Hello, I can't answer too much of what your asking or offer much guidance yet. What got me on your post were the ESI shots for the DDD, I have the same and roughly the same age, if I understand what your saying that the "ESI shot were wrong to do for treatment of the DJD/DDD" why is that? I'm curious because my path went from calf pain investigation, DDD lumbar L-X everything messed up, to PAD because the spine DR couldn't find my pulse on my left foot and quote"you need to get to a vascular surgeon to check that out now".
So we did and now diagnosed with PVD/PAD of both lower extremeties discovered after ABI's test resting and after treadmill test were below .40 both , MRI with contrast done to see blockages I was really and still messed up because of all this emotionally. But my main point was I started to get treated for one issue, and I still need to get treated for that, during this process a more severe issue was discovered (PVD/PAD/AAA) Not to cause alarm because so many conditions manifest way later in life I have two that normally happen to people in the mid 50's and later or not even until they are well into their 60's. For me I've been lucky that the ortho people on my back MRI found I have a 3CM AAA(abdominal aortic aneurysm). So getting the right DR or small group of DR's, to make sure they refer to one another is quite all right to have a few cooks in the kitchen IMHO.
How can someone without diabeties, which I don't have either but I suspect I have pre-diabetes which is just as dangerous because I've seen high glucose results a few times post-service, never checked during service.
What years did you serve? For me 84-97 Persian Gulf Vet. What bothers me most is how can someone only 48 years old have the body of 65 year old, no offense you older VETS. These silent diseases are a real (fill in the blank) when not found early enough. Also why in service are we not checked every 2 or 3 years for basic metabolic panel and cholesterol is beyond me. And the kicker for me is I tore out my left ACL during the prepping exercises for the push north for the ground phase and dealt with that the next 6 years and then finally got out because I was tired of keeping getting profiles for running etc . I gave up basically and didn't re-enlist because I couldn't deal with the knee issue anymore and didn't look like they were going to medically retire me. So basically two choices: forced to keep on keeping on or exit the military on your own which I did. I would loved to have stayed the next 7 years for full 20 years. Always the famous have some motrin and Return to duty.