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Hi Vegas, how long had you been out of the Service? How long did it take you after all med boards etc to get your life's back on a "normal track"? Did you feel like you're geting any support by the VA?
They say that for every year you serve, it takes 2 years to get your life completely back again.
When I got 'out' the docs went through my medical record and looked again at each injury. They wrote up statements about the state of each injury and disease that I carry. They assured me that I would get between 40% and 60% disability.
At the VA I got zero. "If your on meds, and your meds handle the disability then it is not dis-abling you from a career."
If you have lost mobility in this 'manner', and your nerves tweak when you do 'that'; then these things do not stop you from operating in your profession, then they are not disabling you.
In all fairness; I get a pension. I have 6 disabilities each with a zero rating. If any of them become disabling I can go back and get the rating changed.
Having a higher rating would not effect my pay check total. Right now my paycheck comes from one source, If I had a 30% rating then 30% of my paycheck would be reduced and I would get a seperate paycheck from disability. Still totalling the same amount.
I have good medical coverage through a civilian insurance that is underwritten by Tricare.
So I am fine.
Last edited by Submariner; 09-04-2008 at 08:36 AM..
Reason: clarification
i got out in feb this year and was unemployed for 7 months. i extended my hhg in temporary storage till the point i had to fill out paperwork to get it extended again. i was supposed to receive a separation check that would help me ease into civi life fast but they screwed up on the paperwork and told me i owed them. i finally got it cleared out now. took 6 months. i could of use the cash months ago but oh well. i stayed with family that let me live in their house for free. i was able to buy food and things and kept my spending costs down. minus a few costly things that needed to be repaired in order to pursue job intrests i only incurred about 12k debt. and thats from canceling my contract with a place i rented, the damages made, selling a car below normal price and other hefty things that if i gotten out at normal time would of been less expensive. now my new job is in a different state and i have to worry how im getting my hhg shipped which would be another 7k in debt. its a federal job so i hope they are willing to ship it. if not, it wont be until a year passed until im out of debt and saving again.
i think my situation was one of the worst. probably not THE worst but its up there. i also didnt sign up for unemployment checks and got the paperwork for the disability thing but havent done anything yet.
@forest beekeeper: May I ask just how your nerve tweaks look in the day to day live and what medication you're given to help there? You sounds a LOT like my hubby, thou we're told there's no help. If its way to personal maybe you can send me a private msg?
@Jade, i know its no help to you now, but if it makes you feel any better, we went all the way overseas to avoid unemployment...and for what now? The Post is closing, they're NOT relocating us cause we're civ employees and now we got to move ourselves back AND hope to find a job...needless to say that the past few months of applying-while you're not in country- have not been successful...and I hoped the nightmare would be done with after being out almost 3 yrs...
Just be thankful you had a real family to turn to in your situation and good luck with the new job!
@forest beekeeper: May I ask just how your nerve tweaks look in the day to day live and what medication you're given to help there? You sounds a LOT like my hubby, thou we're told there's no help. If its way to personal maybe you can send me a private msg?
I have an duodendal ulcer which I take drugs for.
I am an ET. If I operate a screwdriver, that twisting motion is just the right motion that my arm, uh, think of hitting your funny bone. If I do a twisting motion my arm does that, it lasts 10 minutes tops.
As an Electronic Tech I would do it a lot. It would be seriously disabling.
But as a farmer I avoid using a screwdriver. If I need to put in a screw I use an electric drill with a screwdriver bit.
I was exposed to a good deal of radiation, and it is all documented. Now I must await brain cancer or leukemia before the connection is made and I can get a disability rating for it.
I have a nerve growth thing in my foot, from wearing crappy boots. Meds made it go away for now. But they tell me it is chronic. If I go back to wear bad boots and standing on steel for long hours, it will come back and then it will need surgery. I avoid standing on steel.
How on earth can they rate you 0& with all this? That's insane!
Not sure if it just comes across like this in writing, but you sound kinda positive to battle it all on your own.
I had taken my husband to what feels like any Doc on this planet, most parts are figured out & found way's to make it work in the day-to-day life- Except for the "Shakes" it pretty much looks like severe Parkinson's but its not Parkinson's, they can't figure out what it is and also pretty much gave up to try find any treatment for it.
Needless to say for IT Tech shaking like a fish on dry land, you ain't building no more PC with little screws etc> But luckily the VA believes he's no limited to go work....
Well even with a zero rating, I get paid the same. So I do not know if it matters.
I was going onbase for treatment when we first returned stateside, and I thought that it was okay.
Moved to Maine and found that the closest Mil Med would not take me [too many AD personnel to treat].
So I checked out Tricare here, they recommended that I enroll with 'Martins Point' insurance. They are like under-written by Tricare, and more universally accepted than Tricare is. 'Martins Point' is only in New England, but they do seem to be well accepted. $400 annual enrollment fee, office visit co-pay and $3 per 3 months of each drug.
What we like the most is that all of the docs are real doctors who went to college and everything. This has been a new experience for us.
We have gone to Mil Med for so long, and had gotten used to be treated by 18 year olds with no formal training. This is great!
RNs do blood draws, so no poke and dig for a vein. They hit a vein every time the first time.
I had been stitched on so many times in the past by 18 year olds, that I had pretty much gotten into the habit of doing my own stitching [so long as I could reach]. A corpsman who does a couple stitches and stops to puke, before going back to stitching will do that to a patient.
The last time that I had stitches in the back of my head, I had to wait a long time with my head in a deep sink with the faucet running 'flushing' the wound, as they did a shift change. Then an argument followed as each of the HMs argued over who would get this patient. This little girl HM got the job. She was trying to pull my scalp back together and stitch it. She had me bent over with my head between her knees as she tried to grip my scalp and poke the sutures through. Her legs were shaking and she was crying. I give her credit that she did focus and get the job done, but it very nearly kicked her but. I held her knees and tried to steady her, talked her through the process. With MilMed that is often what you get.
I really prefer now though, going to civilian medical facilities.
My wife likes this much better too! Like I said now days we are only treated by real doctors.
It is far better, than the care we had gotten during my AD career.
So I am good.
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and generally how you got your life "back on track" after all.
