RachelCharlotte
New Member
This is gonna be a little long-- sorry about that!
I'm a firstie at USNA and will be commissioning almost exactly one month from now. I was elated to service select NFO and be one step closer to being a WSO. However, no one ever told me that it was career suicide to use the word migraine (which I used to think was synonymous with headache) or go see the doc for headache meds until it was too late.. I was told after service selection that I needed to get a waiver. I went to see a neurologist O-6 and he gave me a glowing AHLTA note (I do not have migraines and the problem has been resolved by not staying up for 24 hrs at a time), but NAMI still denied the waiver. However, they denied me due to having "migraine (G43) with presence of aura", which is completely incorrect. All of these headaches (five total over four years, with the most recent being over eight months ago) were very mild, were treatable with OTC meds, and were due to major sleep deprivation/all-nighters. Not to mention that this past summer I successfully soloed (validated IFS) and worked with a USAF weather recon squadron flying 12-hr missions inside Hurricane Irma with no headaches whatsoever. My neuro guy was confident that the waiver would get approved and is now helping me fight it (he is actually friends with the NAMI neurologist, so that's good I guess). I want to believe that I have a fighting chance, but I know headaches are bad juju and the pipeline is already so backed up due to the recent T-6 issues at P-cola. Regardless, this is my dream job and I'm going to fight for it until every door gets slammed in my face. You guys have way more experience than me, so I'd appreciate any advice you can give me!
I'm a firstie at USNA and will be commissioning almost exactly one month from now. I was elated to service select NFO and be one step closer to being a WSO. However, no one ever told me that it was career suicide to use the word migraine (which I used to think was synonymous with headache) or go see the doc for headache meds until it was too late.. I was told after service selection that I needed to get a waiver. I went to see a neurologist O-6 and he gave me a glowing AHLTA note (I do not have migraines and the problem has been resolved by not staying up for 24 hrs at a time), but NAMI still denied the waiver. However, they denied me due to having "migraine (G43) with presence of aura", which is completely incorrect. All of these headaches (five total over four years, with the most recent being over eight months ago) were very mild, were treatable with OTC meds, and were due to major sleep deprivation/all-nighters. Not to mention that this past summer I successfully soloed (validated IFS) and worked with a USAF weather recon squadron flying 12-hr missions inside Hurricane Irma with no headaches whatsoever. My neuro guy was confident that the waiver would get approved and is now helping me fight it (he is actually friends with the NAMI neurologist, so that's good I guess). I want to believe that I have a fighting chance, but I know headaches are bad juju and the pipeline is already so backed up due to the recent T-6 issues at P-cola. Regardless, this is my dream job and I'm going to fight for it until every door gets slammed in my face. You guys have way more experience than me, so I'd appreciate any advice you can give me!