Eosinophilic Esophagitis and history of GERD

[UnguidedRocket]

I took the ASTB and went through meps, but at meps I was warned that the med corps captain was a bit difficult. A few days later I get a letter forwarded by my recruiter from the captain, and they have disqualified me, saying a waiver cannot be issued. Is this true that there is no waiver I can apply for? I crushed the ASTB and was really confident I finally made it to the end of the tunnel. I have an endoscopic about once every 3 years, and take pantoprazole. I don't have any issues in my day to day until its been about 3 years from the last endoscopic. My recruiter has also ghosted me at this point so I wasn't able to get any clarification out of him.

Thanks

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

I took the ASTB and went through meps, but at meps I was warned that the med corps captain was a bit difficult. A few days later I get a letter forwarded by my recruiter from the captain, and they have disqualified me, saying a waiver cannot be issued. Is this true that there is no waiver I can apply for? I crushed the ASTB and was really confident I finally made it to the end of the tunnel. I have an endoscopic about once every 3 years, and take pantoprazole. I don't have any issues in my day to day until its been about 3 years from the last endoscopic. My recruiter has also ghosted me at this point so I wasn't able to get any clarification out of him.

Thanks

Waivers are reviewed automatically, you don’t decide to apply for one or not.

I understand you are fine and feeling fine, but from the eyes of navy medicine, the risk is too untenable.

I would suggest checking out the other services but it might be doubtful as well. 70-80% of Americans aren’t even eligible to serve these days.

 

[UnguidedRocket]

Waivers are reviewed automatically, you don’t decide to apply for one or not.

I understand you are fine and feeling fine, but from the eyes of navy medicine, the risk is too untenable.

I would suggest checking out the other services but it might be doubtful as well. 70-80% of Americans aren’t even eligible to serve these days.

Thanks for the fast response. So is there no way for my profile to get a second look?

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

Thanks for the fast response. So is there no way for my profile to get a second look?

Waivers are often looked at by various professionals before a denial decision is made.

Also, one detail I forgot to mention in your original post... usually any condition requiring continuous medication will be a DQ.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Did your recruiter know about this, if he did there should have been medical documents about this condition submitted to MEPS including any medications you were taking. I never had a person who admitted to GERD getting cleared.

Your ASTB, GPA, or anything else non-medical related don't matter to MEPS or Navy Medical.

 

[UnguidedRocket]

Yeah before I went to MEPS I believe we had discussed everything, but we rushed into MEPS to try and make the April board, so maybe there wasn't time to get the info? I thought I had read people getting waivers for GERD, but hadn't found anything for esophagitis.

As for my ASTB score not making a difference, I'm aware, more upset that I made it that far and proved I would be a competent candidate. I can at least leave proud that I scored a 62/9/9/9.

 

[sevenhelmet]

I would suggest checking out the other services but it might be doubtful as well. 70-80% of Americans aren’t even eligible to serve these days.

Threadjack here, but I see this statistic a lot. How does it compare to 20 years ago? 50? WWII? Is this because:

A.) Medical standards, diagnoses, and disorders have been added to over the years to the point where military clearance is incredibly difficult to attain,

B.) Intentional medical attrition at the front end (indicating we have too many recruits- doubtful), or

C.) because the US population really is that much less healthy?

 

[Griz882]

Threadjack here, but I see this statistic a lot. How does it compare to 20 years ago? 50? WWII? Is this because:

A.) Medical standards, diagnoses, and disorders have been added to over the years to the point where military clearance is incredibly difficult to attain,

B.) Intentional medical attrition at the front end (indicating we have too many recruits- doubtful), or

C.) because the US population really is that much less healthy?

I’d say a mix of all. On (A) it important to note “military medical standards” are tighter, Item (B) is the most guilty. Get the kids with minor asthma or such and you save a load of VA dollars on the back side of even a short (4 year) enlistment. I don’t think US citizens are less healthy although younger kids seem chubbier than they used to be. But, there is a fix for that called basic (or initial) training. I was eight pounds overweight when I reported to MCRD San Diego for boot and they painted two red stripes on my tee-shirt as a sign for the chow hall guys to give me less food. It worked amazingly well!

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

Threadjack here, but I see this statistic a lot. How does it compare to 20 years ago? 50? WWII? Is this because:

A.) Medical standards, diagnoses, and disorders have been added to over the years to the point where military clearance is incredibly difficult to attain,

B.) Intentional medical attrition at the front end (indicating we have too many recruits- doubtful), or

C.) because the US population really is that much less healthy?

The percentage is not just medical, it's also legal, drug, height/weight standards, and aptitude testing (ASVAB, ASTB/OAR, etc.).
Going back to medical, advances in medical conditions, electronic health records, etc. have definitely made things complicated, at the same time in recent years there has been loosing in requirements.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Threadjack here, but I see this statistic a lot. How does it compare to 20 years ago? 50? WWII? Is this because:

A.) Medical standards, diagnoses, and disorders have been added to over the years to the point where military clearance is incredibly difficult to attain,

B.) Intentional medical attrition at the front end (indicating we have too many recruits- doubtful), or

C.) because the US population really is that much less healthy?

I would go with mainly C from what I have seen and having done recruiting tours. There are less kids going outside and doing things to stay in shape they would rather play games online. When you have schools that are having trouble getting enough students that want to participate in sports to even field a team it indicates things have changed.