Posted on Oct 6, 2019
I am getting off active duty and switching to the Guard, but I need surgery. What is my best bet?
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I have a tear in labrum that will need reconstruction and it’s a 6 month recovery period. I only have 35 days left on Active duty so getting it done now isn’t an option; I want to know if I’ll be able to go through the VA, my NG unit, or what.
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Health
Surgery
Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 15
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I wonder how many folks regret waiting until they separate from service to let the VA or Reserve or Guard take care of their surgery.
If the surgery is needed, now is the time to get it.
I'm certain there are Career Counselors on here that can provide the answer with regard to whether you can extend for a period, or not.
If that is an option, that's likely your best course of action.
If you don't have it done before you separate, do yourself a huge favor and get a line of duty, buddy statements on how the injury occurred, and multiple more visits to your PC doctor and a specialist to thoroughly document that this condition is service connected.
If the surgery is needed, now is the time to get it.
I'm certain there are Career Counselors on here that can provide the answer with regard to whether you can extend for a period, or not.
If that is an option, that's likely your best course of action.
If you don't have it done before you separate, do yourself a huge favor and get a line of duty, buddy statements on how the injury occurred, and multiple more visits to your PC doctor and a specialist to thoroughly document that this condition is service connected.
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Get it done now. Extend if necessary. Do not "turn it into someone else's problem" (VA/NG/whoever). You will regret it. Documentation is "subjective" and therefore never done to the receiving side's satisfaction.
So, talk to medical and find out if "getting it done now REALLY isn't an option" or what will make it an option. If you are planning on switching to NG anyways, why not just extend to get this fixed, then switch?
So, talk to medical and find out if "getting it done now REALLY isn't an option" or what will make it an option. If you are planning on switching to NG anyways, why not just extend to get this fixed, then switch?
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COL Vincent Stoneking
What everyone else has said. Speaking as a former commander who had two individuals attempting to get care for back issues incurred on AD, but poorly counseled to "let the reserves take care of it", they went through limbo/hell getting taken care of. Both ended up getting boarded out, which is a significantly less beneficial to a "traditional TPU" Soldier than it is to AC.
The USAR/NG will fight tooth and nail to NOT put you on 6 months of orders to cover either surgery or recovery. They will state, correctly, that they are NOT the responsible party and that you need to go through the VA. The VA, even if you get scheduled quickly, can't "put you on orders". In either case, you will just not be working, and not getting paid, for that time period...
The USAR/NG will fight tooth and nail to NOT put you on 6 months of orders to cover either surgery or recovery. They will state, correctly, that they are NOT the responsible party and that you need to go through the VA. The VA, even if you get scheduled quickly, can't "put you on orders". In either case, you will just not be working, and not getting paid, for that time period...
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Absolutely DO NOT wait till you separate. Walk into your Career Counselor office and extend for a year, get the surgery and recover. Or get the surgery and if you don't recover, separate through a med board.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen young Soldiers just assume they'll be good separating and needing surgery. Best case scenario is it takes you months to inprocess and be seen at the VA, and several more months to recover completely. All that time you will not be gainfully employed and not in school.
Worst case scenario is that it takes you months to get a surgery, you live hours away from the VA and miss several appointments because they have the wrong contact number. They make you go through months of physical therapy first. The PT turns out to be ineffective while your injury continues to worsen. Then the surgery doesn't fix everything the first time and needs multiple surgeries. A year later you're fighting for a disability rating from the VA because you've lost mobility but they say it's not service connected. All the while you will have no gainful employment and the surgery, PT, and pain will have been too disruptive for you to maintain a full college load, meaning you are not getting full BAH and your grades drop causing you to have to repay the TA and BAH for some of your courses before being allowed to use your GI Bill again.
Not that ALL of those bad things will happen all at once, but any of them are possible and very common. Extend and get your surgery done on Active Duty. You can recontract into the NG later and whatever job you may have lined up right now is not going to keep you employed when you're too broke to work. Civilian employment is not the Army, they don't have to give you time off when you're hurt, they'll just fire you. You can use your extra year of Army time to start some college courses.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen young Soldiers just assume they'll be good separating and needing surgery. Best case scenario is it takes you months to inprocess and be seen at the VA, and several more months to recover completely. All that time you will not be gainfully employed and not in school.
Worst case scenario is that it takes you months to get a surgery, you live hours away from the VA and miss several appointments because they have the wrong contact number. They make you go through months of physical therapy first. The PT turns out to be ineffective while your injury continues to worsen. Then the surgery doesn't fix everything the first time and needs multiple surgeries. A year later you're fighting for a disability rating from the VA because you've lost mobility but they say it's not service connected. All the while you will have no gainful employment and the surgery, PT, and pain will have been too disruptive for you to maintain a full college load, meaning you are not getting full BAH and your grades drop causing you to have to repay the TA and BAH for some of your courses before being allowed to use your GI Bill again.
Not that ALL of those bad things will happen all at once, but any of them are possible and very common. Extend and get your surgery done on Active Duty. You can recontract into the NG later and whatever job you may have lined up right now is not going to keep you employed when you're too broke to work. Civilian employment is not the Army, they don't have to give you time off when you're hurt, they'll just fire you. You can use your extra year of Army time to start some college courses.
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