DODMERB Appendix A surgery timeline clarification

[Gnarlygoat27]

My DS is a candidate for USNA '27 and I'm looking for some clarification on Appendix A, specifically the musculoskeletal system section. Where it says "history of surgery within six months" does that mean six months from I-Day or six months before the medical exam takes place? He's in a bit of a predicament due to a very unfortunate car accident last summer, on I-Day '22 in fact. He had a surgery at the time to allow for healing but in the coming weeks/months needs to have the hardware removed. He's already received the email from DODMERB to begin their process so we're trying to figure out how to thread this needle and make these plans with his surgeon. Surgeon is a retired navy doc, knows the verbiage, and assures us DS will be "good as new" and physically ready after removal. He's also happy to help with the likely appeals process. But does hardware removal surgery count and are we talking six months before the exam? Fortunately he passed the CFA at SS just prior which was good since the rest of the summer was all about healing. Thanks for any guidance on this!