BigWillUSAF
PEB Forum Regular Member
I am a 9 1/2 year AF member that was recently demoted to E4. I was doing a special duty and blew out my back in the line of duty last October. The first diagnosis came as compressed vertebra in Jan 11. Found out in late March that I have herniated discs. Found out yesterday that i actually have 5 herniated discs, 4 bulging discs, and vertebrae defects, i.e. broken pieces of vertebrae. All during this time I have been failing my PT tests because they have been making me do the timed walk. I can't pass it. This next failure will be a discharge...at least that's what has been threatened. My doctor says that more than likely I will meet an MEB, but because it has taken so long to find out all the real problems and having had to go off base for care has delayed my treatment, they have to wait to start the MEB until the medical team has exhausted all treatment opportunities. So I am in a waiting game. I test again next month and will probably fail. I don't understand why they can't start the MEB, or how they can discharge me with all these problems. I lost all my appeals for my stripe back. I have never done a bad thing in the AF. I have done far better things than most, but my weakness is this PT, even though my Doc wrote a letter stating that my injury is the reason I am failing. It's like it doesn't matter. I improved my last test by 15 points and only missed passing by .25 points and they wrote in my package I showed no significant improvement. It's BS. I need help, but it doesn't seem like anyone or myself can find the right answers. Any suggestions?