Social Security

So today we got a piece of paper in the mail from SS Disability. I assumed that it was telling him that his benefits were done. When you are working they send you payments for only 9 months if you are still working after that 9 months than the payments end. However they had mispaid him the past year and we are getting some extra back pay. Awesome. However it is coming the day before Christmas so it's not like I can use that for Christmas shopping. Oh well it's good news nonetheless.

Tons of Paperwork

100Today we got three very important pieces of mail. One from the Temporary Disability Retired List (TDRL) worker stating that she is going to schedule his re-eval soon. Guess we don't have a preference of when it is....according to the Army we have no life. Also she did send the appropriate forms to request his medical records so I am glad that is something we don't have to do.

The second piece of mail was a survey from AW2, or the Army's War Wounded Soldiers program. He finally got a great case worker after 2 1/2 years and they wanted to do a survey on the service. I am glad to see someone who is calling and checking in regularly. At first they said Bryan couldn't be in the program because he wasn't missing some limbs, even though he was in casts up to his hips. General Cody fixed that for us.

The last was to say that Bryan got picked to be in the 100 faces of war experience. 100 Faces is a work in progress. On completion it will consist of 100 Portraits of Americans who have been to the theaters of war in Iraq or Afghanistan (OEF,OIF). Each portrait is accompanied by a placard which features a statement written by the person pictured and a brief biography of the person pictured. The biographical information and the statement reflect the person at the time of the creation of the portrait. Not all of the people pictured are military personnel. All have travelled to the theater of war in Iraq or Afghanistan. The portraits are not for sale and not done at any cost to the participants. 100 Faces of War Experience is a not for profit project under the fiscal sponsorship of the Veterans Education Project of Amherst, MA.While visiting this website you can view the portraits and statements of the 100 Faces project, apply to be part of the project, view the upcoming exhibition schedule, and donate to support this work. I am so excited. They picked him based on his numerous military decorations, his time in theater, his injuries, and his state. We hope to meet this gentleman to get his picture painted within a year.

1st Mountain Home VA appointment

Today we went to the VA to get Bryan's knee checked out. It was our first experience at the VA hospital here and it's an hour and forty minutes to get there so basically it takes most of the day to get there and back and do the appointment. They think he tore or is missing his MCL and not only is the one bone growing on the inside of his knee but there is another below it that is growing below the surface. They wanted to do an MRI but we aren't going through that arguement again so they are doing a CT scan with contrast on the 21st. His results will be back Dec. 15 with the doc. If that doesn't show everything then he will have a scope and then surgery to fix the problem.

I am nervous about the results and it stinks that it takes a month to get the results back. After all this he could have a scope to even see what is going on there with scar tissue and H.O. growing in there. Thankfully he has a great job that is flexible with his doctors appointments unlike his last job.