LASIK

[Saleen_Stang532]

Little background story on me: I'm in NROTC, commissioning in June, have been officially selected for SNA, and had LASIK done to correct my astigmatism last October. I redid my flight physical a week ago and was approved by the Navy Refractive Center in Bremerton, WA & NAS Whidbey Island for a LASIK waiver.

I have two questions:

1. How long does it normally take for a flight physical to make it through BUMED & NAMBI and be officially approved? I've been told 2-3 months...

2. Has anyone ever had LASIK done or knows someone who has that has been denied a waiver by BUMED or NAMBI despite being approved by a Navy Refractive Center, a Navy opthamologist, & a Navy flight surgeon? The staff here at OSU NROTC doesn't seem worried about me getting approved...

 

[MattWSU]

I have never heard of a waiver getting getting denied. Also, it's NAMI (Naval Aerospace Medical Institute).

 

[Saleen_Stang532]

Thank you!

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I have seen a few waivers denied, of those we kind of knew a few were not going to get approved due to the high excessive refraction prior to surgery, a couple were surprises, and I have seen one who's had one eye corrected to 20/30 but in OCS was found to have degraded to 20/50 and then redesignated.

 

[jtmedli]

I have seen a few waivers denied, of those we kind of knew a few were not going to get approved due to the high excessive refraction prior to surgery, a couple were surprises, and I have seen one who's had one eye corrected to 20/30 but in OCS was found to have degraded to 20/50 and then redesignated.

They tried to deny mine twice. I've said this before, but I'll say it again: Know your stuff when it comes to your waivers (be it, vision or otherwise related) and know exactly what they're trying to deny you for as well because, in both cases, the doctors were just flat wrong. I proved them to be wrong and they granted my waiver. In one case, it was as simple as looking at the wrong date on a piece of paper.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

They tried to deny mine twice. I've said this before, but I'll say it again: Know your stuff when it comes to your waivers (be it, vision or otherwise related) and know exactly what they're trying to deny you for as well because, in both cases, the doctors were just flat wrong. I proved them to be wrong and they granted my waiver. In one case, it was as simple as looking at the wrong date on a piece of paper.

True, I had to fix one that was a no due to an error writing down vision test results, a stray pencil mark looked like a "1", but one must remember several items in the medical manual say "may waiver" so it is at the discretion of the doc, one doc says yes, but another may say no.

 

[Saleen_Stang532]

Thanks everyone! I'm now 4 months post-op and I'm 20/12.5. The flight surgeon and Navy optometrist who looked at me for my physical told me everything was within the limits so I suppose I should be fine...I just worry.

 

[shutout39]

Thanks everyone! I'm now 4 months post-op and I'm 20/12.5. The flight surgeon and Navy optometrist who looked at me for my physical told me everything was within the limits so I suppose I should be fine...I just worry.

20/12.5? good for you man and touche to your doctor. Did the Navy pay for that or did you pay out of your pocket?

 

[Saleen_Stang532]

I know I was pretty stoked about it too! I bit the bullet and used my USAA Precommissioning Loan to pay $4000.