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Just want to throw my two cents in here... I would absolutely NOT do it again.

You go through training, and then good chance of being sent to a station with basically no patients and no acuity. Then they do nothing when you request possible means of maintaining skills.

Example 1: Langley AFB Hospital. Tons of money thrown in. ICU has about 1 pt every two weeks. We carry 0-8 patients on average, and the high number is only for those who admit bull****. The hospital is 30 minutes from NMCP, which draws all the "best" patients.

Example 2: My residency was at Keesler. First class back after Katrina. I did a month of ICU with 4 patients. No cath lab for 1.5 years. Never dialysis. The only advantage is you had plenty of time to learn from books. I was great at trivia, even the specialties in which I never got any real training (heme/onc, allergy, derm).

Also, they could easily require the beneficiaries that were sent to civilian providers while there wasn't the infrastructure to support them to return to the MTF for care. The people who bitch would of course get out of it. The vast majority who don't would get us a sufficient population to keep up our skills.

Finally, I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis in 2009. They would not let me out on a medical basis because of my job. I was told as long as I could roll around in a chair and sit at a computer I was useful to the Air Force. Any other job, I'm out.

Of course I was admonished repeatedly for the consequences in reliability and limitations that were due to my illness. My symptoms are an unusual but reported variant where my symptoms were bad and sometimes worst in the morning (double vision, difficulty turning steering wheel) and I would have to get up and take Mestinon and then get crampy ****s pretty much every time. Having to use one duty day a month to get IVIG infusions also pissed people off.

I hated feeling weak and incapable so I minimized my symptoms. I totaled my vehicle in 2011. I was frequently late because of the morning sx, and only after I might have been killed did they change my duty hours from 0700 to 0800, surely because their own asses would be on the line. Of course that fixed 95% of the tardiness issues.

I got a letter of reprimand for calling in on the morning of a PT test because I could not physically get there.

In 2010 I started cardiology fellowship. I had to cancel my clinic after an IVIG infusion because of a terrible headache. So I got gossip and counseling and when I told them I was just as much a patient as anyone else, they made me go on 2 months of medical leave. I got behind everyone and my absence of course let people talk about me behind my back and I became an outsider.

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while in cardiology fellowship. I spent 8 months on medical leave - against my will - and because of my manic behavior (which I did not recognize at first and desperately tried to hide) I was told to resign. Cardiology was my dream. They charged me two years of ADSC for the one year I was really in the program

I was manic in 2013 and got arrested for DUI. My commander never even asked me what had happened. My ADC told me to not mention it and take full responsibility for it. I like responsibility but I would never have behaved like that had I been in my right mind. Did not include dx in MEB. Again, any other job, I'm out.

I was never allowed to deploy, which I wanted to do - I joined in 2003 after Iraq war started. I didn't join to wear a uniform and not participate in the primary purpose of the military. Plus, everybody else has to deploy more when I can't.

My colleagues grew to resent the fact that I could not work nights lest I trigger an episode. Mind you, a stranger would be treated differently.

So the point of all that is that they're going to use you, not pay you well, not keep your skills up, and the "Wingman" concept stops when you have any limitations, but your obligation does not.

DON'T do it.
 
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