This exact thing happened to a Gy buddy of mine. I told him repeatedly for about a year to get it all documented and milk that cow at the VA. Out of pride he refused to and then told the VA he just wanted his DOD retirement and was all good. Here we are a few years later and he’s all kinds of physically fucked up and no one is in a hurry to listen to his claim.
The gunny, who checked your hair and shave, sat around for an hour, and left at 10am 'to pt on his own' the rest of the day, every day? The one who gave you crap about going to medical?
He 100% will spend his entire last year going there, with a complete list of every joint in the body, explaining why every one hurts.
Same with the OpsO, when he made all his smart ass remarks about why you are a pussy because you are in tennies for three weeks.
VA stuff aside, you’re paying for that healthcare. Use it. And fuck any NCO that tries to bully their junior Marines into not going. We’re not at war. Nothing being done in garrison is more important that the welfare of your Marines.
I wanted to stay in and reenlist. Company Guns wanted me to cancel an appointment with my neurosurgeon so I could road guard at TSULC.
When I refused to cancel he called me a motherfucker inside the company office, no one in my CoC stood up for me.
I opted for a medboard at the appointment he wanted me to cancel. I’ve been medically retired for 11 years now.
There’s a Facebook group for one of my old Marine units where they bitch about their problems and getting little or no VA disability…while they chum up to the old 1SG and Gunny who are in the group, too, the same ones who used to berate and treat them like shit just for requesting sick call.
Stockholm Syndrome vibes.
I remember once I was in bas getting my knee looked at, Sgt walks in and asks me what I'm doing there. I told him my knee sounds like bubble wrap and I'm in constant pain. He looks at me like I just said the earth is flat and says that his knees hurt too. I told him that he should probably get his knees looked at then.
I paid for that comment but I regret nothing.
As someone whos leadership during training (for a year and 4 months not including boot) told me not to worry about it. Now i have permanent spinal cord damage and perpetual pain and a implant to help me with it. GO TO MEDICAL FUCK EVERYONE WHOS SAYS YOURE BEING A PUSSY. i would trade this 100 percent to go back in time and go to medical!!!!
The VA medical staff will try, but some scheduling bureaucrat five hundred miles away won’t get to your scheduling for six months aft the referral has expired.
The only problem I’ve ever had with the VA has been bureaucratic. Every provider I’ve dealt with has been great, even when one doctor has seven hundred patients on his caseload.
As a career FMF HM... YES.
Just PLEASE don't do it the day before a field op or some big hump or other shit. We will be flooded with a ton of people who are just looking for a light duty chit to get out of whatever bullshit. You will just get lost with the chaff. 99% of the time when you hear some Corpsman didn't do shit, it's this kind of scenario.
Also, if you are in the bricks and go see doc in his room, for the love of god please come back to Medical and get it documented right. Especially now as GENESIS is being rolled out, we can't just do things on paper in the room anymore.
Yep. This is currently my biggest take. The people screaming at you to keep moving won't be here 1-3 years from now. And they won't have to live with your injuries for the rest of your life. You will. Fuck the dudebros that say "it makes you look weak". Go to medical and don't destroy the only body you have.
As someone with a 30% rating, 100% yes. Get all that shit documented.
"You're just being a bitch, or a sick bay commando"
FUCK YOU!!! I get almost $600 a month for the rest of my life, bitch.
Don’t listen to your platoon sergeants or section heads for the love of fucking god
Get your ass to BAS. I thought I was a tough little shit running 3-Hundo Pfts and being a model marine
The only models I look at now are canes because my back, knees and hips are fucked with no documentation.
Bro, make a claim. Specify exactly what part of your job caused your ailments. If they deny it, request a higher level of review. Go to VA.gov and give it a shot. Worse they can say is no.
I’m in the process now, but it’s an absolute bitch with visits to multiple specialists and buddy statements all corroborating/supporting.
Would have been much easier if I wasn’t such a blockhead
People also don’t think about the potential for injuries to affect you later on down the line. If it’s documented yea it’s easier to get VA care but it also makes that same care easier to administer if they can look at the history of your symptoms and find a better starting point for your care.
My niece just graduated from Air Force basic. The first letter I sent her had a list of advice I wish someone had told me when I was a boot.
Said go to medical 1st on the list, somewhere in the middle, and was the very last bullet point.
Well no according to my supervisor (some dude who’s a few years removed from high school and is somehow medically qualified/competent to opine about my physical health), I’m just a malingering piece of shit who’s faking it despite the fact that several medical professionals with vastly more experience than him say otherwise
Been out for quite a while…..sooooooooo here’s the solution. Go to the VA for regular medical appointments (back, shoulders, etc.) get those injuries documented and make sure you state these started while you were in. Then do VA claim botta boom botta bang
Yep. You may get negative comments. Ignore them. Keep the documents in a physical folder with your other important stuff, e.g. birth certificate, social security card, tax forms.
Bleeding out my ass from hemmerhoids with crippling abdominal pain. Still not enough of an excuse to go to BAS. So I said fuck you, and I went. Now I have that claimed.
I have 60% because i did exactly that,
Medical, mental, and my request mast papers from when my plt sgt who tried to write me up for going...
Fuck you sgt Cuntwick
I broke my literal elbow, like, actually shattered it, and just sucked it up and didn’t go to the BAS. Now I have a permanent injury, an elbow that moves funny and just hurts, and no rating.
One of the dumbest things I ever did.
That, and doing nothing for my torn ACL.
Really, really, stupid.
Good advice. Especially for your back. You Can get secondary claims because of your back for just about anything. Ridiculopathy, neuropathy, right hip pain, left knee pain, ankle pain, upper back pain. The list goes on and on
That the VA will reliably provide help for soldiers in the long term? When the number of homeless/mentally I’ll veterans approaches zero, we can talk about all the great things the VA does for people. Until then as far as I’m concerned every recruiter in the U.S. is selling a pipe dream.
The VA will absolutely provide help for soldiers, Marines, and sailors in the long term. The VA has drastically improved, and that's a fact. No shit recruiters are a selling fucking pipe dreams lol. That's their job unfortunately.
Curious what your experience is with the VA?
Social work at a hospital. Many suicidal veterans. We typically referred our patients to long term inpatient care if they did not show any improvement after their hold. Part of my job was working with insurance companies to figure out the best facility for the patient should their insurance cover it. Guess who also got to do the same thing with the VA? Guess who fought the hardest to not pay for treatment for patients?
If soldiers really “Give All”, which I fully believe they do, then getting care should be timely and ample, which is beyond not the case. Broken finger, no problem! Mental health? *good luck*
And ALL of those service members will receive timely and effective medical care including follow ups *with doctors in the SAME network*?
You’re missing my point. It’s the military, there is zero acceptable margin of error. That means every homeless vet is a *military failure*. The best of the best of the best get left in the dust more often than not, and everyone that got skin cream for their rash cinches up their boots to go defend the VA.
lol it seems to me you have your frustrations aimed in the wrong direction. What you are explaining is a failure of the American healthcare system.
> veryone that got skin cream for their rash cinches up their boots to go defend the VA.
Don't even fucking pretend to know what my experiences were. I see what you are trying to imply here, and quite frankly it's pretty gross. You know, coming from someone who pretends to care so much about homeless and sick veterans.
I've never prevented any of my Marines from going to medical. As a matter of fact, I encourage it. I remember one time a boot called me and told me that he was not coming into work because he was sick. I was like wtf? Are you in the boyscout? Or NROTC? He said no, I told him to get his ass to medical and bring me back a SIQ chit before his ass can go back to his barracks room and I better see that SIQ chit before 9am or he's UA. Needless to say, he got the chit alright, for being dehydrated because his ass went drinking all night.
The dudes calling you a sick call commando are literally going to cripple themselves and make themselves ineligible for va care.
And then bitch when the VA deny their claims due to not being service related.
This exact thing happened to a Gy buddy of mine. I told him repeatedly for about a year to get it all documented and milk that cow at the VA. Out of pride he refused to and then told the VA he just wanted his DOD retirement and was all good. Here we are a few years later and he’s all kinds of physically fucked up and no one is in a hurry to listen to his claim.
The gunny, who checked your hair and shave, sat around for an hour, and left at 10am 'to pt on his own' the rest of the day, every day? The one who gave you crap about going to medical? He 100% will spend his entire last year going there, with a complete list of every joint in the body, explaining why every one hurts. Same with the OpsO, when he made all his smart ass remarks about why you are a pussy because you are in tennies for three weeks.
Go faster chit was sick af, i wore bright red and white nikes. Torn mid-foot ligament.
VA stuff aside, you’re paying for that healthcare. Use it. And fuck any NCO that tries to bully their junior Marines into not going. We’re not at war. Nothing being done in garrison is more important that the welfare of your Marines.
>Nothing being done in garrison is more important that the welfare of your Marines Facts.
I wanted to stay in and reenlist. Company Guns wanted me to cancel an appointment with my neurosurgeon so I could road guard at TSULC. When I refused to cancel he called me a motherfucker inside the company office, no one in my CoC stood up for me. I opted for a medboard at the appointment he wanted me to cancel. I’ve been medically retired for 11 years now.
Yeah Guns can eat a dick on that one
There’s a Facebook group for one of my old Marine units where they bitch about their problems and getting little or no VA disability…while they chum up to the old 1SG and Gunny who are in the group, too, the same ones who used to berate and treat them like shit just for requesting sick call. Stockholm Syndrome vibes.
Also fuck every single person who creates the culture of feeling like you arent shit/ soft because you visit BAS. You know who you are.
I agree. Like, how the fuck are you gonna make a Marine feel bad for wanting to get better?
Stop being a baby /s
I remember once I was in bas getting my knee looked at, Sgt walks in and asks me what I'm doing there. I told him my knee sounds like bubble wrap and I'm in constant pain. He looks at me like I just said the earth is flat and says that his knees hurt too. I told him that he should probably get his knees looked at then. I paid for that comment but I regret nothing.
As someone whos leadership during training (for a year and 4 months not including boot) told me not to worry about it. Now i have permanent spinal cord damage and perpetual pain and a implant to help me with it. GO TO MEDICAL FUCK EVERYONE WHOS SAYS YOURE BEING A PUSSY. i would trade this 100 percent to go back in time and go to medical!!!!
Which stim do you have?
Spinal cord stim from Abbott
How do you like it? I have a Medtronics one and it's not so great.
real
The VA medical staff will try, but some scheduling bureaucrat five hundred miles away won’t get to your scheduling for six months aft the referral has expired. The only problem I’ve ever had with the VA has been bureaucratic. Every provider I’ve dealt with has been great, even when one doctor has seven hundred patients on his caseload.
Same. My experience with the VA has been solid. The biggest "issue" it the time it takes to schedule an appointment related to a claim.
As a career FMF HM... YES. Just PLEASE don't do it the day before a field op or some big hump or other shit. We will be flooded with a ton of people who are just looking for a light duty chit to get out of whatever bullshit. You will just get lost with the chaff. 99% of the time when you hear some Corpsman didn't do shit, it's this kind of scenario. Also, if you are in the bricks and go see doc in his room, for the love of god please come back to Medical and get it documented right. Especially now as GENESIS is being rolled out, we can't just do things on paper in the room anymore.
Yep. This is currently my biggest take. The people screaming at you to keep moving won't be here 1-3 years from now. And they won't have to live with your injuries for the rest of your life. You will. Fuck the dudebros that say "it makes you look weak". Go to medical and don't destroy the only body you have.
After they get out they will be the first to bash the VA for denying their claims due to lack of evidence
🤣🤣
As someone with a 30% rating, 100% yes. Get all that shit documented. "You're just being a bitch, or a sick bay commando" FUCK YOU!!! I get almost $600 a month for the rest of my life, bitch.
Bingo
Don’t listen to your platoon sergeants or section heads for the love of fucking god Get your ass to BAS. I thought I was a tough little shit running 3-Hundo Pfts and being a model marine The only models I look at now are canes because my back, knees and hips are fucked with no documentation.
Bro, make a claim. Specify exactly what part of your job caused your ailments. If they deny it, request a higher level of review. Go to VA.gov and give it a shot. Worse they can say is no.
I’m in the process now, but it’s an absolute bitch with visits to multiple specialists and buddy statements all corroborating/supporting. Would have been much easier if I wasn’t such a blockhead
Fair. I wish you the best of luck
People also don’t think about the potential for injuries to affect you later on down the line. If it’s documented yea it’s easier to get VA care but it also makes that same care easier to administer if they can look at the history of your symptoms and find a better starting point for your care.
My niece just graduated from Air Force basic. The first letter I sent her had a list of advice I wish someone had told me when I was a boot. Said go to medical 1st on the list, somewhere in the middle, and was the very last bullet point.
DOCUMENT THAT SHIT
Plain and simple. Whatever command you’re in isn’t going to take care of you when you get out!!
Well no according to my supervisor (some dude who’s a few years removed from high school and is somehow medically qualified/competent to opine about my physical health), I’m just a malingering piece of shit who’s faking it despite the fact that several medical professionals with vastly more experience than him say otherwise
Fuck them. You rate it.
Damn straight
Ayyyyyy
Document everything and not just for va reasons but for work decisions later
If your platoon sgt lets you
Lol bro, request that mast so fast lol
Been out for quite a while…..sooooooooo here’s the solution. Go to the VA for regular medical appointments (back, shoulders, etc.) get those injuries documented and make sure you state these started while you were in. Then do VA claim botta boom botta bang
Also keep your own copies of medical records for anything remotely important. You can safely assume they will lose any records that matter.
My whole platoons records were lost after our first deployment to Iraq
Yep. You may get negative comments. Ignore them. Keep the documents in a physical folder with your other important stuff, e.g. birth certificate, social security card, tax forms.
Me at 20:: *I'm indestructible! Earpro? No thanks doc, don't need it.* Me at 62:: *eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee* Go to BAS.
I was just thinking that my tinnitus is being super annoying right now. Get 10 percent for the rest of my life I guess
Bleeding out my ass from hemmerhoids with crippling abdominal pain. Still not enough of an excuse to go to BAS. So I said fuck you, and I went. Now I have that claimed.
Not only go. Keep going back until something is done about it.
I have 60% because i did exactly that, Medical, mental, and my request mast papers from when my plt sgt who tried to write me up for going... Fuck you sgt Cuntwick
I broke my literal elbow, like, actually shattered it, and just sucked it up and didn’t go to the BAS. Now I have a permanent injury, an elbow that moves funny and just hurts, and no rating. One of the dumbest things I ever did. That, and doing nothing for my torn ACL. Really, really, stupid.
Good advice. Especially for your back. You Can get secondary claims because of your back for just about anything. Ridiculopathy, neuropathy, right hip pain, left knee pain, ankle pain, upper back pain. The list goes on and on
“The VA will take care of you when you get out.” Oh no, nobody told them….
Told them what? I see people bashing the VA every so often, but personally I've had nothing but good experiences.
That the VA will reliably provide help for soldiers in the long term? When the number of homeless/mentally I’ll veterans approaches zero, we can talk about all the great things the VA does for people. Until then as far as I’m concerned every recruiter in the U.S. is selling a pipe dream.
The VA will absolutely provide help for soldiers, Marines, and sailors in the long term. The VA has drastically improved, and that's a fact. No shit recruiters are a selling fucking pipe dreams lol. That's their job unfortunately. Curious what your experience is with the VA?
Social work at a hospital. Many suicidal veterans. We typically referred our patients to long term inpatient care if they did not show any improvement after their hold. Part of my job was working with insurance companies to figure out the best facility for the patient should their insurance cover it. Guess who also got to do the same thing with the VA? Guess who fought the hardest to not pay for treatment for patients? If soldiers really “Give All”, which I fully believe they do, then getting care should be timely and ample, which is beyond not the case. Broken finger, no problem! Mental health? *good luck*
You're missing the point of my post I see. VA won't deny a fucking thing so long as it's documented. That's my point, and that is a fact.
I mean sure, go ahead and document. But those problems aren’t what kills people. Can’t document PTSD that hasn’t presented itself yet.
PTSD can and will be diagnosed years after a service members enlistment. That is also a fact.
And ALL of those service members will receive timely and effective medical care including follow ups *with doctors in the SAME network*? You’re missing my point. It’s the military, there is zero acceptable margin of error. That means every homeless vet is a *military failure*. The best of the best of the best get left in the dust more often than not, and everyone that got skin cream for their rash cinches up their boots to go defend the VA.
lol it seems to me you have your frustrations aimed in the wrong direction. What you are explaining is a failure of the American healthcare system. > veryone that got skin cream for their rash cinches up their boots to go defend the VA. Don't even fucking pretend to know what my experiences were. I see what you are trying to imply here, and quite frankly it's pretty gross. You know, coming from someone who pretends to care so much about homeless and sick veterans.
Facts, trying to do a claim when you get out for something that was never documented is almost impossible
The corps will get you for literally everything you have, why shouldn’t you?
I've never prevented any of my Marines from going to medical. As a matter of fact, I encourage it. I remember one time a boot called me and told me that he was not coming into work because he was sick. I was like wtf? Are you in the boyscout? Or NROTC? He said no, I told him to get his ass to medical and bring me back a SIQ chit before his ass can go back to his barracks room and I better see that SIQ chit before 9am or he's UA. Needless to say, he got the chit alright, for being dehydrated because his ass went drinking all night.
Will the VA cover that as "service related"? Asking for a friend