Good Visit With the Good Doctor

I had a favorable appointment with the Neurologist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio today. The Neurologist said that my condition is stable, but that I am still 'unfit for duty' and will continue to be so until all this mess is over in June 2013. I'm not sure exactly what his report will say and will not know until it is mailed to my home, at which time I will need to 'concur' or 'nonconcur' with his findings. It will most likely be 'concur.' I then send my response back to the Medical Evaluation Board office in San Antonio and then it gets forwarded to a Physical Evaluation Board which will look at his findings in conjunction with all my past medical records and decide whether I continue to stay on the Temporary Disabled Retired List, be taken off the list and returned to Army Reserve duty (contrary to the Neurologist's findings) or simply be Permanently Retired early. Their decision comes back to me, I have to again 'concur' or 'nonconcur,' and send it back to them. We think that they will simply keep me where I am right now and I'll have to come back in twelve months and do this dance all over again. It is a highly bureaucratic process that we need to go through in order to keep my disability benefits active for continued medical care provided by the government for me and Holly.

I'd love for them to simply Medically Retire me early so all of this can over and done with for the rest of my life, but I think we're going to continue to do this until 2013 when they will hopefully Permanently Retire me and never look back. We'll continue to keep you posted over the coming weeks as the paper flies back and forth from here to San Antonio. Thanks for your prayers.

-roger

One more day!..

We finally got word on whether my disability is temporary or permanent. I had to really jump rank pretty high to get an answer that was satisfactory but we got it. They are saying it was a typo the whole time and that my disability is Temporary. This is fine – we just needed an answer and it took 24 hours to get that answer and only because I fought to get someone to ask the questions to get the answers I needed. All I have left to clear tomorrow is finance and my final out-processing where they send me on my way. We are a day behind in packing everything up so Holly and I are going to split up tomorrow so that everything can be packed before our farewell get-together at 8pm, which we’re still not fully prepared for. I guess I figured things would go smoothly, but I should have known better. I’ll post tomorrow when we have everything done with the Army and have pretty much everything buttoned up. Keep praying for us!! We are aaallllmmmoooosst there. *sigh*

No Hearing, Great Results, Excellent Birthday!

I know that many of you know that I had a hearing scheduled for this morning to appeal my initial disability rating from the Army Physical Evaluation Board (PEB) of 30%. Up to this point I didn't want to reveal too much information because my attorney had a strategy and the last thing I wanted to do was to undermine it. I know that sounds kinda' lame, but I don't know who's reading this blog. I can't remember how much detail I went into after I got my initial rating so I recap just a bit.

After I got that rating, it seemed low to me so I went to talk to a rep from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). They have someone on-site at Walter Reed (WRAMC) to help us out with these things. When he looked at it and then looked at the regulation, he said it looked like I was supposed to get 100% disability. The DAV has a program where law firms in the DC area will represent soldiers that want to appeal their ratings. I was assigned an awesome lawyer from the firm Jones Day. This guy was awesome. He looked up tons of information regarding my situation, gathered documents and records and spoke to me several times to discuss my case. We finally met face to face last week at their office in DC and we went over all the information they gathered for my case. Then late last week I had to do some running around to gather a few more documents right up to Friday night. I took the weekend off and stayed with my good friends Amanda and Buddy (check out their blog!).

Monday morning I was getting ready to do some more info gathering when I saw that I missed a call on my phone. It was my PEBLO Counselor and he said that he had a new DA199 for me. The DA199 is the form that has a disability rating on it. I was a bit confused and when I called him back, I had to leave him a message. I then called my attorney and he said he wouldn't be surprised because they came to WRAMC last week and observed a hearing and then had a chance to speak to the board. Then as I was about to run out the door, my Case Manager called me saying that I needed to speak to my PEBLO ASAP! I headed right over there and as I was walking down the hall, he came out of his office and he called me back immediately. He showed me the new paperwork and apparently, after my attorney met with them, they convened another informal board and changed my rating from 30% to 100% through Aug 2009 on the Temporary Disability Retirement List (TDRL). So, I did not have to go to my hearing after all! I shared this new information with my attorney and he told me it looked like this was the best I was going to get, so I signed it.

Now the paperwork has to go to the Army Physical Disability Agency (PDA) for approval. If they agree, then they will cut order for we to leave WRAMC and I couold be home by the end of March. I know it's all confusing, but there is a very good short summary of the whole process, including what TDRL and other things mean, here: Military Disability (Medical) Separations and Retirements. This has been such a relief for me and my entire family. This entire four year saga of being away from home might soon be over... but lets just keep on praying for now. Thanks for praying for me and sticking in there. We only have a little bit more to go!

So today is my birthday... I'm 33. The staff at the Stripe newspaper office had cake for me - that was nice of them. And this evening I went back over to Amanda & Buddy's for dinner, games and cake. I'm so glad they invited me. It was nice to have a somewhat regular birthday. I wish Holly was here with me, but I'll see her soon enough. BTW - I think Amanda is going to be giving birth either Thu or Fri, the contractions are kicking in, so please pray for a safe delivery!

MRI Monday Feb 4

First, for those of you that get the blog emailed to you, something happened to the service this past weekend and plogs that were written late last week were not emailed at all. I made the system email them to you just a bit ago. Sorry about that... if you want to get the blog emailed to you, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the webpage to sign up... its free!

I have another three month MRI Monday afternoon at 5pm ET to see how things are up there. Please continue to pray that the tumor is still gone and that healing is continuing. I meet with my Rad/Onc Tuesday morning to review the results. I'll let you know how it goes.

This week is going to be a busy one... I finally have an appt with the VA to have my physical by them for my VA disability claim. And I have a meeting with my pro-bono attorney to prepare for my hearing on Feb 13 to appeal my initial disability rating from the Army. Yes, I will get a disability rating from the Army and the VA. I'll have to explain that at a different time. I'll try to get you caught up on the lowdown this week.

Oh - and what an awesome game tonight. Personally, I was glad to see the Giants get the win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The Manning brothers get back to back rings. How cool is that?

-Roger