HOPING SOMEONE CAN HELP.

concernedwife

PEB Forum Regular Member
PEB Forum Veteran
Registered Member
Good evening, all. I apologize if I seem naive with this, but I am naive when it comes to this.

Either way, I am the spouse of someone in the Navy and he has been seeing a neurologist for a little under a year now. He has been in eight years this November. In that time, they have run tests and put him on 3-5 different medications for migraines. He has migraines about six days a week on a bad week - four days a week on a good week. They are horrible and through these migraines, he has continued to push on as much as humanly possible and has accumulated awards, high evals and has ranked up, even. They have done scans, the works - and he is now even going to a pain psychologist as well for this.

EDITED TO ADD: He has blood pressure issues [just the past two years] where he is now on an extremely high dose of medication for, but they have determined the BP issues have nothing to do with the migraines.

He has received botox injections once. The reason the neurologist didn't do it another time, was because he is on shore duty and about a year out from going back to sea duty. They cannot do botox injections while he is on sea duty, as I am sure a lot of you know. He also recently did a sleep apnea test [waiting on results for this] about a month ago to rule anything out there. The neurologist has truly been an amazing help in trying to figure out the cause - and not just trying to mask the problem, itself.

He was recently placed on a medication that he had an adverse reaction to. Because of this, his neurologist sat him down and told him his options. One of those options were that of getting out due to these medical conditions. The neurologist offered to put him on LIMDU/a stress free environment and has stated a MEB may be in the future if this continues.

I have read through the posts here on the board, and frankly, it scares me to think about what may or may not lie ahead of us. As I am sure most of you here know, transitioning from something you've done your entire adult life to something completely different is a little terrifying. Alas, he is miserable. He loves what he does but the migraines are too much. I have never seen someone in so much pain as I have with him.

I know that my husband knows what happens with this - but, he doesn't know everything. I am curious if you all could let me know how long this process [generally speaking] takes. What sort of compensation would he get for something like hypertension and migraines, if any at all? I know that most of the time these things are case by case - but I like to be prepared when it comes to the future.

Once you go to the medical board, does it take forever to find things out?

Does it take a long time for ratings?

Has anyone experienced the above mentioned; if so, what can you offer me in the way of advice or timeline?

Thank you!
 
Welcome to the forum!

I am active duty Air Force so my advice for you is going to be limited. From what I have seen and experienced you should expect a MEB/PEB to last generally around 6 months to a year. Some cases go really quick and some take a long time, especially if an appeal is conducted.

The best advice I have for you on how timelines work in the Navy is that you should just browse around the Navy portion of the forum and read through people's timelines (these aren't visible when viewing this website on a mobile device). There are specific threads for timelines, but some people attach them to the bottom of each of their posts (like mine below).

As for compensation for migraines this will vary on frequency and intensity. I received 50% for mine, which occur 2-3 times a week and can be prostrating at times.
 
Timelines can vary greatly depending on branch of service and your location. Each PEB has a certain geographic area and caseload.

Having said that, it can all
Happen in as little as 5
Months or take over a year. Mine was progressing extremely fast until I started appealing at every level.

A good outcome is worth the wait! But if you get a good outcome right off the bat, then that is even better.

My recommendation for you is to search here on this site and read up on every migrane post and Navy timelines. Also check out militarydisabilitymadeeasy.com for migraines.
 
Does anyone know why a 199 would be taking so long to come back after a hearing ?
 
does anyone happen to know what he may get for the migraines AND hypertension (high blood pressure issues)?

i know nobody knows for sure - but figured i would test the waters and see if anyone has been through the same. what did they do to help with the process of possibly going to the MEB, etc.
 
does anyone happen to know what he may get for the migraines AND hypertension (high blood pressure issues)?

i know nobody knows for sure - but figured i would test the waters and see if anyone has been through the same. what did they do to help with the process of possibly going to the MEB, etc.
Here is a link to a website that will shine some light on what it is you may be looking at http://www.militarydisabilitymadeeasy.com . You will have to gauge the symptomology of your husbands disability and compare to the descriptions depicted on the website.
Best of Luck.
 
appreciate the feedback, and appreciate this site. he has an appointment with his neurologist next month, so hoping to get some answers then. in the meantime, i know that they are going to be doing more botox which will hopefully help. if not, time to do something about this.
 
Has his Neurologist performed EEGs on him? Have they ruled out epilepsy? Some seizures manifest themselves as headaches. I knew someone that had all of the symptoms of a migraine but turns out it was seizures. After being treated with some Tegretal (seizure Med) the headaches stopped. Just a thought.
 
UPDATE: His neuro has him on relpax [I believe that's what it is called?] but only gives him 12 pills a month. They tell him to only take this when the migraine is bad. They were unable to refill his script so he has been in some horrible pain - lots of complaining, the works. He called his neuro on Friday and the doctor went ahead and refilled the medication and also put him on something called Depakote. He was told that this medication would be an abortive medication. he took it this morning and is completely out of it; Feeling weak and lethargic and could hardly stand up. Yet another medication that is just not going to work out for him, it looks like.

My husband was told Friday that they are going to start the botox treatments again to see if that measure works. Hoping it does, because it's very hard to see my once incredibly active husband become almost housebound when he is not at work.

He is the type of person that refuses to go to the ER even when he can't see straight because he is so afraid that it will hurt his career, or what us left of it thanks to these migraines. He is one who definitely tries to just push through and doesn't want to inconvenience anyone at his command by calling in sick [never has in the eight years he has been in] or having to leave to go to medical.

Not sure why I am updating here, but wanting to anyway - in hopes that maybe someone can give advice - or just send good thoughts. He has an appointment next month with the neuro and will be letting him know that he feels he is running out of options with every thing. This has been going on for quite some time, and I feel he is tired of being a guinea pig and trying things that are just making the situation worse [abortive meds have been]
 
I hope your husband is doing better with the change of meds.

If he does go through the MEB, it is quite a lengthy ordeal, but if found unfit, it is worth the wait. Did he end up getting high blood pressure as a result of the migraines or the treatment? If so, that should be added to his unfitting conditions.

Best of luck!

Old Army Aviator Chief
 
Had he tried Maxalt? If so, take it with 500mg of Naproxin. My doc was part of a study conducted a few years ago and it showed a significant increase (75%& better) when you combined the two instead of just taking maxalt at the onset of a migraine. My body is very reisitant to medications, I have roughly a 5 min window to take something or I'm stuck with the migraine for hours. This works great for me though, as long as I take it in time. I feel a HUGE difference since the addition of the Naproxin. Just a suggestion he could talk to his doctor about.
 
I hope your husband is doing better with the change of meds.

If he does go through the MEB, it is quite a lengthy ordeal, but if found unfit, it is worth the wait. Did he end up getting high blood pressure as a result of the migraines or the treatment? If so, that should be added to his unfitting conditions.

Best of luck!

Old Army Aviator Chief

hi there! they have not concluded that the BP/migraines are linked. his BP has never been an issue up until his first deployment, which is when they first found out about it. this was approximately three and a half years ago. the BP is under control WITH medication, but the migraines have not been better, even with the BP being kept at bay with the meds.
 
Had he tried Maxalt? If so, take it with 500mg of Naproxin. My doc was part of a study conducted a few years ago and it showed a significant increase (75%& better) when you combined the two instead of just taking maxalt at the onset of a migraine. My body is very reisitant to medications, I have roughly a 5 min window to take something or I'm stuck with the migraine for hours. This works great for me though, as long as I take it in time. I feel a HUGE difference since the addition of the Naproxin. Just a suggestion he could talk to his doctor about.

hey, aaron!

yes, he was on maxalt for about two years - they wound up having to take him off of it because it did nothing for him. [his old PCM just kept him on it for that long, regardless of him feeling horribly] he does take naproxen as needed. he is like you are - he has a 5-10 minute window to take something, otherwise he is out for the count for the rest of the evening; that or hugging a toilet bowl vomiting.
 
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