Aviation Medicine

I went through IFC-1 at WP more than a year ago with dry eye that did not need a waiver. Currently a few months out from EAD and reporting for UPT. I am wondering if punctal plugs are allowed to alleviate dry eye symptoms or if I would run into issues with flight medicine after reporting to UPT? Thanks for any help in advance!

Hey everyone, I did a search on this and couldn't find what I was looking for in the way of advice. Basically I'm a T-1 student, only about a month from graduation, navigation and transition checks complete with good scores. Recently I was at the gym and seemed to injure myself on the bench press. No severe pain but some tightness in my shoulder and chest that made it uncomfortable to lift anymore. I took some time off of it (about a week) and tried to do some pushups and the pain came back. I layed off of any exercise for a couple more days and tried pushups again, and experienced the same pain again. So my situation is whether or not to go to the flight doc about someth…

I'm a rated airlift pilot in the Air National Guard (8 years) and after 32 years of perfect health, I suddenly started having achy joints in my hands and feet several months ago. It was never bad enough to affect my flying but I decided to mention it to my family docter as I could tell something was not right. He refered me to a rheumatologist who diagnosed me with psoriatic arthritis. He put me on an anti-inflamatory called sulfasalizine which seems to have taken care of the problem. I feel fine but after investigating the air force regs, I'm wondering if I have a prayer of getting a waiver for this condition. Has anyone had any experience with this or have any s…

Can anyone talk to the assignment process once an 11F is medically disqualified from all flying duties but remains qualified for military service? Would the fighter porch remain ownership and determine assignments? Is conversion to a new AFSC possible? Which office would control the process and decide the outcome? Thanks for the help.

I'm in a bit of a fix! I always wanted to be a military pilot when I was young, but I gave up those dreams because my vision was just too bad. Now I've had PRK and am going for my PPL and then applying to OTS. After getting into the process I found that asthma was an issue. My problem is that I was diagnosed with asthma as a child, but now that I've been studying up on A.F. and general medical diagnostic criteria, I think I was misdiagnosed! After telling my recruiter my whole story, he thinks it's best that I don't go through a MEPS examiner and just go straight to the nearest base for an FC1. I think he figures a flight doc will be more likely to not just see the …

Hey everybody, Haven't posted in a while, was selected for OTS with a pilot slot last year, went to JBLM for my FC1 in February of LAST year and was eventually denied due to history of asthma, even after completing the MCT with no issues. I was urged by others to look for other routes into the Air Force, but due to my age (29), I figured it was a no-go. Since the age has been risen to 33 for rated officer accessions, I was curious if anyone had gouge on medical requirements differing between AD and guard units? As far as I've read from stuff on here, asthma waivers with a successful MCT are usually no problem, so I was curious if it was due to the other waivers …

I'm an AFROTC cadet with a slot for pilot training and recently encountered some issues with my flight physical. Wright Pat had my medical records with a history of asthma (before my 13th birthday which is the waiverable date for childhood asthma). With that in my record, they sent me in to take a PFT and MCT. I learned that I had failed the PFT and was bad enough the pulmonologist didn't let me take the MCT. (The specific issues was a low FEV1/FVC w/o the bronchodialator and a >200cc increase in FEV1 post-bronchodialator.) I was then told that this is disqualifying for pilot but that I could appeal and probably still have a shot at commissioning. Since then, I t…

I was reading a post about "The Myopia Myth" and was interested in using the reading glasses method to try and calm "ciliary spasm". When i talked to my eye doctor about it she said I dont have myopia, I have astigmatism which cant be fixed or mitigated. she wrote on the perscription -.75,175 and -.75,015 so im wondering since the myopia.org website says people with myopia less than 1 diopter, can possibly get back to 20/20 by using myopter or reading glasses. I wanted to do this but im not sure if since i have astigmatism that method wont help.

I had a single episode of atrial fibrillation earlier this year that was caused by low magnesium and dehydration. Labs and ekg confirmed that a-fib went away, and I had low magnesium. I was on medication for a month, but was taken off under the direction of my cardiologist. I otherwise have a healthy heart, as confirmed by an ultrasound of my heart. I haven't had an episode since, and I just go back for a checkup in about a month. I know I'll have to disclose it to the FAA, but would the AF look at this physical? Any advice for moving forward would be greatly appreciated. P.S. I already messaged stuckindayton, and he said he wasn't experienced in it.

Hello, In 2017 I got a pilot slot as an ROTC cadet, went to medical screening and was medically qualified. Later that year, I had a bad sinus infection. My doctor said I might have mild chronic sinitus and recommended sinus surgery. I advised SG of the situation and was DQ'd from all rated duties with mention that I could be evaluated in one year after the surgery and attempt to overturn the DQ. I was reassigned to a different AFSC. I recently commissioned and will EAD in two weeks (although I still don't have my orders haha). I had a CT scan last week that shows I would be good to go as per the AFCENT waiver guide (showing ostea of sinuses to be patent, reliev…

I wore contacts for a couple years as part of the program for aviators, but now I'm in a non-flying billet and wish to continue wearing contacts. I'm perfectly content to purchase them myself if I have to, but does anyone know if pilots in non-flying billets can still receive contacts for free under the program? Thanks in advance for the help.

Hello - I have a religious requirement about what I put into my body (at least when it comes to psychotropics and other substances including caffeine, etc). I was told that I have to ground test no-go pills before my UPT class starts next week. Flight doc indicated that if I wouldn't proceed with the ground-test, the air force would show me where the door was. Are there any waivers or known ETP's that, AFI's, etc. that might let me skip this? Please note, I fully understand why we are ground-testing, I just can't reconcile it for the religious reason I mentioned before. Thanks for any advice.

About two months ago I got into a pretty minor car accident, But have been having a bit of back pain. It doesn't prevent me from being active but does put me in a bit of pain. I've been afraid to get it fully checked out due to fear it could DQ me. Is there anyway if this turns out to be chronic to still pilot? And if it's easily treatable/Goes away how would that effect my chances?

I just comissioned and am suppose to be going to IFS in a few months. I just found out i have a rare condition that requires back surgery. Basically i have a hole in my vertabre and i have to have them stick some pieces of bone graph in there to stimulate bone growth and fill in the hole. The doctor said that i should be able to be doing physical activity in a month and that it should heal up to be 100% but that will take a while. Is there anyway this would be waiverable. If i have to push back dates will I automatically lose my slot? (I'm suppose to start UPT in Jan.)? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm also wondering if there's anyway i could keep t…

I know this topic is in the “Aviation Medicine” category but I don’t really know where else to post. So I have been picked up for a guard unit and I am going to go to MEPS in the next few weeks. I am pretty healthy overall but when I took a look at my weight on a scale, I am about 3 lbs under the max for my height (max weight for my height is 180). I understand the AF says that you need to be at least 5 lbs under to join. I am not sure what my BMI is but I am relatively muscular, so I am guessing that is a contribution to my overall weight. In the scenario that you are either slightly under the max or over the max weight when you process through MEPS (say +\- 2l…

So I’ve done quite a bit of research on the topic. Based on what I’ve found, BAV is disqualifying for all classes of flight. It is, however, waiverable. That’s where I’m a little confused. Moderate aortic regurgitation is waiverable for FCII and for low G aircraft but it is not waiverable for FCI. Does that mean that flying for the Air Force, ANG, or reserves just isn’t an option for me? I have moderate leakage. No other issues. No symptoms. Just happened to be found on an echo I had done due to family history or heart issues. Based on my understanding, I could fly heavies under FCII but since I can’t pass FCI I can’t fly heavies. Am I understanding that correctly? Any in…

Big questions here... I did a search but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. I am here at my training base for UPT and have noticed bright red blood in my stool twice. The first time was a week ago and it was a fair amount. Then today I noticed a little again but nothing like last week. When it happened last week I had worked out for two hours and then was outside in the heat for three hours when I started to get some stomach pains and then noticed the blood in my stool a short time later. Now, I have been experiencing certain things like this for a couple years. (No blood or not much to my knowledge in the past though.) I went to the doctor a whi…

I got an email yesterday saying that HQ needed me to get a CBC (complete blood count) done for my FC1 to go through. I'm wondering why they need this. Didn't they do that when they took blood the first time? If there is a problem, why didn't someone catch it before it got to HQ? Regardless of the reason, I'm getting it done this Friday at Luke AFB. Is this something that could potentially cause a problem??? Thanks in advance!

F16md I appreciate your answering my question a few weeks ago regarding my doctor prescribing me the blood pressure medicine; even though the response was not what I hoped. I have since been having blood pressure checked at both the doctor's office and my own personal machine I bought(while off the medecine), and it has been normal My aunt is a pharmacist and good friends with the local hypertension specialist. If he says that I don't need the medication, and that the other doctor's decision was hasty. What are my chances of being passing the physical. I have only been on the medication for two months and I saw in the regulations that you included in your response; i…

Does anyone have the standards for bloodwork at fc1? Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

I just got pinged that I was ID’d as a bone marrow match for someone in need. What would that do for my Mil/Civilian medical? DNIF for a bit during recovery?

For an FCII, are there any issues with bone spurs, provided there’s no functional impairment? In other words, with no impairment to mobility/function/range of motion, any need to do anything? In med-speak, I think this would be for a "tarsal boss".

This might be a very stupid question (as I hope it is). Would being born premature (7 weeks in my case, no health issues from it) be an issue for an FC1? The only reason I ask is because it's listed as part of my health history on a medical report. Hopefully I'm not about to open up a can of worms. Thanks in advance.

Will the flight doc let me fly if I am getting Botox injections?

What is the reg on braces during OTS and Flight Training and are the invis-align braces allowed?