Beginning this whole process soon! NEED HELP!!

Hello all thanking you for viewing my thread, I am not sure of this was the right spot to post, but I am new and couldn't find anywhere else.

A little background information. I am 22 an e-5 and have 4 years in the military with one deployment to the Stan; my mos is infantry 11b. I ETS in FEB 2013. I have been diagnosed by an army psychiatrist with having mild anxiety attacks (service related) and moderate sleep problems (service related and continued service after deployment has aggregated it) and ADHD (Psychiatrist has marked this as service related). I have a prescription for all three.

Upon returning from deployment I began noticing pain in my right hip associated only with high impact activity. I was told this may have been caused when my truck rolled in afghanistan, not to mention the countless patrols, carrying 100+ pounds. I was referred to physical therapy. Physical therapy began in July of 2011. After 4 months my condition had detererated to the point that walking for more than 5 minutes caused discomfort to a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, and if I tried to run go up stairs or conduct anything high impact with out having pain to a point that my right leg would collapse under the pressure caused at hip joint. My PA referred me to get an X-Ray, in October 2011 , the results stated that "sclerotic changes identified over the superior acetabular region on the right. Concern of internal derangement."

At this point I was discharged from physical therapy with my discharge note stating "patient discharged- following imaging of R hip, it was deemed adequate to discontinue physical therapy and explore other avenue to adress chief complaint." I returned to my PA and he referred me for an MRI with Arthrogram.

I went to my MRI in december 2011 which was about an hour and a half away. Upon completing the MRI the radiologist had My results within about 45 minutes (this guy was awesome), and the result stated "scout film of the right hip does demonstrate some bulging of the lateral femoral neck head margin suggestive of underlying femoral acetabulat or CAM impingement syndrome. Findinggs also suggestive of an early labral tear and recent labral tear."I was told by the tech when she brought me my results that the radiologist wished to speak to me directly. He informed me that the condition FAI was probably aggravated by the labral tear, and that my earlier labral tear did not heal correctly, though further imaging would probably be necessary. He told me that this was a relatively new medical condition and not much research has been done on it, and that many people are still poorly educated in tr condition. He stated that his colleague is one of the only people in the northeast that will perform surgery for my condition, and that I must realize that I will never fully recover and that he believes my findings are also consistent with early onset arthritis, but he couldn't put that in his report because he would need further imaging to confirm. (this is still the only MD I have met with).

I returned to my PA who told me to wait until after Christmas leave. In early January 2012 my PA referred me to an orthopedic surgeon, all my records were forwarded to his office and I am awaiting to hear from him now.

My PA is new, and is by the book. He doesn't know much about my condition, and has not offered me any consult except that he told me we will explore surgery and MEB.

Ok, so I understand I am relatively early in my process but the only information I have received is from the Internet and this site. So my questions are;

1) at what point can one begin there application for disability from the VA, can I start while still serving on Active Duty.

2) What will my options be if they offer my surgery. Do I have the choice to deny surgery and accept an immediate MEB? Will turning down Surgery affect my VA disability? Can I be simultaneously be recconended for an MEB and surgery?

3) does anyone out there have similar diagnoses including the mental disorders?

4) what rating can I expect from the VA?

5) if my PA fails to recommend me for an MEB, can my company commander recommend me( seeing as how I am useless to the army)?

6) I have developed almost a permenant limp, will this effect my rating?

7) I am also interested in anyone who receives disability for ADHD? What was your journey like and is it possible? What is the rating?

8) since most of my medical records are fairly undisputed and have all already diagnosed and imaging of hip is complete will my MEB/PEB Go faster then others?


Again, I dont know much about the process and have tried to do a lot of research!, but would much appreciate a little walk trough.
Thanks!
 
Lots to swallow here, first familiarize yourself with FAI there is a bit of it going on around here and is a total nightmare to deal with, do a forum search for FAI and look for MXMESS/JD101proof TXNVYMOM and my Posts to get a clue. Second depends on the severity of your anxiety/sleep disorder and your ADHD depends on which you will eb rated for, as you can only be rated for 1 mental condition. My uneducated guess is that the combat related one is worse. if they have a military doc that will do the FAI repair for you, have it done, there is a fairly high success rate with the particular surgery for it ( noone has gotten worse that i've seen for fai surgery) if you have the surgery you will be MED BOARDED, not necessarily separated but atleast med boarded, if you do not have the surgery you may still be med boarded but may have less "evidence" to base it off of. and they may say that you refused treatment for the condition. Your jut starting the process your records are gonna grow alot before your actually put in for a MEB, so take your time trying to get better and researching everything you can and make sure you have everything medically wrong with you documented. There is no prize for being a "good soldier" and sucking everything up while it gets worse.
 
Sorry to hear about your FAI diagnosis. As twitch stated, look around the forum for helpful links and such. Feel free to search my posts, as I try to post everything I can about the FAI condition. I have a thread that may prove to be useful to you, I encourage you to check out post #17: http://www.pebforum.com/f100/outcomes-fai-without-laberal-tears-29401/

Your medical records will definitely grow! Hopefully your PCM's tolerance of coming in will grow as well... As stated, this is a relatively new and commonly misunderstood/not-understood/misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed condition. Take the time to learn as much as you can because chances are, alot of docs have NO clue what FAI is. Also, have them diagnose the opposite hip as well. Chances are you have it on the other side. In my particular case, I have it on both sides, but the opposite only started deteriorating rapidly after I had surgery on the other! It was determined to be caused by overuse during surgical recovery. So beware!

Also, and I cannot stress enough the importance of this, make sure your condition is being properly documented!! This could mean the difference between the military/VA covering your surgery, or having to come out of pocket after you are out! If I had to pay out of pocket for my hip scope it would have came to $30,000.00 and up (and thats the conservative procedure for just 1 side!) This is the amount listed on my HealthNet bill to Tricare.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, need advice,etc.
 
Thanks! sounds good, I am awaiting the decision on whether they will start my MEB, I will post a complete timeline soon
 
Anybody anywhere been rated for ADD/ADHD? I can't find any rating for it, anywhere, by schedule, report, or told in a forum. What were the ratings? Asking here because of the reference above.
IQ 130, Memory 95 = ADD/ADHD, bad memory/anger mgmt...all MH diagnosis and LOD approved for ADD/ADHD on return from Iraq. Just wondering what the ratings were or are.
Like most, I'm waiting on VA, 137 days.
 
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