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Get the colonoscopy. Blood in the stool is not normal, and the causes range from trivial to life-threatening. The colonoscopy itself won't be disqualifying. What is found, if anything, may be, but don't get ahead of yourself. V/R

The varicella (chicken pox) vaccine is a live, attenuated virus. Once you have had either the varicella vaccine, or natural infection, the varicella virus takes up essentially permanent residence in the nervous system. The immune system is usually able to suppress re-emergence, but alterations...

The shingles vaccine is fully covered by TRICARE, and by most other plans. If you ever want to know if a particular intervention is effective, check if it covered by insurance. Health insurance companies live and die by minimizing outlay. If there is solid data that it would cost them less to...

There is also convincing evidence that hearing loss is associated with, if not an actual cause, of dementia. Best to get checked sooner rather than later. V/R

We've done well with Medicare Parts A and B, and have used Tricare for Life (TFL) as our prescription drug coverage (Medicare Part D) and as the Medicare supplemental. Traditional Medicare gives you the most options for physician access in the community. I would advocate caution if considering...

Have you looked at https://youtube.com/@GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles? He makes every effort to go to primary or period sources for his information. I seem to recall seeing he was a prior NFO, but don't quote me.

Fat finger mistake. That might give you an inkling as to how I might do if required to do syllabus events in a glass cockpit aircraft. Analog brain trapped in a digital world. V/R

It has been my experience that almost all typical low back pain can be successfully managed. The research on chronic back pain supports focusing on nonsurgical treatment, if there are no neurological findings. You might want to see if you can get your flight surgeon to set you up with PT, or...

Waivers can be rescinded, if the underlying condition has changed, or if the conditions of the waiver can no longer be met. In your case, the waiver guide seems pretty liberal about recommending waivers for back problems in designated aviators, as long as the aviator is asymptomatic. So I would...

The effects of impaired visual acuity on stereoscopic vision can be seen in early childhood if they are specifically tested. That's why testing for refractive error in young children is important.

I'll play a little longer. Whether you can get to where you need to be depends on the cause. Amblyopia is the brain's inability to process visual signals from the eye. It can have several causes, one of which is refractive. If you have different degrees of refractive error between your eyes...

As mentioned, specific waiver questions are out of my purview. If the standards say you need 40 arc-seconds for SNA, then you need to get to that point. If you get there with corrective lenses and you meet the other refractive standards, you should be good. However, you may have amblyopia, which...

I used to be a FS when on AD. I can try to answer general questions, but waiver specifics are out of my purview. V/R

I follow the most recent American College of Cardiology guidance on the use of statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular (CV )events. The first step is to estimate the 10-year risk of an event with a calculator (https://www.cvriskcalculator.com/). Once you have that info, this flow chart...

Per the Aeromedical Waiver Guide, GERD is disqualifying for aviation. Applicants may be recommended for a waiver on a case-by-case basis. Get all your medical records from the diagnosis and treatment, as you'll need them for the waiver submission. The requirements for a waiver are in the Waiver...

FeNO is high in patients with COVID (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8471694/). Using that test as a marker for asthma in the setting of active or recent COVID infection seems ill-advised, in my opinion. V/R

This whole thing is bizarre. Having had a normal methacholine challenge within the prescribed time frame should have answered the question regarding asthma. A negative challenge is quite good at excluding asthma, but positive test can be caused by a recent infection, as you've demonstrated. In...

One of the astronauts (Dave Brown) on the last Columbia mission was a dual-designator A-6E pilot. V/R

The requirement for flight surgeons to solo in order to get FS wings went away in the 80s if I remember correctly. If the stud didn't solo, he was designated as an AME and sent out to the fleet in that capacity. When I went through, we went through API with the SNAs, and then out to Whiting to...

JFTR and MILPERSMAN are probably going to be the places to start your background research. Used to be that housing allowances were driven solely by the member's UIC. As DanMa1156 notes, a PCS set of orders to OCS would get you paid at the Newport rate. For example, we had folks who had orders to...

This scenario should be highly unusual. MANMED is the instruction from higher authority, so a more lenient policy from a subordinate command would be flagged pretty early on. That said, medical is subordinate to the line, and as such, only recommends actions. The line could grant a waiver for...

When I was at NAMI, sinus arrhythmia was NCD. Quite common in young people, athlete or not. The echo will tell you the source of the murmur, and any gross structural pathology. Waiver recommendation will depend on the findings on the echo. Be aware that the echo may find other unrelated...

Answering the second question, no. The Navy's physical requirements are much more stringent than the those of the FAA. First question, maybe. Designated aviators can get a favorable recommendation. Applicants, not so much. V/R

Candidates face a very small aperture when it comes to physical standards. There are enough people in Naval aviation who get migraines that there's a pretty decent experience base. I would recommend you get a recruiter to contact NAMI Neurology and see which way the winds are blowing before...

^^ This. You don't have anything medical treatment can't make worse. V/R

Sopite syndrome is a real condition. If your flight surgeon isn't sure what to do, and if you want to try and continue flight training, PM me and I'll ask around. V/R

Typically no. Folks were always passing out during the blood draw. Help yourself and stay hydrated, avoid excessive alcohol and don't get too spun up. V/R

You will need a methacholine challenge test as well if NAMI gets wind of the asthma history. You indicate that you are accepted as SNA. Did you require a waiver?

Mild breathing condition? Honestly, a chest x-ray isn't that great for screening asymptomatic young people for pulmonary disease. Most of the abnormalities I see in young people aren't clinically relevant, and usually open the door for more testing. The American College of Radiology says routine...

We saw a couple candidates come through with a history of childhood leukemia who got waiver recommendations. I don't remember seeing anyone with a history of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. You'll get a lot of interest, but the fact you're 14 years out from treatment is something in your favor. I would...

I recommend dealing with this issue now, before leaving for OCS. Acute bacterial prostatitis is no joke, and can occasionally go very bad rather quickly. If it is bacterial prostatitis, a run of antibiotics is the answer. If it isn't, best to sort it out now. MANMED Ch. 15 doesn't specify a time...

Ex-flight surgeon. Feel free to drop a line, but no warranty, expressed or implied, on the advice. V/R

Excellent outcome, and excellent advice across the board. V/R

That path is not uncommon, but I would advise careful planning before embarking on that route. I'm assuming you want to remain in uniform to finish out a career. J7 Time will work against you. If you go through flight school first and get designated, you'll be able to leave aviation at about...

This is the basic plan for the small, rural community hospital where I work. The nurse practitioners and surgeons will take care of the routine medical stuff that still comes in. The internists and medical subspecialists will care for the COVID-19 patients. The hospital is very limited with...

Combat casualty care/mass casualty care and our current crisis are two sides of the same coin. Both test the medical system, but in different ways. Equating the two situations isn't correct, but they have significant overlap. Seeing young people die from combat trauma, MVA, or drowning is quite...

The false positive rate for the approved nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) is likely low. Therefore, a positive test pretty reliably confirms the diagnosis. That feature makes NAAT a good diagnostic test, but a less than optimal screening test. Using NAAT as the confirmation test on people...

The currently deployed tests are based on detecting viral nucleic acid. I haven't been able to find sensitivity or specificity info on line, but I have seen gripes about the lack of that information in the open literature, so maybe it isn't just me. The FDA literature says that the tests have...

It was brought to my attention by some prior aviators turned flight surgeon that the gub'ment trusted these young (almost always much younger than I) men and women with the keys to a multi-million dollar asset and the lives of potentially a mess of other people. The least I could do was to...

Unfortunately, the most durable memory aviators have of NAMI is of the initial flight physical process, and the spectre of arbitrary diqualification. However, the interaction dramatically changes once winged. Almost any physical condition is waiverable for a designated aviator, if not...

For those who want to get into the weeds, below is a link to a decent summary of the information at hand as of a couple days ago. Not surprisingly, given where we are in the process, and the limitations of the data available, there are some fuzzy areas. Coronavirus summary V/R

You may be able to ask NAMI for a reevaluation, given that you were ill during the last (and disqualifying) methacholine challenge test (MCT). I would recommend talking with their internal medicine department and the ENT department as well. A negative MCT is useful in pretty much excluding...

Afternoon. Sorry for the delay. I've been out of town. What sort of symptoms do you get when you eat shellfish? We rarely saw food allergies, since they are disqualifying for accession. The biggest factor in your favor is that you're winged. It is way easier to get a waiver when you have...

Might want to show him/her DODI 6130.03 pretty soon, along with your updated medical information. I think that will save a lot of effort all around. You cannot be commissioned. As soon as the medical staff sees your record, you'll be sent home. Sorry for the bad news. V/R

Diabetes (either type 1 or type 2 ) is disqualifying for accession. Don't know where your recruiter is coming from on this one. If you're truly a type 1 in the early phase of the disease, my guess is that you're in the "honeymoon" period where a degree of insulin production remains. I'm afraid...

Sinus bradycardia and sinus arrhythmia are both normal findings. NCD. V/R

Your tricuspid regurgitation (TR) has been labeled "physiologic" so I wouldn't worry about that. "Trace" or "mild" TR is extremely common, almost to the point of being a "within normal limits" finding in a young, otherwise healthy person. In my experience at NAMI, the most common cause for an...

As noted in the other thread, if all the conditions regarding retained hardware are met, the presence of retained hardware is Not Considered Disqualifying (NCD), and does not require a waiver. That applies for commissioning, and seems to be the case for aviation as well. V/R

The Aeromedical Waiver Guide covers physical standards for aviation. Note that some conditions are disqualifying for candidates, with no waiver recommended. Candidates must be able to qualify for all airframes. If your back is bad now, it is only going to get worse in the military, regardless of...

Look for DODI 6130.03. Commissioning standards are in that instruction. Sounds like you have an uncorrected herniated disc, which, if I'm reading the instruction correctly, is disqualifying. Nearly any condition can be waived, but there may be something in your records that is giving the medical...