Expert: Eric Ernst - 10/23/2009

Question
QUESTION: I am currently on Active duty and will not hit my two year mark until Feb 2010. I've never had any medical problems before growing up and didnt experience any in Basic training. At the end of my Tech school (June of 2008 and I joined in Feb 2008) I started having a little pain in my hips when I ran. The doctors at Tech school said it was something band syndrome but it continued when I got here to my official base. It's gotten 200% worse and they finally diagnosed me. I have conginital Sponylolisthesis grade 1 with arthritis and pinched nerves as well as degenerated disks. They dont want to do surgery because my disks are already degenerated and they said it will make them degenerate more and faster. I'm going through the MEB starting in Novemeber. I'm scared because even though I've never had any problems with my back until now they say it's congintal so I've had it since birth and because I've only been in for this short of time I'm nervous that they wont give me anything or barely nothing at all. I dont know how long it'll take so I'm concerned if it only takes a few months and then I'm out I have no idea what I'm going to do. I guess my question is how long should it normally take and what should I expect from them? Thank you guys and I hope to hear something soon.

ANSWER: Sarah,
I'm sorry to hear about your impending MEB process. My advice to you is to contact your base legal. You have a right to be represented by legal counsel at these hearings and they will be able to take care of the legal jargon that goes along with it. From my understanding sometimes MEB's take awhile there is a bit of a process once the MEB process is finished it will go to a PEB Physician evaluation board, once that is completed it will go to a Central Medical Board. My opinion to you is get a hold of base legal ASAP. You also have a right to appeal anything that you don't feel is correct. You have options...Here is a website that will help you out with some of this: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theorderlyroom/a/medseparation.htm  
Please visit that website hopefully everything works out for you, if you have anymore questions please let me know.
Thank You,
Eric

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much Eric for your help! I really appreciate it. I called the base legal and they said they don't handle MEBs too much. They had me call Area Defense Council and they pretty much told me that there is nothing they can do right now. If I have to go to the formal hearing in Texas, that's when they can help me put something together. I read over the webpage you directed me too (THANKS!!) and I am a little concerned. I know your not a doctor but if you could tell me what you think, it would be so helpful! Okay so the excerpt from the webpage states
"An individual could get separation without benefits if the unfitting disability existed prior to service, was not permanently aggravated by military service and the member has less than 8 years of Active Duty."  

The doctor told me it was congenital so it was pre-existing but I never had any problems until I got to Tech School. So do you think it was permantly aggravated by the military? I just don't know what to do. The doctor keeps saying "you shouldn't worry yourself about money, you should be thankful you're getting out because it's your health that is the issue here, not your paycheck" but what I keep trying to tell her is that YES my health is number 1 but in this economy getting pushed out on my ass (excuse my french)with nothing is going to hurt me in a lot more ways then just health!

Please, I need some type of guidance. If not the base legal, then who???

Answer
Hello Again Heather,
My advice for you is to make sure that you have a copy of ALL your Medical records since it really didn't start showing up until after you went through Tech school. It could be interesting and I can see why you would be stressed out for.... Yes health is number 1 but like you said the economy is in the tank, and you are going to need some sort of income. (Don't you love how doctors put things sometimes...not)  
I'm not a doctor by no means what so ever. If need be you might want to check into some retired military lawyers or pro bono attorneys. I'm going to attach another site for you to check out as well. http://www.militaryprobono.org/ Also you can do a google search for military medical lawyers as well. I really don't want to give you any mis-direction by any means in regards to this.
Let me know if the information helps at all.
Thanks,
Eric