The Doctor is in! Ask a Flight Surgeon!

[Mouselovr]

Exactly my thought! But I’ve heard the flight physicals for pilot are more comprehensive.

If you had surgery, I’d get the paperwork just in case.

More likely than not, you’ll mention you had knee surgery, flight doc will send you for an ortho consult with one of their own docs. They sign you off as having no problems since 17.

I know plenty of folks who came in with prior knee surgeries/injuries. Personally, i torn my ACL at age 10. No waiver.

 

[halfsies]

If you had surgery, I’d get the paperwork just in case.

More likely than not, you’ll mention you had knee surgery, flight doc will send you for an ortho consult with one of their own docs. They sign you off as having no problems since 17.

I know plenty of folks who came in with prior knee surgeries/injuries. Personally, i torn my ACL at age 10. No waiver.

Thank you for the insight! Wish me luck- I leave for OCS on Friday!

 

[washedpilot]

Incomplete acute nondisplaced right scapular fracture coursing transversely
along the inferior margin of the scapular spine medially.

In other words, I fractured my right shoulder. I’m really worried about my flight physical and my status in BDCP and I was wondering if maybe I missed in the waiver guide as I can’t find anything that specifies shoulder fractures only a dislocated shoulder. Does someone have any more experience on shoulder injuries, and the waivers possibly needed. Doc is pretty sure that it will heal just fine, but I’m not sure what the navy says about that. It happened before I enrolled in TRICARE as I only swore in about a month ago so I don’t know what to do there.

 

[fighter-cat22]

Incomplete acute nondisplaced right scapular fracture…

Hey man, I’m sorry to hear that. I was DQ’d for SNA initially at MEPS for a prior shoulder dislocation. I went ahead and applied for a waiver and it was approved two weeks later. Only thing I’m worried about now is NAMI giving me a hard time. I’m not sure about the process since you’re already in BDCP, but I saw you’ve got 1.5 years till graduation so plenty of time to heal. Probably just sit tight and wait to hear back from your recruiter. Feel free to hmu now that we’re both BDCP guys with messed up shoulders. Oh, and remember to always vouch for yourself, where there’s a will, there’s a waiver.

 

[Mouselovr]

Does someone have any more experience on shoulder injuries, and the waivers possibly needed. Doc is pretty sure that it will heal just fine

Ouch. As long as you heal up, you should be fine. People break bones all the time so its not worth writing waivers over unless they are high re-injury risk or weird circumstances.

I know plenty of people who broke bones in flight school. No waivers after recovery.
I think I'm the only person I know with a "broken bone waiver" that I got mid-flight school, but its because I never had nor will ever have a "normal bone" in that location. Prior to service, I'd broken/recovered from multiple breaks and no one cared at my flight physical.

For both of you, when you go to NAMI, they'll probably send you to an ortho consult. As long as you don't have any pain or problems, they'll sign off on you. If a waiver is needed, which I don't think it either of you will need, it should be an easy approval.

Only thing I’m worried about now is NAMI giving me a hard time.

We had one IP in the HTs who suffered from chronic shoulder pain after a disclocation for years. She had us solo spin the rotor head for preflights bc it would hurt her. So there's waivers/ways around if problems come back up.