Ritalin DQ

[Sugarrush]

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(Long post sorry, question at the end)

So here I am, finishing up my first year in Med School. It's been a pain in the butt, as we speak I should be reading my immunology. But this is something that has really been bugging me.

Last year, I received my acceptance letter to school, and the first thing I did was call up my local Air Force recruiter and tell him I was interested in the HPSP program. I filled out all the stupid paperwork, and when I got to the medications part I hesitated. You see, I used Ritalin my freshman year of high-school. It was prescribed for me by a family doctor in elementary school, and I just continued usage on through. Despite urgings from friends in the Army and Navy, I went ahead and filled out the forms honestly, and listed my history of usage.
The recruiter told me it shouldn't be a problem since I had a letter from a pretty respectable psychiatrist saying that I no longer needed the medication, and I had done well on my MCAT's without it.

I made it all the way through MEPS, all the humiliating, boring, and silly tests, all the way to the final quick review by the head doctor. She tells me, " I see you took Ritalin, you're disqualified without a letter of approval from a psychiatrist."
So I kindly show her my letter of approval from a psychiatrist.
"I'm afraid you are still disqualified. Please sign here."
So I asked her why I was disqualified.
"I'm afraid that you are technically mentally incompetent, and unable to serve. Now please sign here I have more people to see."
So I signed the dotted line listing me as mentally handicapped and headed on out.
I talked to the staff and my recruiter and they said if I could get the Surgeon General of the United States to sign off on my records I'd probably be ok, but otherwise to give up.
Now I have to ask this. I KNOW multiple people who are active duty armed forces for the U.S.A. currently on Methylphenidate, and it is all being PAID FOR by the military. (The Army for the particular friend I'm thinking of)
All because he was diagnosed AFTER he joined up.
All through my year here at school I have met kids who will tell me they hate America and what we stand for, but love having school paid for, so they took the HPSP scholarship.

How is it that they'll take people who hate our country, pay for people to take the same medication I'm in trouble over; but they won't take a Patriot who wants to serve his country? Heck, I'd just about waive the signing bonus if they'd just let me serve.
How do I get around this?
Any advice here?

 

[IgD]

"I'm afraid that you are technically mentally incompetent, and unable to serve. Now please sign here I have more people to see."
So I signed the dotted line listing me as mentally handicapped and headed on out.

I'm sorry for your misfortune but there is a humorous aspect to your story. WTF that sounds like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld or something from a Saturday Night Live skit.

 

[AF M4]

Lol, that is quite awesome.

Remember dude, if you had gotten in, you would have had to deal with stuff like this every day.

Whatever small demon passes as the god of MEPS, it just cut you a break. Take it and run.

 

[Segovia]

This is similar to my situation. I was enlisted for 5 years, got my degree while active duty, and got out in 2007. I got accepted to med school this year, and filled out the paperwork for DoDMERB.

Well, I had a back injury while I was active duty, and listed that on the form to be honest. I was subsequently medically disqualified (the funny thing is, I was on IRR at the time!).

Anyway, I am now filing for disability through the VA for my back. I figure if they are going to disqualify me for what they see as a disability, I might as well get paid for my "disability". Hilariously, I am running a half-marathon in a few weeks. I was also the PT coordinator for my ship when I got out. 🙂

This has been one of most fortuitous things that has happened to me during the application process. I would have ignored all of the seasoned military docs on this forum warning me not to take HPSP had it not been for that medical DQ. I was blinded by the seemingly large sum of money you get for taking HPSP, and was very debt averse. The reality is, I will have a second mortgage for 10 years, but my income will more than make up for it. Not to mention the autonomy, timeliness of training, and experiencing the national match with my classmates (corny, but kind of important to me).

Don't get me wrong. I felt betrayed and hurt at first, but have realized that I will have a much more promising career because of this. I am confident that if your goal is to become a physician first, then your misfortune will be a blessing in disguise. If you want to be an officer first, then I am sorry for your loss. I bet the system for waivers is quite a bit more lubricated once you are board certified, and if you really want to serve in the future I bet you can.

Not having a choice between military and civilian medicine has been liberating. Let the bureaucracy and ineptitude work in your favor. You'll just have to settle for higher morale and making far more money on the outside. 😀

 

[NavyFP]

If you have not taken it since your freshman year of high school and have continued to perform well in school (I'm guessing you have since you are in medical school) a waiver should be pretty automatic. Agree with IgD, this is a comedic skit. Reapply and see a different doc.

 

[Sugarrush]

I'm sorry for your misfortune but there is a humorous aspect to your story. WTF that sounds like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld or something from a Saturday Night Live skit.

Yeah this was my only consolation for a while. It was so freaking hilarious. I thought she was joking at first. But then I realized I'd been relegated to Forrest Gump status.

"No Air Force for You!"


I guess in the long run it's for the better. I just was pumped to be an officer. But I appreciate the advice and help guys. I'll be thinking about it, and after boards I may reapply.

 

[AF M4]

Yeah this was my only consolation for a while. It was so freaking hilarious. I thought she was joking at first. But then I realized I'd been relegated to Forrest Gump status.

"No Air Force for You!"


I guess in the long run it's for the better. I just was pumped to be an officer. But I appreciate the advice and help guys. I'll be thinking about it, and after boards I may reapply.

Hey man, even Captain America was originally 4-F back in the day. Go get yourself a shield and a super-soldier serum and you'll be good to go.

 

[notdeadyet]

Maybe I'm confused, but isn't this the appropriate path? Ritalin is disqualifying. You can go in with all the paperwork you need, but MEPS will disqualify you. Then you apply for a waiver, sbumitting all the supplementary paperwork.

If you have a DQing condition or history, MEPS doesn't waive anything. That's done post.

I'm surprised your recruiter isn't pushing for the waiver though...

 

[Perrotfish]

Maybe I'm confused, but isn't this the appropriate path? Ritalin is disqualifying. You can go in with all the paperwork you need, but MEPS will disqualify you. Then you apply for a waiver, sbumitting all the supplementary paperwork.

If you have a DQing condition or history, MEPS doesn't waive anything. That's done post.

I'm surprised your recruiter isn't pushing for the waiver though...

+1. Your problem here is a lazy recruiter, the doc's doing his job correctly. Also your condition (and your psychologist's opinion) need to be evaluated by their psychologist, not the MEPS doc who isn't qualified to say anything about it.

 

[175961]

I dislocated my shoulder 3 years ago, meaning I had to check all the "unstable, painful joint" boxes during MEPS even though I had surgery to fix it last year. Went through MEPS, got disqualified because of an unstable shoulder, filled out a waiver, got a letter from my ortho, got approved and kept moving forward with the process.

Seems they disqualify for anything that went wrong in your medical history, but as long as you have whats needed for a waiver saying the problems fixed then you should be able to get going again

 

[DoctaJMa]

I dislocated my shoulder 3 years ago, meaning I had to check all the "unstable, painful joint" boxes during MEPS even though I had surgery to fix it last year. Went through MEPS, got disqualified because of an unstable shoulder, filled out a waiver, got a letter from my ortho, got approved and kept moving forward with the process.

Seems they disqualify for anything that went wrong in your medical history, but as long as you have whats needed for a waiver saying the problems fixed then you should be able to get going again

I had three Disqualifying conditions and the Army waived all of them...shoulder surgery, kidney stone, and something else cant remember lol

 

[MSS07]

Is stress induced asthma disqualifying?

 

[notdeadyet]

Is stress induced asthma disqualifying?

Current or past?

 

[TheGoose]

aren't both disqualifying but past would be waiverable?

 

[notdeadyet]

aren't both disqualifying but past would be waiverable?

Yep.

 

[MSS07]

Well here's the deal, I run and workout everyday (so I'm not exactly out of shape) but my breathing while running hasn't really improved, and now when I run outside (I've been running outside for 2 weeks now) I can barely run a mile because of how labored my breathing is. I think it might be my allergies but my doc suspects is exercise induced asthma caused by my allergies and she wants me to go on albuterol. So I am not really sure what to do. I can run the 15 min 1.5 mile but I can barely breathe. Any advise?

 

[notdeadyet]

Well here's the deal, I run and workout everyday (so I'm not exactly out of shape) but my breathing while running hasn't really improved, and now when I run outside (I've been running outside for 2 weeks now) I can barely run a mile because of how labored my breathing is. I think it might be my allergies but my doc suspects is exercise induced asthma caused by my allergies and she wants me to go on albuterol. So I am not really sure what to do. I can run the 15 min 1.5 mile but I can barely breathe. Any advise?

Cutting to the chase, it sounds like you currently have exercise induced asthma. That's disqualifying.

And the PT test for whatever service your in is using running 1.5 miles in a certain number of minutes as a diagnostic. It's not indicating that they are only figuring you'll be able to run 15 minutes total. If you can barely breath after running 15 minutes, it's a big problem in any service.

 

[MSS07]

Thanks for your input.

I'm already in HPSP, I'm a first year med student (I'm actually scheduled to attend ODS soon). So if I decide to go on the albuterol and put my new diagnosis on my annual verification form I will be discharged from the military?

Also do you think that maybe I just haven't acclimated to running outside, will it get better? I mean running was never very easy for me and I always figured it was because I was out of shape.