brian18

My mistake, thanks for redirecting me. Is this forum only for people who are no longer in? Guess I'm a little confused and this seemed like the place to post. I was told today that we don't have to get physicals with both the Army and the VA, and you could just to the VA for disability. Anyways, thanks again.

New guy here, currently active duty in the Army and in the process of getting out with approximately 4 months left. I'm in the infantry (paratrooper) and have 15 months of combat missions in Iraq and 4 months of humanitarian efforts in Haiti under my belt. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the whole getting out of the army process, and more specifically, getting my claims turned in with the VA and all good with that while I'm still on active duty. They said it's considerably easier and faster to take care of all this while still on active duty, so needless to say, I'm stressing on this a little. I'm getting all my medical records in order and getting everything organized and annotated before I get my VA physical and file anything, so I can be prepared. I've read and read, and checked out the rating schedules and FAQ's and all that, before deciding to post. There's one thing I'm not sure of though, that I was told I could get compensated for. I was assaulted off-post .. and this wasn't just like a one punch kind of assault; my nose and jaw were broken, knocked out tooth, subdural hematoma and pretty bad TBI (I also had a VERY severe TBI injury a year before joining the army), severe swelling, lacerations, etc. It's in my medical records as well as pictures of me after the fact, so it's definitely documented and I was in a TBI program because of it as well. Is this something that I can receive compensation for? As said, this was my second serious case of TBI, the first being from a life threatening motorcycle accident. I have a picture and i assure you it's not pretty. I look dead. To give you an idea of what else I'm claiming or learning about to possibly claim: -Torn ACL, bone contusion, chrondromalacia patella, and a medial meniscal tear in one of my knees, from a parachute jump. No surgery was ever done, did physical therapy, it still gives me problems, as well as pain in the other knee. -Getting a sleep study done soon for possible sleep apnea. No energy, falling asleep while driving, etc etc etc and my Mom has sleep apnea with a CPAP, so it's definitely worth checking out. Also, I sleep talk, sleep walk, wake up confused and disoriented, etc. So I have some very real sleep disorders, which may be tied to PTSD. -For PTSD, out of pride or stupidity or whatever you want to call it, I've always answered "no" on any survey we've taken with medical people and I've never sought help from my provider or mental health. Coming back from Iraq (with my CIB and a valorous award [ARCOM with V device] from one of our attacks), I definitely had some issues with night sweats, night terrors, trouble readapting, etc etc. Again, none of this was documented and I never sought help. But I will be speaking with my provider and and trying to get it documented and claimed. -Broke my ankle before I joined (same motorcycle accident from the TBI), which has been aggravated by the stress of being in the infantry. Nothing in my medical records reflecting this though. Unfortunately, getting to sick call in my unit isn't the easiest thing. -No clue how dental works, but I had two teeth knocked out during the assault, caps (fake teeth) were put on by the dentist. Not sure if that is claimable. -And an embarrassing one, but no reason to hide it from you guys ... in Iraq, I had developed warts on my hands which unfortunately spread to my .. well, down THERE. lol. This is documented and I saw my provider when I was in Iraq and they it was most likely HPV (genital warts) and gave me some medication, which ended up discoloring the skin (i guess that would be scarring?) where it was treated. The warts on my hand .. and on the other place .. are both still an issue. I didn't see anything regarding this in the rating schedule or anything like that, but it's definitely an issue. I didn't want to throw all this out there at once and really my question was just going to be about being assaulted, but I wanted to give you an idea of what else I'd be claiming, and it all just kind of came out! It's probably a moot point, cause I'll probably die from cancer at a very young age from my 4 months in Haiti and the burning bodies, burning tires, burning feces, dust, etc etc etc I was constantly inhaling :P Any advice, feedback, tips, criticism, etc is welcomed. For all you that have served before me, thanks for your service! Cheers.