To anyone who can help. I have already been to P-cola to take the flight physical. The only problem I had was with the hearing in my left ear. That may keep me out on its on, but supposing that it doesn't, here's my problem. The first doc that I saw at NAMI thought I had a nasal polyp (sic) and sent me to the NAMI ENT doc, who said that I didn't have a polyp but I just had a very pronounced "turbinate." Everyone has a turbinate but mine is more pronounced which causes my sinuses to be stopped up some times. One minute, the left side of my nose in congested, and then fifteen minutes later it's the right side. Well, the NAMI folks wanted me to see a civillian specialist about my hearing. It turned out that I ended up seeing an audiologist and then a civ. ENT. The civ EMT said that this fluctuation is something that occurs in everybody but mine is exacerbated by my pronounced turbinate. He said that most of the time such problems could be helped greatly with surgery. My thoughts are these. The NAMI folks didn't flag me for any nasal problems or whatnot. However, I know from taking commercial flights that at altitude my sinuses get more congested and my ears don't adjust to the pressure change very fast. I don't want to --looking and hoping way into the future I know--get through OCS and TBS and then get down to P-Cola to start flight training, get put in the altitude chamber for a rapid descent, and then blow out my ear drums, then the NAMI guys say, "oh $h!t, you've blown out your eardrums...by the way you can't fly." I think that I could put it best by saying that I want to fly, but if I can't I think I would enjoy some other ground MOS (i.e. armor). I just don't want to be a flight designee and then get to P-Cola and can't fly. Then, I wasn't in the ground pool with all of the other guys from TBS so I get stuck doing something rather unappealing to myself. If I can't fly, I don't want to wait until then to find out. I would like to know, so I can apply OCS-ground and get into the pool with the rest of the ground guys. Any thoughts, suggestions, or if you think I am just an idiot, your comments would be welcomed.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
sinus problems and the altitude chamber
- Thread starter chuck82
- Start date
- Status
I thing you're an idiot. Just kidding. Look if you really want to fly, I mean really really, then suck it up. (I mean the sinuses) If you can deal with the congestion while flying then just suck it up and get your air contract. The flight contract with the Marines is a funny thing. Once you accept it your fate is pretty much sealed. I'm at TBS now and a guy in my squad dropped his flight contract, now he has absolutely NO say in his MOS. It doesn't matter how well he does at TBS. If you wash out down in Pcola that is a little different. You will get a little say in what you do after, but still not much probably. With what is going on today you can probably count on 0302. All I can tell you is make up your mind before going to OCS. If you think you will be NPQ'd down the road, and you wouldn't mind tanks or LAVs or Infantry, then just take a ground contract. It might save you a big headache down the road.
Well, I'll tell you how my experience with the alititude chamber went and you can take it for what it's worth. I did my ride about 4 weeks ago (graduated API on the 17th). The night before the ride I noticed that I was becoming congested and started to wonder about if I should try it the next day or delay. Anyways, I felt like I was feeling better in the morning, and I was in the second group which would be doing the chamber in the afternoon. I decided to go ahead and do it that day.
Let me tell you how the ride goes in case you haven't read it anywhere else. You go up to 5,000 ft and then back down to ground level. This is supposed to be a check to see if anyone is going to have any problems. Then after 30 minutes of breathing oxygen, they take you to 35,000 feet and then down to 25,000 feet. This is where you will do your hypoxia demonstration. Then down to 18,000 where you will do your loss of color vision demonstration, then back down to ground level. Later you will do rapid decompression training.
Alright, being congested, you shouldn't have too much trouble with the ascents because the air finds a way to leave your head, but coming down is when you can experience some problems. So, when coming down from the 5000 ft level I experienced some discomfort but didn't say anything and figured I could make it the rest of the way. So after going to 35,000 ft, no problems. Coming down, here comes the discomfort. I couldn't clear my left ear because of the congestion and that eustation (sp?) tube was blocked. At about 10,000 ft the pain I was experiencing became evident to the staff and they stopped the descent to tend to me while everyone else had to wait till I was ok to continue. They gave me some nasal spray and even had to use some wierd device which forced air up into my ear cavity. Anyways, we finished the descent.
Now, they pull me and one other guy out of the chamber who also had problems and they tell us that the rapid decompression training was only a requirement for the Air Force and that they only ran the Navy and Marine Corps through it as kind of a good deal. So, it was not required and we got our stamp for completing the chamber ride anyways. We did have to go see the ENT over at NAMI and he checked our ears out. I had a lot of fluid built up and I could not hear out of my left ear for about 4-5 days, not to mention it being pretty painful. But, it's done and everything's ok now.
I don't have the same kind of problem you described and only happened to be congested the day of the ride. Looking back I probably would have just waited another week to do it and everything probably would have been fine. But my point is this. If congestion is a problem that you have very often, but the doc doesn't disqual you for it, and you really want to fly, then I would suggest sucking it up and getting through it.
Let me tell you how the ride goes in case you haven't read it anywhere else. You go up to 5,000 ft and then back down to ground level. This is supposed to be a check to see if anyone is going to have any problems. Then after 30 minutes of breathing oxygen, they take you to 35,000 feet and then down to 25,000 feet. This is where you will do your hypoxia demonstration. Then down to 18,000 where you will do your loss of color vision demonstration, then back down to ground level. Later you will do rapid decompression training.
Alright, being congested, you shouldn't have too much trouble with the ascents because the air finds a way to leave your head, but coming down is when you can experience some problems. So, when coming down from the 5000 ft level I experienced some discomfort but didn't say anything and figured I could make it the rest of the way. So after going to 35,000 ft, no problems. Coming down, here comes the discomfort. I couldn't clear my left ear because of the congestion and that eustation (sp?) tube was blocked. At about 10,000 ft the pain I was experiencing became evident to the staff and they stopped the descent to tend to me while everyone else had to wait till I was ok to continue. They gave me some nasal spray and even had to use some wierd device which forced air up into my ear cavity. Anyways, we finished the descent.
Now, they pull me and one other guy out of the chamber who also had problems and they tell us that the rapid decompression training was only a requirement for the Air Force and that they only ran the Navy and Marine Corps through it as kind of a good deal. So, it was not required and we got our stamp for completing the chamber ride anyways. We did have to go see the ENT over at NAMI and he checked our ears out. I had a lot of fluid built up and I could not hear out of my left ear for about 4-5 days, not to mention it being pretty painful. But, it's done and everything's ok now.
I don't have the same kind of problem you described and only happened to be congested the day of the ride. Looking back I probably would have just waited another week to do it and everything probably would have been fine. But my point is this. If congestion is a problem that you have very often, but the doc doesn't disqual you for it, and you really want to fly, then I would suggest sucking it up and getting through it.
- Status