But then later in the afternoon, I checked the mail, to find that I'd finally gotten an appointment to see a neurosurgeon about my back!! Finally, after getting out of the marine corps back in 2001, I've gotten an appointment that should have been scheduled way back then. So, how about a little medical background for those that don't know me that well.
Firstly, yes, I was in the USMC, served from 1997 to 2001. I was released on honorable terms (finished my active service agreement), although close to the end there they were talking about possibly medically discharging me for my back. Looking back I should have taken them up on that, rather than wanting to get the heck out of there as fast as possible (wouldn't you want to get out of a job that you never really truly signed up for?). Once I got out, I started working on getting my paperwork started to actually get into the VA system.
A year later, I finally get into the VA system, and get my first doctor. It seemed alright as I was getting appointments every month it seemed to establish my claim and what's going on and everything. About 5 months later I finally get the paperwork finished to start getting disability payments. At first, they only set me at like 10% disability. What this means is that I could have actually been 19% disabled in their paperwork, but they round down to the 10's. At 10% I got jack and squat for pay, and I mean like nothing. After another 6 months or so of constant appointments, I get a new doctor, as the last one I had was moved to another location.
This new doc explained that my appointments would be pushed to every 6 months as they've got all they need or whatever. So, then started the long waits between appointments, and increasing pain constantly. After a while I finally got back in to be re-evaluated for my disability. At this evaluation they found that I've got Degenerative Disc Disease, coupled with Muscle Spasms. This pushed me up to 20%, which is a little better, but still not much. Basically this meant that my back would continually be getting worse, and the muscle spasms wouldn't stop anytime soon.
Skip ahead another year or so, and two more doctors...Get to be re-evaluated again at my request. They had to add Herniated Disc and Pinching Siatic nerve. This pushed me up to 40%, which is nice, as once you're 30% or above, you get compensation for your spouse and dependents. While this amount that I'm currently getting (roughly $700 a month) is nice, that's a far cry from what I could get if I had a job (which by this time, I'd lost my last job). I've been at this disability rating for quite some time now (4 years about)...so I asked my newest doctor; that is supposed to be my last one, as he's not planning on moving anywhere and is one of the supervisors or whatever at the clinic; if I could get re-evaluated again. I also asked him what the latest was on my request to see a neurosurgeon, as my previous doc had put in a request to have me seen 6 months prior. He looked at my latest MRI that I had gotten back in February, and stated that they showed the Degenerative stuff, along with the herniation, that was also torn now. So yay, even more stuff going poor.
So, here I am with two appointments now, one description of the location and stuff is very ... cryptic ("LEE SWS MH INDIVIDUAL Clinic" .... LEE I can suppose is the Leesburg clinic as that's where my normal clinic is... but the rest, not too sure about), possibly the evaluation thing? But the last two times I got re-evaluated, I had to go all the way to Gainesville. And my other appointment is actually with the Neurosurgeon, which is located at Gainesville. Luckily the Neurosurgeon is on a Tuesday, which is one of my wife's two days off usually.
Wish me luck for these things, both of which are on the same week (6th for Neurosurgeon, and 8th for the other thing) ... here's hoping that at least I get an increase in my disability ... if not being eligible for surgery on my back to get rid of my pain, or relieve some of it.
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