r/USMC • u/anonemoose07 • 1d ago
Go. To. Medical.
Hey guys, it's that annoying devil doc. This is just your friendly reminder to go to medical and address your aches and pains. These can add up over time, and will vastly support any VA claims that you may have. I highly encourage all of my devil dogs (and devil dolphins) to go get yourself checked out, make sure that you're up to snuff.
I'm more than happy to assist and any concerns that you might have with engaging with your chain of command, or if you feel that you are being pressured to not go to medical. Documentation is important, and making sure that that documentation is in your record is equally important!
Why do I do this? Because I had a good mentor, and I had six-figure knee surgery completely covered by the VA. If you served, you deserve medical treatment for what you got during service. Anyways, September fiddles and such!
28
u/tamedretardo 1d ago
What the fuck. I’m not going to medical if they’re gonna do that to me
18
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
This is after I got out my dude. Relax, just get stuff documented while you're in, take care of your body. You only have one bone snake, one left knee, one right knee..... Just take care of them, and remember if Uncle Sam broke it, Uncle Sam bought it.
13
u/tamedretardo 1d ago
I was being facetious
4
1
u/DrinkMorWhiteMonster 13h ago
A lot of us docs are autistic and miss the jokes but also, it sometimes makes us better at our jobs 😂
1
1
u/Batman_wears_Crocs 0341>3043>42P1 13h ago
Is bone snake your spine? I need to start calling it that
16
u/Groundhog891 1d ago
On a call up from the Army reserve after, I hurt my foot and ankle. The VA examiner refused to read my call up medical records, so along the appeal route to the real federal court over the VA, I sat down with the Legion VSO and claimed every line of every med record, Marine and Army.
Not only am I 50% now, which is a nice monthly payment and free admission to state parks, but when I needed surgery for the foot and ankle they paid for it all. Literally everything, zero out of pocket, even buffered aspirin because I was in a boot for a month. The fancy medical socks.
6
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
I appreciate you adding your experience my dude. Hopefully you could agree that having VA coverage for shit that got complicated while you were in is definitely a boon. I know while I was in a lot of my Marines struggled with filing claims, and the number one roadblock I saw was lack of medical documentation. But I'd be curious as to your experience.
2
u/Groundhog891 1d ago
I got to the VA hospital, and the woman spent like five minutes with me and in her report she said it had been over a year since I got out of the Corps. She never looked at the Army records.
Then that was upheld on the 'SOC' and I kept appealing until it got to the real court, the CAVC, where a DC firm working with the Legion handled it and got a 'remand' because it was pretty fucking obvious if they had only read the records. At the same time the new claims were moving, and when it got all done I was at 50%. It was a lot longer going from the regional office SOC to the BVA, then it was from the BVA to the federal court.
1
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
Jesus fucking Christ dude. I am first off sorry that you had to deal with that. I've done my training as a vso, but that just sounds like absolutely dog shit review. Did you have to do attorney fees, or was this subsidized in any way?
1
u/Groundhog891 1d ago
Zero payment. The law firm gets paid because a remand is a win under the Access act so the VA pays their fees.
6
u/Pulgatrash 0844 155s 1d ago
Preach.
Also, for anyone that doesn't have all of their records, use the form DD 2870. I called the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital, filled it out per their instructions, and faxed it back to them with a scan of my ID. They emailed me everything from boot camp shots to final physical, dates, times, locations, remarks, etc.
Helps a lot when the VA tries to claim you didn't attend physical therapy, or didn't go to medical for back pain.
Speedy recovery, doc.
6
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
I absolutely recommend using dd2870. There has been some accumulation of medical records, so just be aware of that.
And appreciated their devil dog, I'm about a year and a half out of surgery now and thankfully on the upside! But keep telling the new guys, you got to look out for yourself, nobody looks out for you like you.
4
3
u/echosixwhiskey 5711 1d ago
I just took Motrin and drank water.
9
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
Didn't change your socks, there's your problem.
1
u/DrinkMorWhiteMonster 13h ago
He could skip the motrin if he collected his complimentary kiss on the cheek on the way out 😔
2
3
u/just_another_ag 1d ago
How does your leg feel now? Have you returned to full activity? I had the MACI and distal femoral osteotomy done last year, by a disgruntled Navy surgeon.
1
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
It's functional. I had a brief time while I was moving across the country that my coverage lapsed, but I'm up on the treadmill running. I can say that there's still some sensitivity (especially along the surgery scar, specifically where the TTO was) but past that I genuinely have virtually no complaints. I had a terrific surgeon, hopefully you're pissed off. Navy surgeon was just as good.
1
u/just_another_ag 1d ago
Glad to hear you can be physically active. What were some symptoms that led to the TTO?
2
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
23 mm condyle defect (full thickness) following acute trauma from a rollover. Wasn't diagnosed in my exit, thank God. I had the common sense to get it viewed immediately after from a second opinion.
3
3
u/Playgirl_USMC Skid Kid 1d ago
He left out the part where he was wearing shower shoes while on liberty. Not service connected.
6
2
2
1
u/Organic_Risk_3945 mid90s1stRadBNKbay 1d ago
is that ACL, looks too big a cut though.
2
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
TTO and MACI. Soft tissue injury, and a debridement. Two surgeries, but very much worth it. I never thought that I would actually want to run again lol
1
u/Organic_Risk_3945 mid90s1stRadBNKbay 1d ago
mine was done by UCLA medical students! or interns, or whatever those student doctors are called. how long was PT for that?
2
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
That's kind of awesome, but I'm always a little bit skeptical about medical students. That being said, though, University hospitals are a great teaching experience. Don't think that just because interns were there that you might have gotten substandard care.
My PT was about 12 months, but a cross-country move prompted it to about 13. How long was yours man? (Or ma'am)
1
u/Organic_Risk_3945 mid90s1stRadBNKbay 1d ago
VA LA , dude. my PT was similar, that dude that got featured on CNN because Sanjay Gupta operated on him in Iraq , brain injury, was in PT with me! didn't know he was famous though, just knew he was part of that first wave to Baghdad never made it sent back home PT'ed where I was at. we never talked though, he was in a rough patch so we kinda just nodded at each other. our therapist introduced us as both Marines.
2
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
Hey dude, I can totally dig that. Obviously as a doc, I can't fully understand the Marine to Marine, but it's definitely cool being able to connect with somebody in your care. My OT was a duck turned occupational therapist, it was a cool bonding experience. How's the function on you now?
1
u/Organic_Risk_3945 mid90s1stRadBNKbay 1d ago
Everything 's been normal for awhile now really, but meniscus tears they said would catch up to me and i'll start feeling it in old age, knock on wood nothing yet.
2
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
I feel that one in my soul. Never thought that 35 would involve me relearning how to run, but genuinely I'm grateful that this was covered. I was told that my longevity was probably about 30 to 40 years, did your surgeon weigh in?
1
u/Organic_Risk_3945 mid90s1stRadBNKbay 1d ago
yeah, that's what surgeon said expect arthritis to set in early and other osteo-somethings due to too much meniscus scraped off. or something to that effect.
2
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
Interesting. I didn't have the explanation of potential early onset arthritis, but I am seeing some cross-referencing. I think you might be referencing an osteosarcoma, or it could also be a lesion. If you have the details, I'm happy to look into it for you!
→ More replies (0)
1
u/Tripppinout1 1d ago
Damn. Looks he cut you with a dull hacksaw blade.
1
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
She
2
u/Tripppinout1 1d ago
Ha. I thought about that after I posted.
2
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
I mean it was at least a little sharp. She used a rock or something to sharpen it.
1
u/Groovyguy Veteran 20h ago
I found out much later that my 2 main bas’s screwed me by either omitting most of , recording wrong information, or straight up not annotating it at all.
Don’t just ask them to annotate it in the records, actually watch them do it.
1
1
u/anonemoose07 20h ago
Correct. Ask for a copy, or if you have an IDC hookup, ask for your AHLTA now (compiled andn composite record.) I'm not sure what the new tool is for Genesis, and last I had heard Genesis was still having some difficulty accessing AHLTA, but that could be ironed out by now.
1
u/OldSchoolBubba 3h ago
Really great looking out Doc. Way to step up and pay it forward.
2
u/anonemoose07 3h ago
Appreciated my dude. This is the only way we all get better right, bring the best foot forward, forget the shitty parts.
1
0
u/ArguingWithCelery 3043->0311->11B-B4 1d ago
Literally about to be me next month, getting knee surgery at the crisp age of 32 🥲
I’m 100% P&T but for some reason they rated my knee only at 10%. Oh well.
Listen to OP, go to medical!!
1
u/anonemoose07 1d ago
Watch it go up to 30%! Hopefully something slightly less cohesive than mine but keep your head up during it man. If you need to reach out, I'm more than happy to listen, I know PT sucks; but it was worth it!
0
u/Sorry_Outcome_1776 1d ago
Remember, if you are the manliest of marines, and you think you can tough it out, death is more patient than you, so are pain and suffering, you can arrive to doc warm, screaming or cold, you still gonna end up there either way, so you can at least make visit the most comfortable it can be.
1
0
u/PilotFighter99 Coastie 16h ago
I’d love to go to medical but I don’t want to get grounded lol
2
u/anonemoose07 13h ago
I've actually dealt with leadership that didn't want Marines to go to medical. Great way to ante that up " please sign here, if you can detail why I can't go to medical I would appreciate it." Nco/officer suicide. Never had somebody sign a name.
0
u/PilotFighter99 Coastie 13h ago
I’ve never had to deal with that, but I have had NCOs tell me to schedule my medical appointments on my days off….
I’m more so concerned with being removed from flight status
2
u/Negative_Bunch4271 13h ago
It’s not the end of the world if you get grounded, go to medical. You can always get flight status back given your reason for grounding isn’t too crazy.
I was grounded for about a year myself, and managed to get re-upped.
1
u/anonemoose07 13h ago
Psssh that is not how medical works. If you're scheduling on your days off, you're probably relying on on duty, and that's also a no-go. You signed up for when you entered. Damn you could even argue mission readiness, your health cannot wait until you have a day off.
1
u/Aggressive-Elk4734 Veteran 7h ago
The Marine Corps will not collapse without you. Somehow as an organization they survived for over a century without you.
52
u/Rusty_Ferberger Born 2 Pog 1d ago
Pffft...I totally would have walked that off. Nothing a cigarette and a Coors Lite couldn't have fixed.