I need serious help!

[Lisa10]

I am a student in ROTC and was told I got into Flight School this past December. I had gotten PRK so, my admittance was "pending physical." I went to the clinic at NAS Jax and they told me everything checked out fine (even my eyes) expect my EKG was abnormal. So they wanted to send me to the cardiologist at the base hospital. I went there this past monday and the cardiologist said I may have what's called prolonged QT syndrome and it's disqualifying not only from aviation, but also from the military as a whole. So, here I am a month away from getting commissioned and this pops up. Here's the kicker though, I got into ROTC with the same abnormal EKG. The Navy knew about this and let me in, so what I'm asking is, is there anyone who can give me advice on ANYTHING I can do or anyone I can contact. We are waiting to get into a more specialized DR. but I cannot sit still until then. Just a little background on my physical status...I max out the PRT and played just about every sport (excluding dance and stuff like that) as a child/teenager. Any help or insight would be great because as of right now I am not getting commissioned.

 

[Thisguy]

Check your medical records...is anything about your condition noted? I had to see a cardiologist at MEPS, and there's a letter recommending waiver of the abnormal EKG in my medical records. That may help your case.

 

[beau]

Something this serious (aka not being commissioned because of it) I would go off base to a private doc to get a second opition....not that the Navy docs are wrong....but you never know...its just a CYA move in case the civilian doc comes up with different results. This is what I would do.

 

[e6bflyer]

Good call on the civilian doc. Have you gotten subsequent EKG's, or are they just going off that one? I have had corpsmen tear up EKG's after getting the machine to print off a good one after a couple attempts.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

When I did my DODMERB physical before I went to BOOST back in '94, my EKG came back abnormal.....after doing it two times. For the record, I hate that thing! Anyway....they sent me out to a civilian clinic (the same day as my physical) to have my heart scanned with ultrasound. I can remember the ultrasound tech asking me if I ran a lot and/or played a lot of sports. I told her yea, and she said that would explain some of the irregularities the EKG was picking up and from what she could tell via ultrasound, my heart was just fine.

You may want to explore this as well.

 

[Lisa10]

when i went for my initial flight physical, they did probably 6 or 7 EKGs on me but the machine wasn't reading right because my heart rate is so low. They did one last one and faxed it to the cardiologist who then said i needed to schedule an appt. with him. Right now I am waiting to see a civilian doc at the hospital here, so I will keep my fingers crossed. I also went and got my EKG from the doc (civilian) 4 years ago who said I was good for ROTC; so I guess we'll just have to see what this doc says. My CO doesn't think it looks good and I'm crushed about it. This is really a bunch of BS.

 

[Steve Wilkins]

my heart rate is low too

 

[Lisa10]

The problem they are having is that my Grandma (whom I never met and was overweight and on a very weird diet at the time) died suddenly of cardiac arrest and of course honest me told him when he asked the question. Not that I regret being honest (well maybe a little) but I just wish he'd never asked.

 

[Fly Navy]

When I entered MEPS for enlistment, they had to do an ultra-sound of my heart at a civilian doc as well. If you got into ROTC with this in your record, you should be able to work a commission.

 

[Brett327]

Believe it or not, my entry physical showed that I, in fact, have no heart. Hasn't slowed me down one bit.

Brett

 

[Steve Wilkins]

Believe it or not, my entry physical showed that I, in fact, have no heart. Hasn't slowed me down one bit.

Brett

I'm sure the Spouses Corner would confirm this as a true fact.

 

[Bevo16]

I had the same problem the first time around. I had just finished track season and had a resting heart rate around 45. They also said that I had a "murmor", whatever the hell that is.

I cut out all soft drinks and coffee for a week and came back and passed.

 

[beau]

ah that heart machine thingee....I too had a low heart rate....the doc just made me do some flutter kicks to bump up my HR .....I guess that happens all the time.

 

[Lisa10]

yeah that's exactly what they made me do, but it still came out abnormal.

 

[raptor10]

Irregular Heartbeat

I posted about this earlier heres a quote:

When I was getting both the dodmerb, and an aviation physical, when they put me on the EKG I had an "irregular heart beat." The Technicians were great and had me retest (for the aviation physical 3 times) until he finally told me to hold my breath. Turned out on both occasions my heart rate was being disrupted by the rhythm of my breathing so the trick was to hold my breath and everything worked out fine.

and to quote this guy

I had the same thing happen to me during my flight physical. The guys who were testing me just told me to relax and the "irregular heartbeat" was from the rhythm of my breathing. Don't quote me, but a waiver for a diagnosed irregular heartbeat isn't out of the picture.