NARSUM help with unfitting ankle condition.

[Magilla]

I received my NARSUM on Friday and plan on writing a letter of appeal and doing an IMR as a result of horrible C&P physical exam.

In regards to my unfitting condition, I'm trying to get an idea of where the Army will rate it, as I feel it should be >/= 30%, but knowing how the govt is trying to save money, I'm half expecting it to be 10-20% to screw me out of Med Retirement.

Unfitting condition is written as:
Right ankle torn ligament and tendon, s/p right ankle surgeries x 2 with scars with chronic pain and Instability. 3-41e(2)

I can barely walk with the pain, have to use a CAM walker boot for stability and knee scooter to get around. Debilitating pops on a regular basis and have regular thoughts of just cutting the damn thing off. As for a DOD rating though, does anyone have any idea about what I can possibly expect?

Also if I could get some further clarification on one other issue. I have 4 separate meets retention standards items that I have no clue what to expect. TBI, Mood disorder due to general med condition, anxiety disorder due to general med cond, and Cognitive disorder. Would those all be lumped together into 1 rating? or do they each get individual 0-100 ratings?

Thanks in advance for any and all help and assistance.

 

[maparker]

First, it is not an unfitting condition until the PEB finds it to be unfitting. Right now, it fails retention standards. As far as the ratings are concerned, you need to match you symptoms to the applicable VASRD rating criteria.

Mike

 

[grizz13]

I received my NARSUM on Friday and plan on writing a letter of appeal and doing an IMR as a result of horrible C&P physical exam.

In regards to my unfitting condition, I'm trying to get an idea of where the Army will rate it, as I feel it should be >/= 30%, but knowing how the govt is trying to save money, I'm half expecting it to be 10-20% to screw me out of Med Retirement.

Unfitting condition is written as:
Right ankle torn ligament and tendon, s/p right ankle surgeries x 2 with scars with chronic pain and Instability. 3-41e(2)

I can barely walk with the pain, have to use a CAM walker boot for stability and knee scooter to get around. Debilitating pops on a regular basis and have regular thoughts of just cutting the damn thing off. As for a DOD rating though, does anyone have any idea about what I can possibly expect?

Also if I could get some further clarification on one other issue. I have 4 separate meets retention standards items that I have no clue what to expect. TBI, Mood disorder due to general med condition, anxiety disorder due to general med cond, and Cognitive disorder. Would those all be lumped together into 1 rating? or do they each get individual 0-100 ratings?

Thanks in advance for any and all help and assistance.

TBI and Cognitive disorder would most likely be combined OR the TBI will be rated as stand alone and the Cognitive Disorder could also be combined with your MH disorders. Mood disorder due to general med condition and anxiety disorder due to general med condition would also be combined, and possibly a rating that could be reduced by the VA at a later time (if your ankle get better) OR the VA will change the claims to something else and a reduction is less possible because they may think you will suffer MH strain for the rest of your life.

Cognitive Disorder is kind of a grey area when dealing with MH and TBIs, they have a hard time associating it with each one because it is present in both cases.

How ratings are done is to avoid pyramiding symptoms and getting everyone impossibly high ratings. The VA will combine multiple claims into one, but they rate them individually, then they assign the rating of the worse rated condition to the combined claim.

I.E. PTSD is 50%, and Anxiety Disorder at 30%... It will be labeled as something like this PTSD /w Anxiety Disorder rated at 50% being that they are rated exactly with the same criteria. They cannot give separate ratings for each MH condition.

Also, if you have another C&P exam do not take pain meds beforehand, taking meds does not show your true ROM. Stop when you feel pain, don't say it "hurts" or "I feel discomfort," the key word is pain.