Expert: Howard Lorenz - 5/14/2008

Question
QUESTION: I am interested in enlisting in the Army and becoming an officer through OCS.  I have a B.A. and appear to meet all of the other requirements accept for medical.

As a child I was diagnosed with asthma around the age of 7-8.  I used an inhaler for a few months and quit and stopped seeing a doctor or receiving any medical treatment for it, I believe I just grew out of it.  When I was 18 I attempted to enlist in the Air Force but was PD'QD at the MEPS due to asthma.  After this I went to a specialist and had a pulmonary function test done and was told there is no way I have asthma and it is extremely unlikely that I ever did or ever would.  I took this back to the recruiter who said that this would need to be sent to the surgeon general to appeal, and my application was still PD'QD.  I found this odd because a specialist cleared me.  But I was told there was nothing I could do about it.  Looking back on it I think the recruiter may have been a bit unscrupulous.  Initially I told him about my medical records and he said it was up to me to decide if I wanted to submit this information on my application, I wanted to be honest so I did.  The first time he sent me down to the MEPS they lost my application so I had to go back to my recruiter and fill everything out again.  This time the recruiter told me to just withhold the information from my application.  Being 17, I was pretty nervous about all this and wanted in the Air Force so I just did what he said.  This time I went down to the MEPS with my new application and when we first got in line to go to our respective branches at the MEPS the Air Force people pulled me aside, and what do you know they found my lost application.  The recruiters could tell I was just a dumb kid and I guess they decided not to raise a fuss about this with me or the recruiter and they sent me through the rest of the process that day with my original application, which was ultimately PD'QD.  Anyway, I am 28 now and still have no asthma.  I guess honesty is not always the best policy, but I wish it were.

My 2nd issue is yet another mis-diagnosis by a doctor, which is why I no longer see doctors unless there is something life threatening.  When I was about 19-20 I was diagnosed with mild depression and put on a low dosage of medication.  I took this medication for several years.  After a while I did not feel as though I needed it.  My problems stemmed from being confused about what I was doing, or not doing with my life, which is a direct result of not getting into the military which was my ambition.  Unfortunately I became physically dependent on the medication.  This is not supposed to happen.  The doctors and pharmaceutical companies swear that anti-depressants are not habit forming and that they are not addictive.  This is true in the sense that they do not work like crack or heroin.  But the fact is when you try to come off this medication even when it is done slowly there are painful side effects.  This is what happened to me.  I went to my doctor a couple of years ago and asked to get off this medication.  I do not have depression, or asthma, and its all a bunch of medical BS, and I told him that.  With my doctors help I slowly came off the medication and have been off of it for a 1 1/2.  And now I feel better than I did since before I was on the medication, oh and I still do not have asthma.  But one problems remains, I still have the ambition to enter the military and I have the qualifications to do it and the will to succeed.

What I am asking is there any chance at all that I would be given waivers?  I can do another pulmonary function test if necessary, and I have spoken with my doctor who is retired military, and he says I should have no problem in the military and he would be more than happy to write me a letter explaining my medical history and give his opinion that I am fit for service.  So do I have any chance at all?  If you could check for me I would grateful.



ANSWER: Unfortunatly you are right, honesty is not allyways the best policy for thse getting in. DOctors screw up more than half of those trying to get in by mis-diagnosis... Sometimes we need to just shut up and color...

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So what do you think, do I have any chance?

Answer
I cant say for sure that yes you will or no you wont. I am not the Chiefg Medical Officer at the MEPS, he is the one that will tell you  if you will be able or not. I can how ever tell you that from experience that if you have not had any asthmatic symptoms since age 13, your chances are better. Things change as the medical community changes and how the information filter thru the Department of Defense. Their standards are higher. So the fact that the CMO PDq'd you after having the specialist clear you is a major difference. The specialist dosent work for the DoD...

If this doctor is a still practicing doc, then yea...have him write the ltter, but he needs to be sure that he does not say the word "should" be fine, but more like "Can Exceed Standards" etc.

Remember, the medical staff at the MEPS can only go on what you tell them, thats why we have the lenghty questionaire that we do and it continually changes as the medical technology changes. But sometimes it does exclude those who would make great candidates becasue of a misdiagnosis...for which there are no provision in the DOD entry standards. Again the basis for what I stated before....

I would give it another try...whats it going to hurt? the most they can tell you is what they already have.