Is the Dr right?

[salros13]

Today my husband's neurologist(a Major) told us that my husband HAS to be on a temp profile for at least a year before a medboard can be started. He also said it would take a 3-star General to get a medboard for a condition that has given a temp profile less than a year. When I told him of a friend that had a mTBI medboarding less than a year he said TBI is a different story.

Is this correct? Where is the reg on this?

Thank you!
Michelle

 

[scoutCC]

You have to reach maximum medical benefit is the wording I believe. It is difficult for the many conditions to reach that state in less than a year. Many conditions don't reach that for many many years. However, there is an assumption that after 12 months they are close enough. The MTF commander has to approve a profile extension further than that.

Each branch has their own profiling regs. AR 40-501 chapter 7 has the majority of the relevant stuff for the Army.

Profiling doesn't really have a reputation of being about medicine. Its more about administrative paperwork, so most docs don't really understand it well and just wing it. Reading a regulation isn't important to many docs. I feel it would be a likely estimate that 50% of profiles have a couple things wrong with them. It is not uncommon to find a specialist unwilling to even touch them.

What is the treatment being offered and what is the likelihood of success? The answers to that is really the important thing for determining if a permanent profile should be issued in less than 12 months. If there is treatment to explore, a permanent profile isn't appropriate IMO.

 

[salros13]

okay, that makes sense. My husband started having issue this May. He was then put on a profile that had no checked for everything except wearing boots. He then began the process of working through neurology, pain management(steroid shots made everything way worse!), CT and MRI scans, and then neurosurgery... to be told in September that the hardware in his neck(from a surgery in 2010 resulting from a break from a jump in 94) was perfect and no reason for the issues. I was troubled by this because the symptoms were coming more often and the pain was increasing week to week. 27 Oct he was admitted to Tripler Medical with stroke-like symptoms. Over that week they did every test imaginable! Each test coming back clear. They put a neck brace on and he then became void of the symptoms so they sent him home with an angiogram scheduled. The angiogram has now come back clear. We went to the neurologist again today for a followup and the term "cervical radiculopathy" was given to my husband's condition, even though it doesn't explain the multitude of stroke-like symptoms my husband had two weeks prior. We have one more hope in this process right now to figure out what is causing dizziness, slow speech, trouble walking, locked muscles and weakness on the right side and that is ENT. It seems to be the last stop. My husband's new 90 day profile now has added no stairs and no computer(the position of the head seems to bring on the dizziness). He works on the second floor in a secure location so the Command has him calling in every morning which is great but obviously we asked what was next from the Dr. and when he said that my husband would need to be on that profile for a year, even when all medical options were exhausted, I was floored and after the last few weeks I am getting really frustrated. He also told me that we should document more....am I suppose to take my husband to the ER every day that he is dizzy??? Is he expected to just hang out at home every day, calling in every morning to finish out a year? After two weeks con leave he is getting ansty and difficult, I can only imagine what will happen after doing this for months!! By the time this is over, they might have to add Psych to the Dr list!