Hello everyone, I need some help in what steps I need to take for filing a claim and if my issues would be worth going for. After talking to my old sergeant he convinced me to give it a shot to go for an increase for my issues.

Like a lot of posts I’ve seen here I didn’t go to medical for everything, kept my mouth shut for some stuff due to pressure and wanting to tough it out. Even in civilian life I didn’t go for a lot of stuff and never brought up issues for years.

I’m going to try to make this a two part post, with the first being where I currently stand with everything then I’ll talk about the issues/pain I’ve been dealing with. Apologizes if I don’t make sense, I’m trying make it as quick to the point as possible before I start rambling my whole life story.

I did an intent to file in November last year, tried to get my primary dr to look at me and see if I could get appointments with specialists to get more medical evidence.

That was a nightmare process, after 6 months of waiting for a physical, once I started talking about my problems he looked at me and said “what’s your point with all this?” Told me to stretch, eat better and take Advil then bounced to the next patient. Then I moved with my wife across country and I still don’t have medical benefits yet with my new job.
I don’t think I will have time till the one year mark to file the intent to claim.

I reached out to the DAV and they said they will help when I am ready to file. Do I take what little I have now and start the claim? Since I don’t have access to doctors at the moment do I go to the VA and get looked at or would that be a waste of time since there would be an exam for the issues after I file a claim? After years of hearing horror stories I stopped going to the VA shortly after getting out but it seems to be my only option right now. Would it be better to file with that little medical records I got and get some of these issues in my record and try again later if they are denied? Would I be able to do that?

I got out of the Marines in 09/2010 after a year and half, I was in the infantry. I got Med Sep’d for injuries from training (and I suspect Obamas cutback had some influence on their decision but I digress)

My biggest complaint was knee pain in both knees, I got an MRI that showed torn meniscus which I got the surgery for in 2011 after I got out. Was given 10% per knee for PFPS (knee pain). I currently sit at 20%

My other issues are

Ankle instability in my right ankle, it was from the final hike in SOI. Halfway through I rolled my ankle hard, I still remember hearing the pop when I went down. Since then that ankle will catch and roll very easily. I’ve probably rolled it and sprained it more than a dozen times since I got out but never went to the dr for it. The old its nothing, its not worth the wait just to be told to ice it and rest. I got rated not service connected for this one.

Knee instability, both my knees will randomly while standing or walking hyperextend very quickly. It’s like a sudden little pop, just give out then got back to normal. This has been going on since my knee pains started.

Tinnitus, this I can say started at one specific training range, its one of the issues that I didn’t bring up when I was processing getting out. A corpsman told me it would get better with time.

Back pain, I get specific back pain in one spot when I start to carry anything on my back after a short while, still happens to this day. I know I complained about it while I was in but nothing ever came of it and it got over looked by my knee issues.

Headaches, I can’t say specifically when they started or why but at some point I got a lot of headaches, from minor to mild to severe. I still get them constantly, once or twice a month I get bad enough ones to just take Advil and lay down to try to sleep it off.

This is one pain that started a couple years after I got out but I think it’s related to all my other issues with my right leg. I get sharp pain in my right heel, it’s only a real problem first thing in the morning or after I’ve been off my feet for several hours. After walking for a minute or two the pain lessens enough where I can ignore it. I think it might be plantar fasciitis, but I haven’t had a dr look at it before.

And lastly I don’t know what to call it, maybe anxiety, never talked about it to anyone. It happened after a hazing that went bad. It involved my seniors drinking then rounding up us boots to haze, one guy who didn’t like me when to the extreme. It resulted in a court martial and he went to the bring for a short time. Since then I don’t go around groups of drunk people, just being around that environment makes me nervous and I cant relax. Even with friends, I just don’t trust anyone. I never brought it up after the court martial and definitely never talked to a dr or profesional, I was afraid they would put me on a list or something.

I feel like a shit bag even considering getting a rating for this, especially since I know guys who went through much worse in combat enough to take their own lives. But it is there and it hasn’t gone away all these years later.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give in what steps I can take next.