 MEB for back
Hi,
I am a Marine and have been in a little over 10 years. I planned on this being my career and retire, until now. My doctor is now putting me on a MEB Board for my back. I tried to delay this process as long as possible by doing two LIMU back to back. I have done everything possible, extensive physical therapy, chiropractic, TENS unit, RFA, acupuncture and medications. Nothing has worked to get my pain under control. My doctor refuses to do surgery because of too many levels of involvement in my back. I am just starting the MEB process as we speak and extremely nervous about it, especially if I'm found unfit for duty and what my rating would be. Of course I want the magic number of at least 30% because I do have a family and really need to keep the medical benefits. But I am finding it difficult to even estimate by looking at the VASRD of what I might receive. I do have a few questions that I hope someone could answer for me, since I have problems in my Lumbar, Thorac and Cervical areas of my back, do they rate each area of your back separately or all together? I do have MRI’s that show where and what the problems are in my Lumbar, Thorac and Cervical areas of my back, which I hope helps my case.
Yesterday my doctor and I sat down and got 1/2 of my narrative written up. I go in next Tuesday, so finish the rest of it up and do a ROM test. He wrote that I have Facet Syndrome, Lumbar Spondylosis, and Lumbago. But in my medical records it also shows that I have Cervical Spondylosis and Intervertebral Disc Degeneration-Cervical. Should I ask to have these two conditions included or is one of the above conditions he wrote in my narrative yesterday the same condition just under a different name. Oh, I’m so confused???? I really don’t know what all these medical terms mean. Also, are all the above conditions rated separately or as 1 condition?
I also have been diagnosed with depression/anxiety. I think I developed this because of the pain I’m constantly in from my back. I never had any symptoms of depression/anxiety until after dealing with day to day back pain. Would this help to add this to my MEB or should I not worry about it.
I apologize for the long post, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Dvldog98
Last edited by dvldog98; September 25th, 2008 at 04:28 PM.
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