Hello hmm325,
Glad you decided to reach out on this forum. I hope you are doing ok since developing your last episode of clots. I don't know if you had the chance to read my post under this thread conversation in Sept 2015, and also the one I just posted this past Monday with my ratings for life long anticoagulant. Why would you want to do a regular retirement because you did not ask to become ill, when you can get more benefits from a medical retirement? The answer to what you asked is Yes you want to do a medical retirement. You gave the military the best years of your life and you want to get the most that you can from developing these injuries. I know you have searched this forum for topics concerning blood clots and PE and it probably brought you here to this conversation. When I first started looking I was just like you could not find a lot of people on here who currently had this medical condition of PE and clots. I found a couple but they were old post. Just not sure what was going to happen or what to do.
The first thing to know that if you are on life long blood thinners, in the Army (AR 40-501) and any Branch of Service this makes you non deployable. You should already have a permanent profile with a P3 if you are Army and on (life long Coumadin) and not temporarily. Any one in any Branch on blood thinners is non deployable which I'm sure you probably already know. Because of all of my other complications with post thrombotic syndrome in both legs I still have not returned back to Active duty full time.
I do want you to read my post on page 1 from Sept under this thread and the one I just wrote on Monday because it is important that you know I have not seen anyone who has recieved any percentage for blood disorder/lifelong anticoagulant. Everyone I have read on here has recieved 0% for that unfit condition from the VA and DOD.
You will read in my previous post what ratings I received. If you are sent to the board because you have a P3 profile due to PE, DVTs, blood disorder, life long Coumadin, make sure your profile is correct for your unfit conditions you are being referred to the Med board for.
Due to complications from these DVTs, If I did not have post thrombotic syndrome, I would not have been given 20% for each leg for my VA ratings that the DOD had to match. Because I was given 0% for life long Coumadin/ blood disorder. Having other referred unfit conditions on my P3 profile, helped My DOD rating for my Army retire the to be 60%.
Due to my length of Active duty service in the Army of 24 years, I am already entitled to 60% anyway if I was doing a regular retirement. I did not have to worry about being offered severance pay from the PEB.
1 of the The differences with being medically retired is all of your money will not be taxed. With a regular retirement all money is subject to being taxed, state taxes depends on the state you file state taxes in. I was told by finance that I qualify for CRDP. I want you to read on this forum about CRDP and CRSC pay, or Google DFAS CRDP and CRSC pay. Also if you do a regular retirement it will take you longer for your VA compensation to be paid to you. With a medical retirement you automatically fall under the IDES (Integrated Disability Evaluation System). If the PEB finds you unfit for duty, This guarantees the VA to give you a rating before being retired for all of your injuries so you can collect your compensation check immediately upon retirement. Because you have 20 years you will get your DOD retirement check and your VA check upon your retirement from the military.
I want you to do your own research and reading on this forum, googling, and getting advice from other forum members. We are all here to help you.
After you have read enough on this forum you are going to know who the real Attorneys are, who are the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and just who to ask what to because they genuinely care.
I just don't see how you are going to do a regular retirement anyway because you should be medically coded in MEDPROS and EPROFILE system as non deployable if you are Army, wearing medical alert tags for anticoagulant Theraphy, Blood thinners usage as well. If you are medically coded correctly in the medical and personnel systems, no Seperation orders of any type could be generated in AORS until the medical flag is removed. I could keep writing, but if you have further questions let me know.