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My oldest son Brandon has been in the military for almost 2 years now. In that time he's been through Basic training, advanced training, and then got posted to the middle-of-nowhere-america at Ft. Still, Oklahoma. He's not liked his posting since day one, in large part because he's not doing what he got trained for. Granted, he's also not deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan either, but he's got to do a year state-side before getting shipped overseas. He's been at Ft. Sill since September, I think. He's also spent over 60 days of that time in the hospital, include the last 30 or so.
He got the flu around Christmas, and by the middle of January, was hospitalized with pneumonia. He was (theoretically) put on light-duty, but then had to go to the field with his unit where he was pulling 14 hours days in the kitchen, and ended-up back in the hospital. My Ex and I did a conference call with his doctor today, and going into it I assumed it was going to be about his health. Turns out, during his first hospitalization in November, some army pshrink diagnosed him has being bipolar. It was 1 week of interviews, surveys, and counseling that lead to the diagnosis. No MRI or fMRI study, no 30, or 60, or 90 days of therapy sessions. Just a week, and *bam*, he's on lithium and some SRI and ambien so he can sleep.
Unlike in November, he is in a civilian hospital right now. They took him off of the ambien last month (which I am very happy about) and changed the SRI he's on, and reduced the lithium. This makes me even more suspect of the original diagnosis. He is getting "medical boarded" which is the first step in getting a medical discharge. Brandon is ok with getting out, which I understand, but is also ok with wearing the label of "bipolar" for the rest of his life, which concerns me to no end.
I probably cannot add him to my insurance this year, even with the new changes in the law, because this is essentially just a job-change for him; and even if he did come here to live with me, I doubt that qualifies as a valid "life event" to where I can add him outside of the open-enrollment period. But, I ought to be able to add him next year (assuming he is living with me or his mom) which will allow him to get a non-army diagnosis and perhaps an MRI to confirm (or not) what they think is going on in his head.
In the meantime, we were told that a medical discharge typically takes 6 months, and can take up to a year. So he's got quite a bit of hurry-up-and-wait ahead of him. He seemed to be accepting of that on the phone today, so I at least don't have to be preoccupied with worry about it. And he's going to come out of this was some cash saved up and maybe part of his college money from the first year+ of his enlistment that he can use to go back to school--which was his goal in doing this all along. So maybe now he just gets to do it a bit sooner, albeit with some added personal baggage now.
Kids. Always something.
He got the flu around Christmas, and by the middle of January, was hospitalized with pneumonia. He was (theoretically) put on light-duty, but then had to go to the field with his unit where he was pulling 14 hours days in the kitchen, and ended-up back in the hospital. My Ex and I did a conference call with his doctor today, and going into it I assumed it was going to be about his health. Turns out, during his first hospitalization in November, some army pshrink diagnosed him has being bipolar. It was 1 week of interviews, surveys, and counseling that lead to the diagnosis. No MRI or fMRI study, no 30, or 60, or 90 days of therapy sessions. Just a week, and *bam*, he's on lithium and some SRI and ambien so he can sleep.
Unlike in November, he is in a civilian hospital right now. They took him off of the ambien last month (which I am very happy about) and changed the SRI he's on, and reduced the lithium. This makes me even more suspect of the original diagnosis. He is getting "medical boarded" which is the first step in getting a medical discharge. Brandon is ok with getting out, which I understand, but is also ok with wearing the label of "bipolar" for the rest of his life, which concerns me to no end.
I probably cannot add him to my insurance this year, even with the new changes in the law, because this is essentially just a job-change for him; and even if he did come here to live with me, I doubt that qualifies as a valid "life event" to where I can add him outside of the open-enrollment period. But, I ought to be able to add him next year (assuming he is living with me or his mom) which will allow him to get a non-army diagnosis and perhaps an MRI to confirm (or not) what they think is going on in his head.
In the meantime, we were told that a medical discharge typically takes 6 months, and can take up to a year. So he's got quite a bit of hurry-up-and-wait ahead of him. He seemed to be accepting of that on the phone today, so I at least don't have to be preoccupied with worry about it. And he's going to come out of this was some cash saved up and maybe part of his college money from the first year+ of his enlistment that he can use to go back to school--which was his goal in doing this all along. So maybe now he just gets to do it a bit sooner, albeit with some added personal baggage now.
Kids. Always something.
