Quote:
Originally Posted by Armymedic
I am a 35 year old Soldier in the Army,a Combat Medic, and I recently got the results back from an MRI (which I had been pushing many months for) and the impressions are
MILD NEURAL FORAMINAL STENOSIS AT L4-5 AND L5-S1
MILD DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE WITH POSTERIOR PROTRUSIONS (APPROX 2-3MM) AT L4-5 AND L5-S1.
What TX (treatment) should I push for? What should I expect? All my main doctor has done is just dope me up on pain medications. I go to a military orthopedic surgeon next month for an evaluation of a permanent physical profile (An Army document saying you are broken, and limits the exact duties you can perform). I am getting sick and tired of just taking pain meds daily for this, and need to get some ideas on how to pursue this..
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I'm sure you know about the medical review board, if someone in your chain of command puts you up for it you can get early retirment due to medical reasons then you go file a claim at the VA but make sure you get all of your records from your docs and the clinics and keep them for the VA before you get off active duty. The VA will start you at 20% for this type of a back condition but if you do things right you may get 30%. Once you get your DD214 you can get real therapy and you will have tricare for life to pay the privet doc's and you can file for social security disability as well then sign up for the vocational rehab program at the VA and they will pay for your school pluse books pluse $900 a month check. Also you can get all the free real good treatment you want if you concider studying acupuncture or chiropractic because there are no fee to student clinics built into the school and with that kind of a life change and the people around you that care about you healing you will get fixed. That is exactily what I did and it has been great and I am healing with 3 herneated disks and ligament damage in my neck snd no surgeries or anything.
God bless you and good luck
,Michael