Wish me luck all! Any last words of advice? (Other than stop upon pain - got that one down)
C&P For spine (DDD) tomorrow
- Thread starter Airforcematt
- Start date
As much as it sucks, stop taking your pain medication today. You want to be 100% med free so they can get a true picture of your pain, not a dulled down version. Without meds, it is very easy for a doctor to see real pain and not attempt to push it.
Left my records in Japan but they have a copy here.
Good point. I was planning on not taking them tonight but I probably should stop now I suppose. It is gonna suck... But you're right, they do need to see the "real deal"
Ugh - forgot I have all these "Compensation & Pension Musculoskeletal Questionnaire" things to fill out.
Update time and it's a good one. Went in for the C&P physical today and had a VERY positive experience. I was all braced for one of the A-holes folks talk about all the time that tries to push them past their pain/doesn't listen to them. I had an exact opposite experience. Had a Nurse Practitioner who was very nice, very respectful. He and I connected early on as we both apparently share a love of video games and are from the same faith group. He and I went through my entire list of complaints and talked each one of them over. Big takeaway was that going in knowing rough dates/times for past procedures + having recent X-rays/MRI in my file for the major conditions REALLY made things easier on him and things flowed rather well. I was in and out in less than two hours. He did kinda scare me with talking about my back possibly being a muscular problem vs a skeletal problem - I did need to ask him to do the ROM test and I voiced my concern that I felt my back had bigger issues than a strained muscle. He went into my latest MRI and read it over and said "yep! you're right - let me get this added" - He typed it up and added it in. I asked him what my ROM numbers were and he told me 15-20 degrees both for Flexion and Extension. Looks like things are going well. Now we just wait and see how it looks in his final report!
15-20 degrees for lumbar? If so, that is 40% per VASRD
Yep! Knew the numbers by heart, just forgot to put them in the post. Now to hope that nobody screws with that measurement during the MEB/PEB process.
Can't see how anybody could. Your NARSUM is deveoped using the C&P exams. It is what the VA will use for its rating. Is the DDD your DOD unfitting condition? If not, what were you referred to MEB for?
Yes the DDD is my unfitting condition. Don't think anyone CAN mess with it, just overanxious about this whole thing.
Yeah don't kill yourself with aniety. When your NARSUM is generated and presented to you for signature, you will get a copy of your C&P exams. You will find your ROM numbers for all the joints he measured in there. Personally, I would say you are looking very good. I am sorry your ROM is so jacked up. Those numbers indicate a pretty messed up back. Just breath and hang back and you will get your NARSUM. If it is messed up, then you can worry. Just take it step by step and try not to overthink. I would say this step went really well.
Joe
Joe
Thanks man - I'm anxious about the whole thing but after today's appts I'm feeling MUUUUUCH better than I was before.
Glad to hear it went well. When your future is in someone's hands it can be a tense situation. They can see from the X-rays/MRI that it is skeletal not muscular otherwise you should not be at this point. Obviously you wish it was not because of the lifelong pain that follows back pain.