Question About Appeals And Wrong Diagnosis

[CavMedic]

I will try to make this short. I am a combat veteran (CMB), infantry medic to be exact. I was in Iraq, July 2006- October 2007. I hurt my back and was service connected for lumbar strain at 10% in Jan 2008. Now since then I have been on profile for the same problem. I am in the Florida Army National Guard. I basically can not run. Feet fall asleep and go numb and my back just becomes unbearable. Walking is a chore sometimes, as is standing for long periods of time. I usually wind up bed bound for 2 days after trying a pt test.

Since then, I have followed up with the VA outpatient clinic here in Tallahassee. The doc here did xrays after the first bed bound incident. Found spondylolisthesis and spondylolysis of L5 and S1. He prescribed me some muscle relaxants and pain medication. Told me to rest it and see. This was January 2009.

Now my unit is up for another deployment, me being on profile is a no go. Army doc put me on another 3 month profile and stated I have to come to a resolution, ie. MMRB, or whatever. So, I went back to my doc at the VA, he schedule me for a MRI at the end of July 2009 in Gainesville. I got the results back and there is bilteral nerve root compression and L5 ans S1 with a bulge. Some other stuff on there too but obviously not a "lumbar strain". The doc scheduled me for physical therapy before any kind of surgical intervention.

Now, it has been more than a year, so can i appeal the rating decision? Can I get back pay for the rating I should have been given? What should I do in general? I have 16 years in and now I am facing the fact that I maybe booted. I can't get promoted because I can not run. I will probably miss this deployment...which I do want to go.

Anyway, any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Any other info needed, let me know.