civilian medical reports from 2006 to now.
The reason I sent the civilian records was due to my getting hit by a car as a pedestrian by a little old lady who fled the scene (and here I thought all elderly women were sweet and kind
). The accident triggered my back to become unbearable and I sought treatment.
The spine specialist I sought advice from and treatment, documented that I claimed the injury stemmed originally while on Active Duty and the recent accident caused the pain to come back thus resulting in my seeing him.
He has scheduled my for surgery coming up rather quickly. I have already been through all the PT, Chiro, Heat and Stim, meds, et cetera.
My Reserve flight has scheduled me to see the Reserve doctor. When I asked as to why, they informed me that since surgery was a "possibility," they wanted me to see him.
.......Gotta take a breath, please bear with me, I am almost there.......
So, I have close to 14 years total in and I do wish to receive a medical retirement. I am going to school full time though I would like to see about voc. rehab. My fear is the military wont grant a medical retirement, nor voc rehab, even though rehab is VA based as far as I know.
As I previously mentioned, I initiated the VA paperwork for disability and am anticipating at least a 30, if not 40% rating, as I have many other things, such as PTSD, Restless Leg Syndrome, chronic headaches, unknown Gulf War syndrome and a few others.
I do apologize for the lengthy statement to anyone reading this, but I wanted to provide as much information as possible for anyone willing to help out in pointing me in the right direction and educating me in what I can anticipate in the future.
So, with the Spine Specialist who wants to perform surgery and replace the two herniated discs and fuse them together (L4 and L5), then bolt them which he will leave in due to my age, herein lies a question.
As the Reserve medical folks told me that since surgery was a possibility and they wanted me to see the Reserve Doc, does this mean that if I do have the surgery, they will keep me in? If so should I push the surgery off, deal with the pain, and ask them to initiate a MRB, or will I get one with the surgery?
I do understand that no-one is able to tell the future, but with so many people out there, I hope someone may have a few words to share with me.
Thanks to everyone out there sticking with me in reading this, I look forward to talking with you all soon.
And a big thanks to all those who have served, those still serving and the sacrifices of all, both past and present, especially the Families who are conveniently forgotten by our "Family Friendly" military.
Mew to this forum as I have been searching in vain trying to find information on , well, this topic. I came across your forum and immediately signed up as I saw so many military people out there that have a plethora of information they are willing to share.
As we all know, Uncle Sugar (aka Uncle Sam) is going save as much money as possible even if that means hurting those who served diligently. It is great to see that there are so many "priors" out there that are willing to help another out.
I do have a question if anyone is willing;
Without going into elaborate detail, I will give the skinny:
I enlisted into the Army in '95 during that time I served in combat and earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. I left Active Duty in 1999 after my spouse died and then re-enlisted in 2001-2002, left and went into the Reserves in 2006. In 2007, I transfered to the Air Force Reserves and this is where the "story" begins.
While in the Army, I suffered a back injury (many other things to while in Saudi, but this is the main one), and sought medical treatment at the Aid Station. They in turn gave me M&M's and sent me on my way. I returned countless times for treatment and they finally got sick of seeing me and sent me to the Army hospital in Germany, I believe in Frankfurt. At the Hospital, they performed an MRI and took x-rays, that showed two herniated discs and sever disc degeneration.
The doctor wrote up a temp profile, gave me M&M's again and sent me back with no lifting, no this, no that, yadda, yadda, yadda and told me to schedule a follow up with my Aid Station to go back up to the hosp. for more procedures.
I set my appointment up and was all ready to go and my spouse died. I blu-bark PCS'd back to the U.S. to bury her and decided to stay CONUS. I signed in at the local Army post and initiated paperwork to leave the service.
(TIME NOW) I have been working (mostly on my own) in getting all of my paperwork started for the VA for disability and have been submitting it to them.
One of the problems I ran into is that my entire medical records and service records are MIA. I wrote to each and every unit I was with, each hospital, with the proper forms for request and came up with nothing. I went to the VA website and got the St. Louis address and the other one (I forget the name) to request a formal "investigation" (maybe not the right term) asking them to aid me in finding my records. To this date, they cannot find them either.
As aforementioned, I sent the VA everything I had, including my civilian medical reports from 2006 to now.
The reason I sent the civilian records was due to my getting hit by a car as a pedestrian by a little old lady who fled the scene (and here I thought all elderly women were sweet and kind
). The accident triggered my back to become unbearable and I sought treatment.The spine specialist I sought advice from and treatment, documented that I claimed the injury stemmed originally while on Active Duty and the recent accident caused the pain to come back thus resulting in my seeing him.
He has scheduled my for surgery coming up rather quickly. I have already been through all the PT, Chiro, Heat and Stim, meds, et cetera.
My Reserve flight has scheduled me to see the Reserve doctor. When I asked as to why, they informed me that since surgery was a "possibility," they wanted me to see him.
.......Gotta take a breath, please bear with me, I am almost there.......
So, I have close to 14 years total in and I do wish to receive a medical retirement. I am going to school full time though I would like to see about voc. rehab. My fear is the military wont grant a medical retirement, nor voc rehab, even though rehab is VA based as far as I know.
As I previously mentioned, I initiated the VA paperwork for disability and am anticipating at least a 30, if not 40% rating, as I have many other things, such as PTSD, Restless Leg Syndrome, chronic headaches, unknown Gulf War syndrome and a few others.
I do apologize for the lengthy statement to anyone reading this, but I wanted to provide as much information as possible for anyone willing to help out in pointing me in the right direction and educating me in what I can anticipate in the future.
So, with the Spine Specialist who wants to perform surgery and replace the two herniated discs and fuse them together (L4 and L5), then bolt them which he will leave in due to my age, herein lies a question.
As the Reserve medical folks told me that since surgery was a possibility and they wanted me to see the Reserve Doc, does this mean that if I do have the surgery, they will keep me in? If so should I push the surgery off, deal with the pain, and ask them to initiate a MRB, or will I get one with the surgery?
I do understand that no-one is able to tell the future, but with so many people out there, I hope someone may have a few words to share with me.
Thanks to everyone out there sticking with me in reading this, I look forward to talking with you all soon.
And a big thanks to all those who have served, those still serving and the sacrifices of all, both past and present, especially the Families who are conveniently forgotten by our "Family Friendly" military.
