Can any one relate

[3huffman]

Hi my name is Wes. I have been reading this forum for a few months now. I just would like to say it has been a lot of help so far and I look forward to sharing with you guys. This will be a long one since I have so much to list. I am 28 and have been in the air force for 6 years. I would like to stay in the military but I also don’t want to start down the surgery path either it seems to be a 50/50 shot from my research. I have read through the VA rating schedule and didn’t really find much help in that I have also read the electronic code for federal regulations. So let me begin my PCM told me that if I come see him on the 9th of oct and decide not to have surgery then he was going to start the meb process. Me and my family have decided against that even though I still scheduled an appointment with my neurologist on the 20th just in case I have a sudden change of heart. So here is what the Dr’s are saying again any help or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this long thing.

My civilian pain management:
Lumbar Disc disease at l4-5
Lumbar facet joint osteoarthritis
Lumbar spinal stenosis at l4-l5
Myofascial spasm associated with above
Limited ROM
Ulnar nerve neuritis
He has put me on bed rest/quarters for 6 days in the past month ( I just started keeping record of this b/c of this site thank you)

My neurologist
Broad based osteophyte T12-S1 ( haven’t had thoratic mri done, did c-spine no finding)
Large bilateral l4-5 herniated disc left greater than right
Hypertrophy and lateral recess stenois
Apparent impingement of L1-S1 nerve roots
L5-S1 disc protrusion
Mild L3-L4 disc bulge
No evidence of spondylosis but slight levo curature of the thoracolumbar junction with loss of the normal lordosis.
Bilateral low back pain and bilateral lower extremity pain with paresthesis and weakness
He has put me on quarter for two days once and recommends surgery

PCM notes:
Left leg atrophy
Numbness and tingling in both lower extremities and upper extremities
Cannot sit or stand longer than 30-45 mins without discomfort
Back pain for over 2 1/5 years
He has put me on profile fom july until jan
Recommends surgery

I have not had a ROM done yet but my question is through you guys reading and research along with what I’ve done what kind of percentage do you think I could expect? I’m nervous because I don’t want to get 20% and not be able to get it fixed when it completely goes out on me, I just want to wait and have surgery as a last resort that’s all. And also I cross trained from crew chief to intelligence hoping to ease the pain from the lifting but my sciatica got worse from the sitting that’s all I have please any help would be great you can email at wesleyhuffman26@yahoo.com thank you again for your time and good luck to you all thank you

[builtgypsy]

Hello, and welcome!

I can relate, to some extent. Atrophy of my left leg, osteoarthritis, multi-level facet degeneration...the list goes on. I've also been in this system for more months than I care to count.

Evidence is your best friend. That's what I've had drilled into my head here, and it's the truth. Every month or two I would go to the medical records office at my MTF and have the latest electonic medical records printed up. Every time I had to carry around my own medical record I was scan copies of what things that had been written in it instead of on the computer. If you can get away with doing this at work, it saves a lot of time and money.

This way, if you wind up going to the formal board instead of being able to get it resolved through the formal board, you'll have plenty of evidence to show them for what you should be properly rated.

Good luck to you!

[3huffman]

what percentage do you think u may get based off ur research