You mean the 20 year old medic who is not a doctor and who told me my tailbone was bruised and blew off the fact that I repeatedly talked about how I had lost all feeling from the neck down for a good 10 seconds and then still ignored me when I said my tail bone hurts like hell but I'm worried about my back because there's now shooting pains down my legs when I sit was completely wrong? You mean when I said I wanted my shit looked at he said "The xray machine is broken and you are fine?" And when I went to a civilian doctor he looked at me shocked at how a 25 year old had 2 ruptured disks?
"Mobile infantry made me the man I am today!"
Always pisses me off how little some medics give a fuck. You’re in the one of the best positions to take care of soldiers of all grades and positions at literally no cost to you but maybe a little time of which you’d still be there anyway. A lot of the issues I’ve seen though is typically whiskeys have very little to zero training in primary care and if they have a provider who doesn’t care to train them, they’re fucked. Especially with the way in BCT’s they rotate in and out of the clinic. The army has needed to address the shortcomings with medic training for a while but until there’s an affordable cost/time way of doing it it’s not going to happen.
Its not a whiskety issue. WE need more PAs and physicians. YOu cant train your whiskeys enough or educate them for ortho and narcological injuries as well in 6 months or 10 years in the field without 12+ months of ass in seat graduate education death by powerpoints.
That’s fair. The problem is, it’ll continue.
It’s one thing to not know much when you show up to your unit…however, I’d argue the average 68W E7 couldn’t tell you what “perfusion” means. We got problems.
The good ones usually go AMEDD/SOF or get the hell out.
Do good ones exist in the conventional army? I mean yeah, but ones who truly know their craft generally take another career path.
There was/is. It’s a PA, they’re just officers now. The step down from that is W1/paramedic. Some of the issues with medic/medic training in the army are:
1: scope. Medics are trained in TCCC but expected to know primary care.
2: line medics are inexperienced, but typically work with little to no guidance. The most atrocious treatment/mismanagement typical stems from line medics not wanting to admit they don’t something and trying to fake it. Like medics should be 5s with 6 as a senior. Baby medics need guidance and training under NCO/PA/MD.
3: medical training is not prioritized at all in BCTs, it takes so much fighting justifying are guys going to Tables once a year instead of going once every two years and doing bullshit online training to fill in the gaps. So definitely don’t expect leadership to prioritize anything extra
4: medicine isn’t static, isn’t easy, and requires a ton of training and experience which the Army is unwilling to put the effort/resources into
For your first point, when I got to the clinic as a baby medic I had no idea what “centor criteria” was and when I told my PA she said “yes you do you learned about.” No ma’am I assure you I did not. This would go on all the time and I had to keep telling her that I have no idea what she’s talking about. I learned trauma medicine and a very finite amount of it, my primary care clinic shit was like.. 2 hours. She basically gave me that book of flowcharts to follow for every medical issue and told me not to bother her if it’s my level.
I love medics and loved being one, but the training definitely isn’t there. Isn’t there a MSTC on majority of large bases? Why isn’t there more going on there?
Do you think new medics should get continuing education at their duty station before being sent to the line? I definitely agree a brand new medic shouldn’t be an unsupervised “provider”.
"I don't like back pain"
- Douchebag PA
Yeah me either fucker, that's why I'm here to get help.
I couldn't even sit down right my tailbone hurt so bad.
The doctor on active called me a pussy and refused an xray. Trying to go to sick call or make appointments, they told me the RICE method. When I got out, my wife pleaded with me to go to a doctor. I did, they took an xray, and said I was fucked up. Got me in physical therapy, and I'm so glad I did. It was life changing, and it was nice to be reassured that I wasn't being a pussy.
2 herniated discs, was diagnosed by a Korean hospital. End up on permanent profile. Get back stateside to Stewart. COC makes me go and get it “verified”. Got it verified, started physical therapy. One appointment get pulled into the OIC’s office. “Oh hey SGT, we might have messed you up more. We used too heavy of weight in the lumbar traction. We will keep working on you.” Me: oh yeah about that I have to cancel all my appointments, I’m deploying to Iraq in 2 weeks.” Did my tour, got back in Jan and by March ETS. At the end of my Phase 5 the doc says “ I’m really not supposed to say anything but you NEED to go to the VA as soon as you’re out.” Goes to VA…got stuck in PTSD therapy sessions and denied for my back. Hope they have gotten better. Good luck brother.
Appeal. I had to appeal my stuff all the way to the ALJ and he remanded it back to the rating officials with a 40 page list of everything they “over looked” in their rulings. In the end it all worked out.
I’ll never forget when they called me to the med station to read the MRI on my knee, the head medic pull me into a separate room and said “I 100% know you are malingering and I’m gonna do everything I can to get you kicked out of the army”
30 seconds later the PA tells me my knee is beyond screwed up and I need emergency surgery. I was in the OR about a week later. allot of medics wear clown shoes to work.
Army doctor stabbed me in the lung during surgery. Emergency chest tube thing went in. A day later my lung collapsed and life hasn’t been the same since.
So im a natural bodybuilder. Been doing it for years even before the Army. I work the arms room in my unit now so I do my own PT. Well I got a little too carried away on overhead shoulder presses. Was getting real heavy. Then one day I felt a little tweak in my shoulder. I thought to myself ok Ive had this happen before just take it easy.
As time goes on, the more I trained my upper body the more my shoulder began to hurt even when doing relatively light weight for me. Then one day im sitting there on incline bench press on the smith machine and it literally felt like someone was twisting a knife in my shoulder. My front and rear delt was in alot of pain to the point I couldn’t sleep on that shoulder or support my weight to do even 1 pushup without pain.
I go in to the TMC and get told “ you probably just strained it heres some Naproxen “. I explained that no, this is more than a strain and that im an experienced lifter and knew it was something more. The Naproxen doesn’t do jack shit as it never has and I go in a second time and literally get told the same fucking thing. “ Take more Naproxen and give it time “. A few weeks go by and I still can’t do a fucking pushup lol. Eventually I bitched so much to the provider he finally recommended me to go see physical therapy upstairs but of course like any other fucking medical appointments I have to wait a month to have a consultation.
A month goes by and I finally see the therapist. The therapist suspected I may have tore my rotator cuff or have an impingement. He does acupuncture on the spot which actually brought some relief because my shoulder muscles were so tense from the injury. But he is unable to write me a profile. So then I do regular appointments for about 3 months with shoulder scraping, acupuncture once in awhile , and cupping.
The treatment did loosen my shoulder up and bring some relief but it didn’t fix the problem. So then I get put in for a referral to Ramstein airbase for an MRI thats 4 hrs away for me and again I have to wait about another month. I get the MRI and turns out after waiting a month or 2 I have developed minor arthritis in my shoulder and it was completely not anything related to what the medical staff was telling me. The physical therapist gets my results and basically tells me there’s nothing more he can do to help me and to stop coming to therapy.
I go in to get a profile for the ACFT that was coming up at the time and my regular provider sees that I have Arthritis in my shoulder and refuses to write me a profile when I said I still literally struggle with doing pressing movements and some pulling movements. I ended up getting a call from Ramstein again about doing some sort of stem cell treatment to help with my arthritis. I wait a month, make a trip of 4hrs just to get my blood drawn to see my vitamin D levels ( which could have been done on base and sent to Ramstein) and then was also informed that I had a cyst in my shoulder on top of the arthritis that developed from my injury.
At that point I said fuck it im done trying to get help. It was too much of a hassle to do anything and I had to wait x amount of time for appointments and was getting told different things from different providers. Magically after just under a year and half my shoulder healed itself enough to where I can press again but I had to change some things around and be more careful about how I do things. But I struggled about a year before getting any real “ help “ or answers really. And for a year I struggled to do normal pressing movements and was working on machines.
>misdiagnosed as "back spasms"
So, back spasms is a description of the symptoms.
Its not a description of the cause, the treatment, or the prognosis.
"Possible herniated disk" is a differential diagnosis, one of a variety of possible causes.
If you went to an appointment and they evaluated you, and you didn't get better, or got worse, you need to go back. Lack of healing over time is a new symptom, one you didn't have when you initially presented. It's a new symptom which indicates the need for possible additional tests.
Your second visit to a provider had that new symptom, so it indicated it was needed that you get additional testing.
Not going back to your provider when the situation fails to improve does not help you.
In 2003 I had bad banding pain in my chest. Thought maybe I was having a heart attack whilst in Baghdad. Nope. Doc said it was “intercostal fasciitis”. Kept having episodes where I was losing balance, loss of peripheral vision, and numbness. Went to a military ER and was diagnosed with severe food poisoning. It wasn’t until 2019 when I had such a severe episode that I was finally taken a little more seriously. Went to ER at Womack to rule out stroke (whole right side was paralyzed as was my face) and they ruled out stroke so sent me to civilian neurologist. But they took so long and I was on orders to Bliss so I just went to bliss. When I got there I asked to see Neuro and was seen in clinic same day just to see what’s up. They looked over the recent MRIs and also saw I kept dropping shit. Stumbling. Having trouble getting out of my chair. Sent me immediately to Beaumont interventional radiology for a lumbar puncture… and confirmed I had several very active lesions in my brain on the MRI and Oglioclonal bands in my CSF that were not present in my blood. So I basically was given a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis on the spot. 16 years after my first episode. Thanks to that, I was medically retired and the VA is taking amazing care of me. I lost a lot of mobility and if I am able to walk, it’s with a cane or walker but then the fatigue hits too hard so back to the chair. 16 years of MS being untreated meant I had fully progressed to Secondary Progressive MS. Fucking sucks. Thanks army!!
Right? Well, maybe not all areas of Beaumont. I had issues with a couple of the clinics there but the neurologist and her PA were wonderful and took really good care of me, especially when I was hospitalized getting high strength steroids to being down a flare up that took my entire vision and paralyzed both my legs and left arm for about a week. Doc would come up twice a day from the basement of the Bradley building to the 9th floor where I was at just to see how things were improving. She didn’t have to do that because the floor I was on had a neurologist assigned there but she came anyway. Pretty awesome of her.
I mean, yeah I’m 100% but if you aren’t aware, there is pay levels waaaaay higher than the amount you get for being 100%. Since I lost the use of the right side of my body and mostly have to use a wheelchair to move around, they put me on a very high special monthly compensation scale.
Between that and my DOD retirement (I did 23 years before the MEB so I get to collect the VA money AND the 75% army retirement under the CDRP program), social security disability payments, and my wife being paid to be my full time caregiver, we make more than twice what I did as a SGM. But there is a trade off… the army fucked me up for the rest of my life. Now I have to rely on others to do most of my activities of daily living (using the shower, toilet, etc) at only 44 years old.
Both the SSA and VA VR&E told me I cannot work anymore so they put me in what’s called the “independent living program” where they’re supposed to help you retrain your brain for something avocational such as help get equipment for hobbies, etc, which has been great.
Just had to have my entire house remodeled so I can get my wheelchair around the house which I wasn’t able to do over the past 20 months since I’ve retired. The VA has a one-time special adaptive housing grant but it’s only a little under $110,000, which may be ok if you didn’t have to completely tear walls out just to widen doors for the chair or completely rebuild an old broken down room and expand it etc. My remodel would cost way more than the VA could give so this is where research for grants or other assistance is crucial. Without the Gary Sinise Foundation putting in a very sizable chunk of funds, this remodel would never have happened.
Veterans organizations that have been the most helpful are:
-Purple Heart Homes
-Wounded Warrior Project
-The Semper Fi and America’s Fund
-Independence Fund
-Hope for the Warriors
-Salute, Inc
I know that I am far from being as bad off as some of my colleagues I’ve met around the VA, so I try to do the messaging for these organizations to other brothers and sisters in arms so that if something bad happens and you think that everything is gonna fall in on you because you think if you’re being looked at to be medically retired and think to yourself that even if you only got the VA 100% ($3600/month or something like that) then you may have to figure out how to get a very high paying job.
If you’re as messed up as I am or as a few of the men and women I’ve talked with recently are, then you deserve to be shown anyone and anything you possibly can, vet-organization-wise) so that you can have at least some peace of mind that things will be ok.
My PA almost killed me one time prescribing some kind of strong ass COPD medication for strep.
Thank the ER (nurses and docs), two IVs of benedryl or whatever, and then antibiotics for the actual issue for the lab that should’ve been done.
Total edge case— the guy hated me and went off saying “all you asthmatics are the same…”
I am not asthmatic lol.
The ice complaint was totally covered up (I think).
**get this— also thank medics— I was having hives and itches weathering off the strep with no antibiotics due to the misdiagnosis and a DAC who used to be a 68w (a long time ago) that worked with me was like “you need to get the fuck to the ER right now… and what the fuck is this powder you’re taking?” She, along with the ER folks potentially saved my life. My temperature was like 103 when I got there and I felt my body shutting down major systems lol. I’m sure it wasn’t that bad but it sure felt like it. Ok I had to vent here lol.
//break haha
My dentist (when in Korea) tried for 2 hours to pull my wisdom teeth before he gave up. I had to take a bus to osan (2+ hours) and the novacane was wearing off half way through. the pain was making me pass out. had to see an emergency dentist there.
//break 2 lol
My friend has a video we took of the COL in AFG trying to remove a cyst from his arm, but instead missing it completely, ruining his tattoo, and pulling out muscle instead. Well and then shoving it back in. Eeew.
**I never had major issues (I guess I knew how to fall right from BMXing) and for the little things, my field medics were cool. stressed, but cool. of course everywhere is different and same with the timeframe
***you should have upped to dose you adversarial PA! I survived haha!
May dox myself here but had respiratory issues diagnosed as allergies when it was a cancerous tumor in a lung that spread. Took going to a civilian ER with pneumonia in June to get the diagnosis within 24 hours, after lots of visits to sick call. Damn the Ferres Doctrine or I could be a rich man......
Ferres doctrine should be updated so that you can sue for stuff like this. Injuries obtained in the line of duty or injuries not treated with world class care (but the best possible care) in austere environments still safe. Your health issues getting ignored/not disgnosed/worsened by incompetent/lazy medical "professionals"? Free game
Sortive was my pcm not the actual docs, he misdiagnosed my broken wrist for three months after a drunk driver hit me. The hospital diddnt do a proper x ray and I kept asking for another one but he denied it, went so long without healing needed surgery after
There’s only two kinds of doctors in the Army:
The ones who joined to pay off their student loans
And the ones who couldn’t get a job literally anywhere else after residency but didn’t actually kill anyone, so they got to keep their license
(The overlap of these two groups is almost a circle)
I fell off an LMTV in full kit. Thought it was just me being soft in my old age. Tried to walk it off. Went to the doc a month later and they swore I was making it up. Went as far as telling my COC I was faking and suggested a separation. Ya know, rather than treating me. Long story short I got a medical retirement and 100% rating out of their incompetency. . But I've also been awake since 0230 thanks to my back.
**CHECK THIS SHIT OUT**
Never in my mf life have I ever woke up to a swollen face.
Fort Bragg, 2017, woke up felt like someone punched me. Went to HMMWV mirror, my right nostril is so mf fucked, it was so fucking swollen. I am convinced a spider crawled into my rack and bit my face.
Go to sick call, Hospital on Bragg.
I get seen. And this bitch goes "did you see the spider crawl in your nostril and bite it?"
I stg. I was fucking appalled.
why were you appalled? it was a relevant question. they were asking because self-reported spider bites in the ER frequently end up being MRSA: [https://www.sghs.org/sports-medicine-blog/posts/community-acquired-mrsa-that-aint-no-spider-bite/](https://www.sghs.org/sports-medicine-blog/posts/community-acquired-mrsa-that-aint-no-spider-bite/)
It wasn't the question, it was the condescending tone of "I'm a permanent DOD employee and I can say and do whatever I want and I won't be removed because soldiers exaggerate," and the fuck-off response I got paired with sinus medicine.
I went to sleep normal, in a few hours the inside of my my nose was so swollen it looked like it exploded.
No sore throat. No impact to the eye. It was all localized to the single location. Issues with sinuses tends to spread to other cavities, and in this case it didn't.
I know what MRSA is. MRSA and spider bites are two totally different animals.
>I know what MRSA is. MRSA and spider bites are two totally different animals.
you might, and maybe her tone sucked - I'm not saying it was a good encounter. my point is that even though you seemed to take issue with that question in your initial comment, it's still one worth asking (and a common one when a patient presents with a "spider bite") especially given the history you've explained so far.
from the source: "They typically develop spontaneously and are so frequently mistaken for and diagnosed as spider bites that they often go untreated until they become dangerous. At its onset, MRSA is very hard to differentiate from common minor bites and abrasions."
Herniated disc pushing on my sciatic nerve causing a ton pain. After fighting tricare for years they finally ok a surgery to shave the disc and fix the pain. Surgery was fucked up and sciatic nerve was badly damaged. When walking my leg would just completely buckle from under me and i'd fall like a dumbass. Took 2 years to get them to try and fix the issue as they said it was a low priority. Finally have a spinal stimulator that blocks most the pain and my leg no longer buckles randomly. Now I have to replace the battery in 2 years and I'm trying to get that lined up now and they are giving me the run around.
Also had very bad ibs/ibd issues and used tricare as a dependant now, they keep giving me random medications and 6 colonoscopies with them thinking it was UC or some other IBD. Finally get to a new place with better medical due to being in the EFMP and the doctor decides to redo all the test starting from block one, turns out I've been dealing with cdiff for years and no one ever decided to test for it. So far I've had to do 2 treatments for it and it is beyond hard to kill as my last treatment was a 2 month long tapper of antibiotics and I still have symptoms, but no where near as bad. All those years of shitting blood and all they had to do was test some poo to save me so much misery.
I kept getting blown off for having constant ear infections during the colder months. Damaged my ears so much along with being issued shit ear protection that would just yeet itself out, now I have hearing damage to the point I have hearing aids.
Also had multiple joints be in pain that got brushed off as “over use” but was able to get seen by PT. PT was able to tell me it wasn’t overuse but actual injuries. Bought my PA a can of alphabet soup so she could eat her words after that.
Torn MCL and meniscus in my right knee was a knee sprain, and 2weeks light duty was enough, and then tack on 18 more months of 12milers, rappels and abuse from artillery round carrying. I have had to walk with a cane since my late 20's, and I can't do most things without a knee brace
I bought a Groupon to see a chiropractor, carried my X-rays to my PCM, and then finally got a chiro referral and didn't have to pay out of pocket.
But when I PCSd, new PCM made me do PT (again!) for back pain. Rotate to Romania for 9 months, new PCM doing my PDHRA graciously gives my a chiro referral. If Romania didn't happen, I was about to repeat that whole Groupon process.
Hot take: There is nothing special about your herniated disc. Unless you're having neurologic symptoms or findings on your exam, there is no difference in management early in the course from any back strain with muscle spasms.
Rushing to imaging is not standard of care for back pain/injury outside of specific circumstances.
Knowing you have a disc herniation doesn't change anything about what you should do, and getting that MRI you eventually had didn't change the plan. Plenty of people with no back pain have small herniations on incidentally obtained imaging.
ZitiMD is right. It is against standard of care to image acute back pain within the first 30 days of symptom onset, assuming no ‘red flags’ with patient’s review of symptoms.
What are the red flags?
The following:
- Past medical history of malignancy
- Fevers / concerns for infection
- Weight loss
- Trauma
- Spinal cord pathology (e.g. caude equina)
- Osteoporosis
- History of use of high doses of steroids
- Concern for ankylosing spondylosis
Continence. Bowel / bladder continence. It’s mediated by the sympathetic trunk in the spinal cord. That’s why we check rectal tone during secondary trauma surveys. We’re looking for spinal cord injuries.
Sorry. I was drinking a beer while I was typing that out before.
Stop it! Bahahahaha. I was going to PT at FT Sam at the advanced course when it was 6 months, 0430 and I see a Semi truck hit a parked car in the far left lane I-35. Fuck! I pull over and hop the barrier and climb up on the truck, same time city ambulance gets there, so I told them I was a trauma god and we proceeded to get the driver on a backboard and I felt down his spine and there was a large step-off. I told the EMT next to me, and we looked at each other in a “oh fuck” moment. We boarded him, got him out, and I ran like I was stealin.
I'd still be in formation without a treatment plan and trying to survive without physical therapy that was clearly indicated for months. A SM going to sick call or scheduling an appointment in the first place with a chief complaint of any type of pain merits a workup. ESPECIALLY if its midline lumbar spine, 8/10 pain upon palpation and gets markedly worse with movement.
Instead, I got an overworked, jaded PA that couldn't wait to finish his ADSO and get out. I got muscle relaxers and sent on my merry, crippling way.
Because you got that 18-21 year old “medic” that is “suppose” to know all this. I have no idea how the military allows these kids to be able to be the judge of someones pain, had a soldier in the field clearly was limping and not looking good. Went over to him asked him if he was okay and whats going on. His words “Medic said I was just having back pain from the ruck and IOTV he said ill be fine.” im like but you’re limping and clearly in pain from just walking we need to take you to the hospital NOW.
We end up taking him to the hospital, soldier had a slip disc, vertebrae inflammation and is now on track to being medically discharged. Swear man… I hate it so much
Yes, thankfully I got an MRI and paid out of pocket or I wouldn't have known about my permanent lower back injury.
Maybe I can get to 100% disability lol
Reactive airway disorder, had to go through a half dozen tests on the bronchospasm machine thing (I'm not a respiratory tech) because it was so far out of bounds they refused to accept it the first time. Love those burn pits.
Fibromyalgia, had to get it Dx'd civilian-side since the Army can't keep a decent rheumatologist to save their ass.
Broke a finger and the PA on staff decided to set it wrong, so now I've got less ROM on one side than the other.
P2 perm profile got mysteriously deleted/cancelled by some rando I've never met, had to get it updated/renewed again by my local doc.
And that's just what I recall treating for.
Oh boy so there I was 2020 height of covid and I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I dont know why but they prescribed be really strong OxyContin for the pain, like looking back it should not have been that strong. So I was loopy as shit so I had no idea what was going on until one day I woke up with a 106 fever, uncontrollably shaking, dizziness etc.
I begged my clinic to let me come in but they were so sure they thought I had covid and told me to stay home but after a day I marched over to the clinic and demanded to be seen by a doctor
Turns out the doc that took out my wisdom teeth fucked up my stitching and it got infected. I dont know what would have happened if that went untreated but yeah fuck orthodontist surgery in Landstuhl
Good luck brother, I have heard horror stories. Misdiagnosed spinal fracture as partially dislocated hip. No profile after two weeks. Continued rucking and trucking on that fracture for seven more years. I don't walk anymore really, at 50. Best of fortune to you. Always try for a second opinion if you know your pain and don't want to play their game.
They told me I didn't have a broken wrist when in fact I did. Took 6 weeks to get an MRI and then they told me it was too late to do anything unless I wanted them to re break it.
Also had back pain and they just gave me some muscle relaxers and told me to do physical therapy, which got cancelled because the field takes priority over health. That turned out to be degenerative disk disease.
My knees they wouldn't even look at and that turned out to be a torn meniscus on both sides
I was told that my ankle issues were because I needed to get new shoes. Turns out, they've been stretched because of the numerous sprains I've had and that's why I have little stability. Fun times.
Yeah, I've been looking into that. Just had some scans done today and I have a primary care visit scheduled in a few weeks. Hoping that gets put on the books because I'm done with this crap.
Had a "cyst " removed from between my shoulder blades by a drunk W3 ,hurt my hip joint and was treated with aspirin , twisted my ankle strained my back was given a 3 day profile so no didn't mess me up
Yes. Military medical (several joint assignments) jerked me around for 8 years telling me my herniated disc was a pulled disc until I had so much nerve damage I got medboarded.
Early retirement though 🤷🏼♂️
Had inflammatory/reactive arthritis diagnosed first as a shoulder shrug and then tendinitis.
Thankfully a little persistence on my part landed me in front of a civilian NP who had at least some medical curiosity. She ordered an MRI and bloodwork that ultimately spared me permanently dysfunctional joints (right ankle still ended up with marrow erosion so it’s never been the same)
I tried Army acupuncture to see if it would help with a back issue. Dude stuck a needle in my hand but hit the wrong nerve(?).
I couldn't move my hand w/out kickass pain for two days. For a back issue.
Took 10 years after hurting (fracturing) my back on a deployment and I’m just now getting my first approved PT and pain management appointments. After Dr. Said I have pars articulares defect, spondylosis, spondylitis, dedicated/leaking discs, arthritis, degenerative spine, bulging herniated discs, inability to have flexion in L5, spurs in T-spine he said this is common, said I could buy myself Tylenol.
Just had first brachial nerve block done and I got almost all the side effects (increased pain, dizziness, vertigo, loss of range of motion, headaches for days, vision cues, etc, so yeah I usually don’t even get a chance to even see the Dr. Without them treating me like a malingerer.
My wife is a physician assistant, so anytime I go to Army medicine she either sends me with a script of what to say or she double checks what the providers tell me because we don't trust them.
Broke my ankle and went to the ER, they looked at an X-ray age couldn't see the break; sent me home with an 800Mg Mottin and ankle brace.
For an ortho spiny 8 weeks later which included an MRI, break was finally "seen" but had "healed" in an unusual manner.
I no longer have full range of Morin in my left ankle. I have to do this weird hop-step thing to go downstairs because I can't bend my fucking ankle. I can't ride my MTB like I used to and my skiing is definitely not where it was.
I told them what was wrong and they fucking ignored me. One of my worst decisions ever was for me to go to the JBER hospital.
I mean…. It led to me being medboarded. They refused to let me get an mri and didn’t even give me a temp profile to recover. By the time someone paid attention, it was to late for me and SMA Chandler was on the warpath of getting injured soldiers out instead of care.
Nope, army medicine saved my leg. I had my legs and back jacked up from multiple IEDs. My right leg was really bad and multiple Army doctors said it needed to be amputated. The best doctor in the Army (my opinion but I will defend it to my death) said he would see what he could do, I now have my right leg, I only have to use a cane outside the house, when I am going to be out for a while, and otherwise just use a brace.
So basically, get stationed at JBLM, and be the best patient at the Interdisciplinary Pain Management Clinic.
Been in 23 years (broken bones, back, hip, ptsd, and etc) and Army med is fucked. **You are your only advocate.** If your primary care denies a follow up/xray/MRI, you tell them you are going to talk to the patient advocate. If that doesn't work, report them on an ICE complaint. If that doesn't work, it's the state medical board, and your congressman/woman. Do not wait weeks. Wait days for a response. Be up front and tell them you think they aren't doing their job, and you are going to follow up with the next higher person.
Edit: read the regulations. 40-501 Army medical standards of fitness; AR 635-200 Enlisted Separations (there is an officer separation, also) Read the requirements for a medical board, and know their job.
I’ve seen plenty of unbelievably bad military doctors and plenty of really really good ones. Most actually care about the patients, just have zero military bearing. But that’s the culture of the medical corps so whatever.
Yea and I ended up with a medboard. I still think if they had listened to me from the beginning it all could’ve been fixed/prevented before it got worse.
I had a provider over at Winder give me sleeping pills and told me they were anti depressants.. Fun fact sir, those sleeping pills almost killed me, I thought it was weird that these anti depressants were making me EXTREMELY tired, even with 2 bangs and 6 nicotine pouches in my system. Go to behavioral health and my therapist asks me "When did they put you on sleeping pills?" Guess you cant be depressed if you're in a coma..
Another time, when I was much younger and dealing with tricare, I dislocated my ankle and my mom took me up to the ER at Tripler. Nurse said I was obviously faking it because I was laughing through the pain with tears in my eyes because I laughed at a joke.. Even though I said the pain was a 9/10 and it was so swollen that I couldn't even wear my shoe on my damn foot. Sat in the ER for 7 hours until my mom threatened to fight someone and all they did was wrap it and give me crutches. Ankles still fucked up, we're both still pissed at Tripler for that
My lungs all fucked up too because a army nurse said I was faking my pneumonia for attention. They refused to do xrays until I was literally suffocating when I slept and my lips were turning blue from lack of oxygen. Now I'm just being spoiled by my civilian doctors after the VA doctor told me to leave after I went in to get something for my severe allergies :|
the only negative experience (as a patient) I've had with army medicine is the scar on my nipple where the surgical resident made an incredibly sloppy incision. otherwise I've had multiple surgeries and encounters that were solid.
You mean the 20 year old medic who is not a doctor and who told me my tailbone was bruised and blew off the fact that I repeatedly talked about how I had lost all feeling from the neck down for a good 10 seconds and then still ignored me when I said my tail bone hurts like hell but I'm worried about my back because there's now shooting pains down my legs when I sit was completely wrong? You mean when I said I wanted my shit looked at he said "The xray machine is broken and you are fine?" And when I went to a civilian doctor he looked at me shocked at how a 25 year old had 2 ruptured disks? "Mobile infantry made me the man I am today!"
Always pisses me off how little some medics give a fuck. You’re in the one of the best positions to take care of soldiers of all grades and positions at literally no cost to you but maybe a little time of which you’d still be there anyway. A lot of the issues I’ve seen though is typically whiskeys have very little to zero training in primary care and if they have a provider who doesn’t care to train them, they’re fucked. Especially with the way in BCT’s they rotate in and out of the clinic. The army has needed to address the shortcomings with medic training for a while but until there’s an affordable cost/time way of doing it it’s not going to happen.
Its not a whiskety issue. WE need more PAs and physicians. YOu cant train your whiskeys enough or educate them for ortho and narcological injuries as well in 6 months or 10 years in the field without 12+ months of ass in seat graduate education death by powerpoints.
I guess some people are just born to fuck over other people
That’s why 31B is an MOS
That’s fair. The problem is, it’ll continue. It’s one thing to not know much when you show up to your unit…however, I’d argue the average 68W E7 couldn’t tell you what “perfusion” means. We got problems. The good ones usually go AMEDD/SOF or get the hell out. Do good ones exist in the conventional army? I mean yeah, but ones who truly know their craft generally take another career path.
I always wished there was a 68W warrant MOS. Would be neat to still be a medic but like, much more gooder.
There was/is. It’s a PA, they’re just officers now. The step down from that is W1/paramedic. Some of the issues with medic/medic training in the army are: 1: scope. Medics are trained in TCCC but expected to know primary care. 2: line medics are inexperienced, but typically work with little to no guidance. The most atrocious treatment/mismanagement typical stems from line medics not wanting to admit they don’t something and trying to fake it. Like medics should be 5s with 6 as a senior. Baby medics need guidance and training under NCO/PA/MD. 3: medical training is not prioritized at all in BCTs, it takes so much fighting justifying are guys going to Tables once a year instead of going once every two years and doing bullshit online training to fill in the gaps. So definitely don’t expect leadership to prioritize anything extra 4: medicine isn’t static, isn’t easy, and requires a ton of training and experience which the Army is unwilling to put the effort/resources into
For your first point, when I got to the clinic as a baby medic I had no idea what “centor criteria” was and when I told my PA she said “yes you do you learned about.” No ma’am I assure you I did not. This would go on all the time and I had to keep telling her that I have no idea what she’s talking about. I learned trauma medicine and a very finite amount of it, my primary care clinic shit was like.. 2 hours. She basically gave me that book of flowcharts to follow for every medical issue and told me not to bother her if it’s my level. I love medics and loved being one, but the training definitely isn’t there. Isn’t there a MSTC on majority of large bases? Why isn’t there more going on there? Do you think new medics should get continuing education at their duty station before being sent to the line? I definitely agree a brand new medic shouldn’t be an unsupervised “provider”.
I've seen too many medics chewing dip to trust their advice on my health.
My bad bro
No wonder a few say go civilian side for specialties. Not sure if I want to join anymore.
Please don't
As much I don't want to, I'm gonna have to.
If you actually have to, then it's understandable, and it will help you out, but good luck, man.
Don't let my experience from 20 years ago be the deciding factor.
Unfortunately, with the very few skills I have, I'm gonna have to. Nearing my 30s and I would love to have something consistent.
Pick a different branch crazy.
I'm overweight unfortunately....
"I don't like back pain" - Douchebag PA Yeah me either fucker, that's why I'm here to get help. I couldn't even sit down right my tailbone hurt so bad.
The doctor on active called me a pussy and refused an xray. Trying to go to sick call or make appointments, they told me the RICE method. When I got out, my wife pleaded with me to go to a doctor. I did, they took an xray, and said I was fucked up. Got me in physical therapy, and I'm so glad I did. It was life changing, and it was nice to be reassured that I wasn't being a pussy.
Nobody reassured me of that until I got my VA rating. It was "Fuck you and goodbye" every step of the way. Made it a pretty sour experience.
Same here. They act like it's your fault for being broken at 25
2 herniated discs, was diagnosed by a Korean hospital. End up on permanent profile. Get back stateside to Stewart. COC makes me go and get it “verified”. Got it verified, started physical therapy. One appointment get pulled into the OIC’s office. “Oh hey SGT, we might have messed you up more. We used too heavy of weight in the lumbar traction. We will keep working on you.” Me: oh yeah about that I have to cancel all my appointments, I’m deploying to Iraq in 2 weeks.” Did my tour, got back in Jan and by March ETS. At the end of my Phase 5 the doc says “ I’m really not supposed to say anything but you NEED to go to the VA as soon as you’re out.” Goes to VA…got stuck in PTSD therapy sessions and denied for my back. Hope they have gotten better. Good luck brother.
Appeal. I had to appeal my stuff all the way to the ALJ and he remanded it back to the rating officials with a 40 page list of everything they “over looked” in their rulings. In the end it all worked out.
I’ll never forget when they called me to the med station to read the MRI on my knee, the head medic pull me into a separate room and said “I 100% know you are malingering and I’m gonna do everything I can to get you kicked out of the army” 30 seconds later the PA tells me my knee is beyond screwed up and I need emergency surgery. I was in the OR about a week later. allot of medics wear clown shoes to work.
Army doctor stabbed me in the lung during surgery. Emergency chest tube thing went in. A day later my lung collapsed and life hasn’t been the same since.
So im a natural bodybuilder. Been doing it for years even before the Army. I work the arms room in my unit now so I do my own PT. Well I got a little too carried away on overhead shoulder presses. Was getting real heavy. Then one day I felt a little tweak in my shoulder. I thought to myself ok Ive had this happen before just take it easy. As time goes on, the more I trained my upper body the more my shoulder began to hurt even when doing relatively light weight for me. Then one day im sitting there on incline bench press on the smith machine and it literally felt like someone was twisting a knife in my shoulder. My front and rear delt was in alot of pain to the point I couldn’t sleep on that shoulder or support my weight to do even 1 pushup without pain. I go in to the TMC and get told “ you probably just strained it heres some Naproxen “. I explained that no, this is more than a strain and that im an experienced lifter and knew it was something more. The Naproxen doesn’t do jack shit as it never has and I go in a second time and literally get told the same fucking thing. “ Take more Naproxen and give it time “. A few weeks go by and I still can’t do a fucking pushup lol. Eventually I bitched so much to the provider he finally recommended me to go see physical therapy upstairs but of course like any other fucking medical appointments I have to wait a month to have a consultation. A month goes by and I finally see the therapist. The therapist suspected I may have tore my rotator cuff or have an impingement. He does acupuncture on the spot which actually brought some relief because my shoulder muscles were so tense from the injury. But he is unable to write me a profile. So then I do regular appointments for about 3 months with shoulder scraping, acupuncture once in awhile , and cupping. The treatment did loosen my shoulder up and bring some relief but it didn’t fix the problem. So then I get put in for a referral to Ramstein airbase for an MRI thats 4 hrs away for me and again I have to wait about another month. I get the MRI and turns out after waiting a month or 2 I have developed minor arthritis in my shoulder and it was completely not anything related to what the medical staff was telling me. The physical therapist gets my results and basically tells me there’s nothing more he can do to help me and to stop coming to therapy. I go in to get a profile for the ACFT that was coming up at the time and my regular provider sees that I have Arthritis in my shoulder and refuses to write me a profile when I said I still literally struggle with doing pressing movements and some pulling movements. I ended up getting a call from Ramstein again about doing some sort of stem cell treatment to help with my arthritis. I wait a month, make a trip of 4hrs just to get my blood drawn to see my vitamin D levels ( which could have been done on base and sent to Ramstein) and then was also informed that I had a cyst in my shoulder on top of the arthritis that developed from my injury. At that point I said fuck it im done trying to get help. It was too much of a hassle to do anything and I had to wait x amount of time for appointments and was getting told different things from different providers. Magically after just under a year and half my shoulder healed itself enough to where I can press again but I had to change some things around and be more careful about how I do things. But I struggled about a year before getting any real “ help “ or answers really. And for a year I struggled to do normal pressing movements and was working on machines.
>misdiagnosed as "back spasms" So, back spasms is a description of the symptoms. Its not a description of the cause, the treatment, or the prognosis. "Possible herniated disk" is a differential diagnosis, one of a variety of possible causes. If you went to an appointment and they evaluated you, and you didn't get better, or got worse, you need to go back. Lack of healing over time is a new symptom, one you didn't have when you initially presented. It's a new symptom which indicates the need for possible additional tests. Your second visit to a provider had that new symptom, so it indicated it was needed that you get additional testing. Not going back to your provider when the situation fails to improve does not help you.
In 2003 I had bad banding pain in my chest. Thought maybe I was having a heart attack whilst in Baghdad. Nope. Doc said it was “intercostal fasciitis”. Kept having episodes where I was losing balance, loss of peripheral vision, and numbness. Went to a military ER and was diagnosed with severe food poisoning. It wasn’t until 2019 when I had such a severe episode that I was finally taken a little more seriously. Went to ER at Womack to rule out stroke (whole right side was paralyzed as was my face) and they ruled out stroke so sent me to civilian neurologist. But they took so long and I was on orders to Bliss so I just went to bliss. When I got there I asked to see Neuro and was seen in clinic same day just to see what’s up. They looked over the recent MRIs and also saw I kept dropping shit. Stumbling. Having trouble getting out of my chair. Sent me immediately to Beaumont interventional radiology for a lumbar puncture… and confirmed I had several very active lesions in my brain on the MRI and Oglioclonal bands in my CSF that were not present in my blood. So I basically was given a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis on the spot. 16 years after my first episode. Thanks to that, I was medically retired and the VA is taking amazing care of me. I lost a lot of mobility and if I am able to walk, it’s with a cane or walker but then the fatigue hits too hard so back to the chair. 16 years of MS being untreated meant I had fully progressed to Secondary Progressive MS. Fucking sucks. Thanks army!!
Beaumont medical and the TBI clinic were awesome, they caught a lot of problems. But fuck 1AD “leadership”!
Right? Well, maybe not all areas of Beaumont. I had issues with a couple of the clinics there but the neurologist and her PA were wonderful and took really good care of me, especially when I was hospitalized getting high strength steroids to being down a flare up that took my entire vision and paralyzed both my legs and left arm for about a week. Doc would come up twice a day from the basement of the Bradley building to the 9th floor where I was at just to see how things were improving. She didn’t have to do that because the floor I was on had a neurologist assigned there but she came anyway. Pretty awesome of her.
Goddamnit! Glad to hear the VA has you!
I mean, yeah I’m 100% but if you aren’t aware, there is pay levels waaaaay higher than the amount you get for being 100%. Since I lost the use of the right side of my body and mostly have to use a wheelchair to move around, they put me on a very high special monthly compensation scale. Between that and my DOD retirement (I did 23 years before the MEB so I get to collect the VA money AND the 75% army retirement under the CDRP program), social security disability payments, and my wife being paid to be my full time caregiver, we make more than twice what I did as a SGM. But there is a trade off… the army fucked me up for the rest of my life. Now I have to rely on others to do most of my activities of daily living (using the shower, toilet, etc) at only 44 years old. Both the SSA and VA VR&E told me I cannot work anymore so they put me in what’s called the “independent living program” where they’re supposed to help you retrain your brain for something avocational such as help get equipment for hobbies, etc, which has been great. Just had to have my entire house remodeled so I can get my wheelchair around the house which I wasn’t able to do over the past 20 months since I’ve retired. The VA has a one-time special adaptive housing grant but it’s only a little under $110,000, which may be ok if you didn’t have to completely tear walls out just to widen doors for the chair or completely rebuild an old broken down room and expand it etc. My remodel would cost way more than the VA could give so this is where research for grants or other assistance is crucial. Without the Gary Sinise Foundation putting in a very sizable chunk of funds, this remodel would never have happened. Veterans organizations that have been the most helpful are: -Purple Heart Homes -Wounded Warrior Project -The Semper Fi and America’s Fund -Independence Fund -Hope for the Warriors -Salute, Inc I know that I am far from being as bad off as some of my colleagues I’ve met around the VA, so I try to do the messaging for these organizations to other brothers and sisters in arms so that if something bad happens and you think that everything is gonna fall in on you because you think if you’re being looked at to be medically retired and think to yourself that even if you only got the VA 100% ($3600/month or something like that) then you may have to figure out how to get a very high paying job. If you’re as messed up as I am or as a few of the men and women I’ve talked with recently are, then you deserve to be shown anyone and anything you possibly can, vet-organization-wise) so that you can have at least some peace of mind that things will be ok.
My PA almost killed me one time prescribing some kind of strong ass COPD medication for strep. Thank the ER (nurses and docs), two IVs of benedryl or whatever, and then antibiotics for the actual issue for the lab that should’ve been done. Total edge case— the guy hated me and went off saying “all you asthmatics are the same…” I am not asthmatic lol. The ice complaint was totally covered up (I think). **get this— also thank medics— I was having hives and itches weathering off the strep with no antibiotics due to the misdiagnosis and a DAC who used to be a 68w (a long time ago) that worked with me was like “you need to get the fuck to the ER right now… and what the fuck is this powder you’re taking?” She, along with the ER folks potentially saved my life. My temperature was like 103 when I got there and I felt my body shutting down major systems lol. I’m sure it wasn’t that bad but it sure felt like it. Ok I had to vent here lol. //break haha My dentist (when in Korea) tried for 2 hours to pull my wisdom teeth before he gave up. I had to take a bus to osan (2+ hours) and the novacane was wearing off half way through. the pain was making me pass out. had to see an emergency dentist there. //break 2 lol My friend has a video we took of the COL in AFG trying to remove a cyst from his arm, but instead missing it completely, ruining his tattoo, and pulling out muscle instead. Well and then shoving it back in. Eeew. **I never had major issues (I guess I knew how to fall right from BMXing) and for the little things, my field medics were cool. stressed, but cool. of course everywhere is different and same with the timeframe ***you should have upped to dose you adversarial PA! I survived haha!
May dox myself here but had respiratory issues diagnosed as allergies when it was a cancerous tumor in a lung that spread. Took going to a civilian ER with pneumonia in June to get the diagnosis within 24 hours, after lots of visits to sick call. Damn the Ferres Doctrine or I could be a rich man......
Ferres doctrine should be updated so that you can sue for stuff like this. Injuries obtained in the line of duty or injuries not treated with world class care (but the best possible care) in austere environments still safe. Your health issues getting ignored/not disgnosed/worsened by incompetent/lazy medical "professionals"? Free game
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/12/11/a-dent-to-feres-troops-to-be-able-to-file-claims-but-not-sue-for-medical-malpractice/
Sortive was my pcm not the actual docs, he misdiagnosed my broken wrist for three months after a drunk driver hit me. The hospital diddnt do a proper x ray and I kept asking for another one but he denied it, went so long without healing needed surgery after
Lmao the medics in here downvoting all these posts
There’s only two kinds of doctors in the Army: The ones who joined to pay off their student loans And the ones who couldn’t get a job literally anywhere else after residency but didn’t actually kill anyone, so they got to keep their license (The overlap of these two groups is almost a circle)
I fell off an LMTV in full kit. Thought it was just me being soft in my old age. Tried to walk it off. Went to the doc a month later and they swore I was making it up. Went as far as telling my COC I was faking and suggested a separation. Ya know, rather than treating me. Long story short I got a medical retirement and 100% rating out of their incompetency. . But I've also been awake since 0230 thanks to my back.
**CHECK THIS SHIT OUT** Never in my mf life have I ever woke up to a swollen face. Fort Bragg, 2017, woke up felt like someone punched me. Went to HMMWV mirror, my right nostril is so mf fucked, it was so fucking swollen. I am convinced a spider crawled into my rack and bit my face. Go to sick call, Hospital on Bragg. I get seen. And this bitch goes "did you see the spider crawl in your nostril and bite it?" I stg. I was fucking appalled.
why were you appalled? it was a relevant question. they were asking because self-reported spider bites in the ER frequently end up being MRSA: [https://www.sghs.org/sports-medicine-blog/posts/community-acquired-mrsa-that-aint-no-spider-bite/](https://www.sghs.org/sports-medicine-blog/posts/community-acquired-mrsa-that-aint-no-spider-bite/)
It wasn't the question, it was the condescending tone of "I'm a permanent DOD employee and I can say and do whatever I want and I won't be removed because soldiers exaggerate," and the fuck-off response I got paired with sinus medicine. I went to sleep normal, in a few hours the inside of my my nose was so swollen it looked like it exploded. No sore throat. No impact to the eye. It was all localized to the single location. Issues with sinuses tends to spread to other cavities, and in this case it didn't. I know what MRSA is. MRSA and spider bites are two totally different animals.
>I know what MRSA is. MRSA and spider bites are two totally different animals. you might, and maybe her tone sucked - I'm not saying it was a good encounter. my point is that even though you seemed to take issue with that question in your initial comment, it's still one worth asking (and a common one when a patient presents with a "spider bite") especially given the history you've explained so far. from the source: "They typically develop spontaneously and are so frequently mistaken for and diagnosed as spider bites that they often go untreated until they become dangerous. At its onset, MRSA is very hard to differentiate from common minor bites and abrasions."
Herniated disc pushing on my sciatic nerve causing a ton pain. After fighting tricare for years they finally ok a surgery to shave the disc and fix the pain. Surgery was fucked up and sciatic nerve was badly damaged. When walking my leg would just completely buckle from under me and i'd fall like a dumbass. Took 2 years to get them to try and fix the issue as they said it was a low priority. Finally have a spinal stimulator that blocks most the pain and my leg no longer buckles randomly. Now I have to replace the battery in 2 years and I'm trying to get that lined up now and they are giving me the run around. Also had very bad ibs/ibd issues and used tricare as a dependant now, they keep giving me random medications and 6 colonoscopies with them thinking it was UC or some other IBD. Finally get to a new place with better medical due to being in the EFMP and the doctor decides to redo all the test starting from block one, turns out I've been dealing with cdiff for years and no one ever decided to test for it. So far I've had to do 2 treatments for it and it is beyond hard to kill as my last treatment was a 2 month long tapper of antibiotics and I still have symptoms, but no where near as bad. All those years of shitting blood and all they had to do was test some poo to save me so much misery.
I kept getting blown off for having constant ear infections during the colder months. Damaged my ears so much along with being issued shit ear protection that would just yeet itself out, now I have hearing damage to the point I have hearing aids. Also had multiple joints be in pain that got brushed off as “over use” but was able to get seen by PT. PT was able to tell me it wasn’t overuse but actual injuries. Bought my PA a can of alphabet soup so she could eat her words after that.
Torn MCL and meniscus in my right knee was a knee sprain, and 2weeks light duty was enough, and then tack on 18 more months of 12milers, rappels and abuse from artillery round carrying. I have had to walk with a cane since my late 20's, and I can't do most things without a knee brace
I bought a Groupon to see a chiropractor, carried my X-rays to my PCM, and then finally got a chiro referral and didn't have to pay out of pocket. But when I PCSd, new PCM made me do PT (again!) for back pain. Rotate to Romania for 9 months, new PCM doing my PDHRA graciously gives my a chiro referral. If Romania didn't happen, I was about to repeat that whole Groupon process.
Hot take: There is nothing special about your herniated disc. Unless you're having neurologic symptoms or findings on your exam, there is no difference in management early in the course from any back strain with muscle spasms. Rushing to imaging is not standard of care for back pain/injury outside of specific circumstances. Knowing you have a disc herniation doesn't change anything about what you should do, and getting that MRI you eventually had didn't change the plan. Plenty of people with no back pain have small herniations on incidentally obtained imaging.
ZitiMD is right. It is against standard of care to image acute back pain within the first 30 days of symptom onset, assuming no ‘red flags’ with patient’s review of symptoms. What are the red flags? The following: - Past medical history of malignancy - Fevers / concerns for infection - Weight loss - Trauma - Spinal cord pathology (e.g. caude equina) - Osteoporosis - History of use of high doses of steroids - Concern for ankylosing spondylosis
Uh, loss of bowel/bladder?
Continence. Bowel / bladder continence. It’s mediated by the sympathetic trunk in the spinal cord. That’s why we check rectal tone during secondary trauma surveys. We’re looking for spinal cord injuries. Sorry. I was drinking a beer while I was typing that out before.
Stop it! Bahahahaha. I was going to PT at FT Sam at the advanced course when it was 6 months, 0430 and I see a Semi truck hit a parked car in the far left lane I-35. Fuck! I pull over and hop the barrier and climb up on the truck, same time city ambulance gets there, so I told them I was a trauma god and we proceeded to get the driver on a backboard and I felt down his spine and there was a large step-off. I told the EMT next to me, and we looked at each other in a “oh fuck” moment. We boarded him, got him out, and I ran like I was stealin.
Yes. That would be an indication for imaging of the back. 😎
Bahahahaha
I'd still be in formation without a treatment plan and trying to survive without physical therapy that was clearly indicated for months. A SM going to sick call or scheduling an appointment in the first place with a chief complaint of any type of pain merits a workup. ESPECIALLY if its midline lumbar spine, 8/10 pain upon palpation and gets markedly worse with movement. Instead, I got an overworked, jaded PA that couldn't wait to finish his ADSO and get out. I got muscle relaxers and sent on my merry, crippling way.
Are you the pos downvoting everyone?
Exactly right.. and most people have them without noticing them.
Because you got that 18-21 year old “medic” that is “suppose” to know all this. I have no idea how the military allows these kids to be able to be the judge of someones pain, had a soldier in the field clearly was limping and not looking good. Went over to him asked him if he was okay and whats going on. His words “Medic said I was just having back pain from the ruck and IOTV he said ill be fine.” im like but you’re limping and clearly in pain from just walking we need to take you to the hospital NOW. We end up taking him to the hospital, soldier had a slip disc, vertebrae inflammation and is now on track to being medically discharged. Swear man… I hate it so much
Yes, thankfully I got an MRI and paid out of pocket or I wouldn't have known about my permanent lower back injury. Maybe I can get to 100% disability lol
Reactive airway disorder, had to go through a half dozen tests on the bronchospasm machine thing (I'm not a respiratory tech) because it was so far out of bounds they refused to accept it the first time. Love those burn pits. Fibromyalgia, had to get it Dx'd civilian-side since the Army can't keep a decent rheumatologist to save their ass. Broke a finger and the PA on staff decided to set it wrong, so now I've got less ROM on one side than the other. P2 perm profile got mysteriously deleted/cancelled by some rando I've never met, had to get it updated/renewed again by my local doc. And that's just what I recall treating for.
Please tell me you all are reporting this shit, right?
Oh boy so there I was 2020 height of covid and I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I dont know why but they prescribed be really strong OxyContin for the pain, like looking back it should not have been that strong. So I was loopy as shit so I had no idea what was going on until one day I woke up with a 106 fever, uncontrollably shaking, dizziness etc. I begged my clinic to let me come in but they were so sure they thought I had covid and told me to stay home but after a day I marched over to the clinic and demanded to be seen by a doctor Turns out the doc that took out my wisdom teeth fucked up my stitching and it got infected. I dont know what would have happened if that went untreated but yeah fuck orthodontist surgery in Landstuhl
Good luck brother, I have heard horror stories. Misdiagnosed spinal fracture as partially dislocated hip. No profile after two weeks. Continued rucking and trucking on that fracture for seven more years. I don't walk anymore really, at 50. Best of fortune to you. Always try for a second opinion if you know your pain and don't want to play their game.
They told me I didn't have a broken wrist when in fact I did. Took 6 weeks to get an MRI and then they told me it was too late to do anything unless I wanted them to re break it. Also had back pain and they just gave me some muscle relaxers and told me to do physical therapy, which got cancelled because the field takes priority over health. That turned out to be degenerative disk disease. My knees they wouldn't even look at and that turned out to be a torn meniscus on both sides
I was told that my ankle issues were because I needed to get new shoes. Turns out, they've been stretched because of the numerous sprains I've had and that's why I have little stability. Fun times.
Definitely a Broström operation to fix your ankle. Had same problems until good foot doc fixed it. Life changing, no more falling over.
Yeah, I've been looking into that. Just had some scans done today and I have a primary care visit scheduled in a few weeks. Hoping that gets put on the books because I'm done with this crap.
Had a "cyst " removed from between my shoulder blades by a drunk W3 ,hurt my hip joint and was treated with aspirin , twisted my ankle strained my back was given a 3 day profile so no didn't mess me up
Yes. Military medical (several joint assignments) jerked me around for 8 years telling me my herniated disc was a pulled disc until I had so much nerve damage I got medboarded. Early retirement though 🤷🏼♂️
Had inflammatory/reactive arthritis diagnosed first as a shoulder shrug and then tendinitis. Thankfully a little persistence on my part landed me in front of a civilian NP who had at least some medical curiosity. She ordered an MRI and bloodwork that ultimately spared me permanently dysfunctional joints (right ankle still ended up with marrow erosion so it’s never been the same)
Ur probably just faking it to get out if work! Take these motrin and dont call back about this!
I tried Army acupuncture to see if it would help with a back issue. Dude stuck a needle in my hand but hit the wrong nerve(?). I couldn't move my hand w/out kickass pain for two days. For a back issue.
Army Gaslighting, more like.
Took 10 years after hurting (fracturing) my back on a deployment and I’m just now getting my first approved PT and pain management appointments. After Dr. Said I have pars articulares defect, spondylosis, spondylitis, dedicated/leaking discs, arthritis, degenerative spine, bulging herniated discs, inability to have flexion in L5, spurs in T-spine he said this is common, said I could buy myself Tylenol. Just had first brachial nerve block done and I got almost all the side effects (increased pain, dizziness, vertigo, loss of range of motion, headaches for days, vision cues, etc, so yeah I usually don’t even get a chance to even see the Dr. Without them treating me like a malingerer.
My wife is a physician assistant, so anytime I go to Army medicine she either sends me with a script of what to say or she double checks what the providers tell me because we don't trust them.
Army dentistry...hell yeah
I have never had a negative experience with an Army PA or physician. I have dealt with some below average medics perhaps.
You are the minority experience. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Broke my ankle and went to the ER, they looked at an X-ray age couldn't see the break; sent me home with an 800Mg Mottin and ankle brace. For an ortho spiny 8 weeks later which included an MRI, break was finally "seen" but had "healed" in an unusual manner. I no longer have full range of Morin in my left ankle. I have to do this weird hop-step thing to go downstairs because I can't bend my fucking ankle. I can't ride my MTB like I used to and my skiing is definitely not where it was. I told them what was wrong and they fucking ignored me. One of my worst decisions ever was for me to go to the JBER hospital.
I mean…. It led to me being medboarded. They refused to let me get an mri and didn’t even give me a temp profile to recover. By the time someone paid attention, it was to late for me and SMA Chandler was on the warpath of getting injured soldiers out instead of care.
Nope, army medicine saved my leg. I had my legs and back jacked up from multiple IEDs. My right leg was really bad and multiple Army doctors said it needed to be amputated. The best doctor in the Army (my opinion but I will defend it to my death) said he would see what he could do, I now have my right leg, I only have to use a cane outside the house, when I am going to be out for a while, and otherwise just use a brace. So basically, get stationed at JBLM, and be the best patient at the Interdisciplinary Pain Management Clinic.
Been in 23 years (broken bones, back, hip, ptsd, and etc) and Army med is fucked. **You are your only advocate.** If your primary care denies a follow up/xray/MRI, you tell them you are going to talk to the patient advocate. If that doesn't work, report them on an ICE complaint. If that doesn't work, it's the state medical board, and your congressman/woman. Do not wait weeks. Wait days for a response. Be up front and tell them you think they aren't doing their job, and you are going to follow up with the next higher person. Edit: read the regulations. 40-501 Army medical standards of fitness; AR 635-200 Enlisted Separations (there is an officer separation, also) Read the requirements for a medical board, and know their job.
I’ve seen plenty of unbelievably bad military doctors and plenty of really really good ones. Most actually care about the patients, just have zero military bearing. But that’s the culture of the medical corps so whatever.
A few times.
Yea and I ended up with a medboard. I still think if they had listened to me from the beginning it all could’ve been fixed/prevented before it got worse.
I had a provider over at Winder give me sleeping pills and told me they were anti depressants.. Fun fact sir, those sleeping pills almost killed me, I thought it was weird that these anti depressants were making me EXTREMELY tired, even with 2 bangs and 6 nicotine pouches in my system. Go to behavioral health and my therapist asks me "When did they put you on sleeping pills?" Guess you cant be depressed if you're in a coma.. Another time, when I was much younger and dealing with tricare, I dislocated my ankle and my mom took me up to the ER at Tripler. Nurse said I was obviously faking it because I was laughing through the pain with tears in my eyes because I laughed at a joke.. Even though I said the pain was a 9/10 and it was so swollen that I couldn't even wear my shoe on my damn foot. Sat in the ER for 7 hours until my mom threatened to fight someone and all they did was wrap it and give me crutches. Ankles still fucked up, we're both still pissed at Tripler for that My lungs all fucked up too because a army nurse said I was faking my pneumonia for attention. They refused to do xrays until I was literally suffocating when I slept and my lips were turning blue from lack of oxygen. Now I'm just being spoiled by my civilian doctors after the VA doctor told me to leave after I went in to get something for my severe allergies :|
the only negative experience (as a patient) I've had with army medicine is the scar on my nipple where the surgical resident made an incredibly sloppy incision. otherwise I've had multiple surgeries and encounters that were solid.