Should I accept an MEB or or pursue retirement?

CPT Sean Begaye, take this advice from someone who in 2015 accepted his MEB. I had a bad jump therefore to make this short it was better to take a MEB then retired because you will get both, your VA & retirement at the same time. If you only retired you have a big problem with VA therefore take MEB, trust me it

Have you checked with the VA? Ultimately they are the percentage people, also they are the final word in whether it combat -related. Good Luck

Your ombudsman on post will be some of the greatest guys to talk to concerning a lot of things, and they're impartial since they don't report to the military.
Peblos also are not the greatest at making these guesses (the civilian legal people that they send you too are pretty decent however). And that's just what it is, a guess.
You can look up the VA disability ratings tables and try and figure your own educated guess out as well. This can be beneficial for things that have ranges that determine severity.
Look into CRDP as well.

Have you spoke with your Soldier's MEB Counsel?

Work your way towards retirement then follows suite with VA claim on your last 1.5 years.

Take the retirement then go straight to the VA and file a claim

Just curious, in my travels through the SW US, the name “Begaye” was very common in the Navajo Nation. Are you a Native American?
At any rate, I hope you stuck it out to get your full retirement. And, as others have said, applied for a VA disability upon retirement out processing.

I faced a similar problem (having over 8 but less than 10 years of Commissioned Service). If you retire in your enlisted pay grade, once you reach the 25 year mark in the retired reserve (active duty time plus years in retired reserve) your rank will be advanced back to your officer grade and you’ll get your officer retired pay on that date. Try contacting your branches personnel retirement center for information. That 25 year date they calculate specific to you will be placed on your retirement order and also goes to DFAS.

In my experience as a fellow medical retiree, it is often on your PCM to do his/her best to maintain a hold on you and not releasing you back to the hounds. If they have not released their findings, you cannot go to the board without the full review of the Doctor’s signature. Believe it or not, I helped push a dear friends for close to 30 months. During this time he had a surgery and had multiple trips to the PT warriors to get him back to a specific point, of which the Doctor can release you to the MEB and ultimately the PEB. If you can have an operation that you know will take some time to recuperate, then go that route and don’t wait to have the VA start it’s process. Doctors have or at least “had” a lot to do with this process in years past.
My opinion, make good with your PCM. It slows the process down quite a bit! They can cancel appointments just as easily as you, pushing you back in those specialty clinics quite a while!
Just saying, having been through it, the big Army is done, now it’s time to beat them at their own game! They wrote the rules, you are playing by them and having some fun doing it! Your Commander if s/he likes you, can sit on the paperwork or it mistakenly gets lost in the S1 before making it to his/her desk. Problem is that most Commanders want to offload the dead weight as quickly as possible because it might be keeping them in the Red!
Thankfully, working in the S3 shop I was introduced to the game before it started on me - so having the advantage, I played to win, and did!
It’s you against an entire system that has nothing it wants to do with you anymore.
That said, you have to fight for every bit of benefits you deserve, because they’ve done the Pontius Pilate to you and frankly, no one cares because it’s not them, for if it were, they’d be helping you... All the best if you are still fighting or to those about or currently going thru!

Don't accept everything you are told by the PEBLO as 100% accurate. I was med boarded in 2014. The PEBLO told me I was looking at somewhere around 40%. The VA rated me at 100%. You have to decide what you can and cannot do. I was at a point where I thought about eating a bullet the pain was so severe. I knew I could not continue serving--even though I had 19 years. You know your body, how you feel, and what you need. Even though I had a dead-man-walking profile, having to go in and sit at a desk was more than I could handle.