I've been in the army for about 2 years. I injured my back towards the end of a year long AIT. I didn't want to be stuck in AIT so I fought through it, passed all PT tests, and graduated my ASI course and PCS'd to my first duty station. Once I got here (to my remote base) I carried on with my responsibilities until my back got too bad to ignore. After I notified the unit medic and a few failed medications, I set up an appointment through TRICARE REMOTE to have an orthopedic doctor in country check me out. After a positive SLR the doctor told me to get an MRI. The MRI showed that I have a herniated disc(L5-S1), DDD, an annular tear, spinal stenosis, scoliosis, and sciatica. The Doctor recommended a Posterior Spinal Fusion + TLIF. My profiling officer is in Germany and I've been on 3 temporary profiles for a combination of 4 months(with a few short lapses in profile coverage) ever since the MRI results. The Major in charge of profiling came down this month and basically told me to do physical therapy excercises I find on google/youtube, hold out until I PCS in February to Fort Hood, and wrote a temp profile that will last until then.
My questions are:
When I get to Fort Hood will I be able to talk to the inprocessing medical professional about a permanent profile/next steps?
If granted, would this be an automatic P3 profile that triggers a MEB?
Can I refuse surgery due to the horror stories I see of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome, and still receive compensation?
Will I have to go through a long process of physical therapy even though I've been doing it on my own(to no avail) and my MRI shows conditions that aren't magically fixed by PT?
None of this is documented on my TRICAREONLINE, will my documentation(every appointment/mri disc ((with multiple copies))/Medication baggies) be enough?
etc.
any advice/answer/information is appreciated.
Thank you
My questions are:
When I get to Fort Hood will I be able to talk to the inprocessing medical professional about a permanent profile/next steps?
If granted, would this be an automatic P3 profile that triggers a MEB?
Can I refuse surgery due to the horror stories I see of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome, and still receive compensation?
Will I have to go through a long process of physical therapy even though I've been doing it on my own(to no avail) and my MRI shows conditions that aren't magically fixed by PT?
None of this is documented on my TRICAREONLINE, will my documentation(every appointment/mri disc ((with multiple copies))/Medication baggies) be enough?
etc.
any advice/answer/information is appreciated.
Thank you