I've been reading a while but finally decided to jump in, make an account and ask some questions. I'm still Active Duty and have a couple years until retirement. I'm old by military standards (49) and have a number of medical problems but most of them aren't documented much at all. It's just difficult to find time to see doctors much and even then I don't know how the system works.
Anyway, let me give you an example of what I'm talking about: I have gout pretty bad. I take medicine but still have attacks fairly regularly (at least one every couple months). I have seen specialists and they have increased my meds but they say it-is-what-it-is at this point. I do my best and nobody gives me a rough time at work. They can see I am doing my best to deal with it. Thing is, I don't go to the doctor's office anymore when I have an attack. What would be the point? I already know the attack is because of gout. Besides, by the time I can get an appointment the uric acid level has probably already gone down (and the attack might even be over). Plus, in the past I have worried that missing more work for medical appointments might lead to me getting med boarded out of the Army. That's not as much a concern at this point since I am nearing 18 years but I still don't want to miss work more than necessary.
And while we're on the subject, I looked up the ratings for gout and here's what I found:
I'm confused by the wording. What is "incapacitating" versus "severely incapacitating"? And who would determine that? Sometimes I can't drive because of a gout attack so I get my wife to drive me to work. If it's bad enough that I have trouble hobbling around, then I will use crutches. But basically none of my day-to-day stuff is being documented. I'm sure if someone looked at my records they would think I rarely have attacks.
So what should I be doing? Is there some way to document this without being ridiculous and going to the doc constantly?