Help Please Pending Medical Board

[LCDRJJ]

Hello everyone, thanks for viewing my post. I may be sent to a review board and am very stressed out right now. I have bilateral plantar fasciitis,degenerative disc disease, chronic bilat knee pain,and possibly Ankylosing Spondylitis. I have 2 childern and a wife to support and I am the only breadwinner. I have been in the service for 14 years. I have been battling plantar fasciitis for 2 years and nothing is working. I have used ice,night splints,stretching,inserts, changed shoes numerous times. I have failed treatment with 3 different physical therapist. I have had 3 rounds of shots on both feet. It is difficult for me to walk more than 5 mintues w/o pain. MRI shows evidence of "chronic plantar fasciitis". It is very hard to get around and I walk with a noticable limp. At home I use a stool to get around most of the time. I also had an MRI of the lumbar spine showed 2 bulding discs touching the spinal cord, 1 additional proturding disc touching the s1 nerve root on each side of my spinal column. I have "marked" arthritis with ligament hypertrophy at L4-L5 and L5 -S1, and central stenosis at L5. Lower back hurts all the time but tramadol does help and occasionally I take vicodin. I was sent to a rheumatologist and diagnosed with "possible" ankylosing spondylitis, he thinks it might be the early stages. I am currently on Humira for that. I also have achey pain and tenderness in my mid back and neck on and off, however have not had an MRI of that. They think the plantar fasciitis might be releated to the Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). I say possilbe AS (I have all the risk factors: HLA b27 pos, male,family history,arthritis in back), my inflammation markers are not elevated, but the MRI showed obvious inflammation in the back, my SI joints are also normal. However it can take up to 10 years for AS to show changes in the SI joints, he thinks it is the beginning but not certain. I don't know how the review board would view this. Because AS is a chronic progressive disease that would just get worse with time. So would the board just consider it Degenerative Disc Disease or AS? I I am taking Humira and it seems to be helping but it still hurts. I also have had increase bilat knee ache in the past year, no xrays or MRI yet on this. So my question is any suggestion how to get ready for the board? I am worried I am going to get 10 or 20% and won't be able to work or support my family. Do I need a lawyer? If so what type? Anybody have had experience with this or an estimate at %age of disability? Any information would be helpful. Thank you.

[usmcgirl]

when is your pending seperation date with out the med board?

[carlie]

Hello everyone, thanks for viewing my post. I may be sent to a review board and am very stressed out right now.

Any information would be helpful. Thank you.

http://www.pebforum.com/content/

[LCDRJJ]

Thanks I will check it out

http://www.pebforum.com/content/

[LCDRJJ]

My boss told me if I have any more time off, I will be sent to a board, so it has not happened yet, but work is becoming unbearable (my jobe requires me to be on my feet alot and I am using a stool to get around-which my boss is frowning on and wondering when I am going to get better) and I am using a lot of vicodin to get through the day. I have been working like this since May and I am getting to the end of my rope. I want to make sure I have everything in place and understand this system throughly before the inevitable happens.

when is your pending seperation date with out the med board?

[usmcgirl]

ok.welll... first off this was my experiece....

med board are a process all in themselves as i was on 3 of them for my injuries. your boss can frown all he wants. it isn't up to him to send you on one and he isn't a doctor. he has no say. the only people that do have any say are your doctors. they are the only authority on them.

secondly. if you get put on a meb that is to see if you meet retention standartds or not. if you get put on meb and you meet the standards to be on duty you return to duty. if not then you get put on a peb. they do one of 2 things. 1st they look to see if you can be found fit and 2. they look to see what your disalities are and what you will be rated for at military level. you can appeal their decision and i would be ready to appeal their decison if you think you are rated too low. but be wary of any severance pay from the military because if you take that in lump sum - you can not get any VA compensation until that lump sum is paid back. usually after the peb decision is made for unfit you have 30 days till you are handed your DD 214. as it was in my case.

[halos2]

Good site posted here but don't put personal info on facebook...maybe another's account or so. Good info from pete53 too.