Back Surgery or No Back Surgery?

[68PGunner]

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[DrESQ]

Medical school isn't going anywhere. It will be there in a year.

Take care of your health, especially if your PCP anticipates this problem could grow worse or impact you negatively given the physical demand of 3rd and 4th year

 

[rilte4]

I think if you view this from the lens of "that time I could've become a doctor but didn't make it through due to a health condition that could have been taken care of but worsened instead", deferring for a year will be a little easier to stomach. Manning up, in this case, would be taking care of your health, not neglecting it.

 

[68PGunner]

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[68PGunner]

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[rilte4]

...that's a whoooole other issue. Yeah, don't let the bad doc slice and dice you.

 

[68PGunner]

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[petyr_baelish]

What about medical discharge + new job + medicaid + defer med school one year? You may also qualify for the government health exchange with a recent discharge, even off-cycle from normal enrollment.

Interruptions to medical education are less than ideal for residency prospects. Anything you can do to avoid them is worth considering, but not at the expense of your health.

Find out how long recovery from that surgery typically takes to see if its feasible to do it at the end of first year.

 

[68PGunner]

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[esob]

I was once given the choice of going under the knife of an Army surgeon or submitting to an MEB. I took the MEB, lol. Seriously I would ask for the board, be found unfit for duty and take your disability rating. Unless you hurt your back doing something you weren't supposed to be doing, your injury will be considered line of duty.

 

[68PGunner]

I was once given the choice of going under the knife of an Army surgeon or submitting to an MEB. I took the MEB, lol. Seriously I would ask for the board, be found unfit for duty and take your disability rating. Unless you hurt your back doing something you weren't supposed to be doing, your injury will be considered line of duty.

What kind of injury did you incur? Did you end up getting the surgery by a civilian doctor after your discharge?

 

[Gurby]

I would try posting this in the Allopathic forum as well - maybe more people will chime in who have actually gone through med school and can offer that perspective?

 

[esob]

What kind of injury did you incur? Did you end up getting the surgery by a civilian doctor after your discharge?

Nope, what they were proposing was completely unorthodox and after seeing several civilian ortho surgeons all of them came to the conclusion that what the doctor was offering to do was not a recommended procedure for the injury. In my case, normally I would have just been put on a permanent profile and taken an alternate PT test (swim or bike instead if the 2 mile due to an injury to my left greater MTP) but I was only an E4 and at the time at least, the regs were that in order to pass BNOC you had to taken a standardized PT test. So I opted for an MEB in hopes that I would be found fit for duty and could return to duty and complete BNOC then take the permanent profile. Needless to say, things didn't work out in my favor, lol.