Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Keep Your Fingers Folded

Lloyd signed his packet earlier today. The medical review board has it and should give their decision in the next 3 weeks. A lot is riding on what they have to say about what percentage of disability they assign. (It goes in increments of 10%) As we understand it, it mostly can be summed up as one of two results at this point.

  1. Medical discharge: Disability rating 10% or 20%. Lloyd gets an honorable discharge, and his GI Bill pays for school. He files paperwork with the Veterans Administration, and (after they go through a whole different process) they send him a monthly check for his disability.
  2. Medical retirement: Disability rating 30% or higher. Lloyd gets an honorable discharge, and his GI Bill pays for school. He files paperwork with the Veterans Administration, and (after they go through a whole different process) they send him a monthly check for his disability. Additionally, he receives a military pension, continues medical insurance at very low annual cost, and gets a lot of other benefits of being a retired disabled veteran.
Obviously, medical retirement is the "better" of the two. It's also not very common for the review board to grant it with good reason. (Unless you're missing a limb or wheelchair bound of course.) We are praying that in Lloyd's case that they do. Of course, the long term financial benefit is there. However, there is a much larger aspect to it. The medical issues that Lloyd has that are directly related to his time in the service are significant. We are hopeful that some of the symptoms might get better with time and treatment, but there are no guarantees of that, and it could very well be that what he needs isn't covered and needs to be paid for out of pocket. The conditions as they are now are going to have an as of yet undetermined impact on what he is able to do. Finally, this is an official acknowledgement of what happened and its long term effect on our life. This factor is intangible, but that doesn't lessen its importance.

A lot is riding on these next few weeks, and we appreciate your continued prayers and support.

God Bless!

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