DQ & No Waiver for Rectal Bleeding

[Guest FrozenPilot]

Yea, not the most fun topic, but this is what caused the C5 squadron in Newburgh to not seek a medical waiver. The details are what hurt me.

November 2003. Had a slight case of bright red blood only when wiping, and only in small amounts. I contributed this later to food from the dining center, but I get checked out several times anyways. It was intermittent for a month, then in December, no more bleeding, and still none to this day. They (military docs) decide in December to send me to a civilian doc for a colonoscopy in January '04 depite my insistence that I've had no bleeding. The colonoscopy day rolls around and I get to see the butt doc and am prepped for the procedure. Doc comes in a reviews my history, asks about my case and I tell him the story. He believes that there's no point in putting me through the procedure, and I agree. He sends off his letter to the military docs and my problems are over, at least so I thought.

Fast forward to the initial physical. Its a long story, but they know I had this bleeding in the past. I get all the medical documents about my case, even another exam to help my case. I even had another civilian doc review my case and recommend that I'm fit to fly (which I paid for out of pocket). So I got all my paperwork together and submitted to Newburgh for review. They say I'll have no word til March at least. I call in March to check on the status and receive the news all hopefuls hope not to hear... "The Wing has decided NOT to go through with the waiver process. They felt your case was not going to turn out well." Talk about a letdown.

So, now I'm flying a 172 doing aerial mapping, sitting sometimes 5+ hours at a time, up to 9 hours a day so far, without any problems. I'm not looking anymore into military aviation anymore and just sharing my experience. I'm happy to be flying, building lots of time, and getting to see a lot of the U.S.

[Guest doctidy]

Newburgh? not familiar w/ the location.

PM me w/ who you belong to (AD, AFRC, ANG, unit / MAJCOM), who you have talked w/, POC w/ their DSN phone in Newburgh. I'll need your real name as well (or you can come up w/ some type of identifying criteria that the POC will know who I am calling about).

Hopefully there is another side to this story.

[Guest skipplet]

The way you describe the bleeding makes me think it was an anal fissure that healed.

Also, just because one unit won't sponsor you doesn't mean that another won't either. Like Demo said, don't give up, seriously.

Good luck

[Scooter14]

Originally posted by Rage_:P:

Newburgh? not familiar w/ the location.

Funny, not a lot of people were, until 290,000 ecstacy pills landed there a few weeks ago.

FP, hang in there. I can't imagine a problem that went away two years ago could cause this much ass pain (pun intended). I got KO'd (out for a few seconds max) in a hockey game my senior year of high school (1991), passed a FC1A, flew as a nav for over 6 years, took a FC1 in 2002 and AETC/SG had a cow. Even though the reg said if it was over ten years ago and there were no symptoms it should be OK, they classified it as a moderate head injury. Sent me downtown to a neuropsychologist, asked me a bunch of questions, the doc downtown was like "Do you know how much it's costing the AF for me to tell you that you are fine?" I got a waiver and am flying today.

The only person who cares about your flying career is you. Keep trying. See if they can work a deal with another unit willing to take the waiver route. Sounds like someone might be either lacking knowledge or lazy on the Newburgh end of the telephone.

[ 07. May 2005, 20:26: Message edited by: PAB ]

[Guest F16PilotMD]

Frozen, I'm betting there is more to the story but if not, they are just wrong.

[Guest FrozenPilot]

The only part of the story missing is the military side. My guess is as good as yours. At least my career is still going strong, just on the civy side of things. Apparantly there are a few people who work with my dad (he's a Msgt at NEADS) that are a bit jealous. I guess getting to travel the U.S. solo in a 172 does that. I'm still young enough that I can take a few years to decide to pursue the military or stay with civilian flying.