Allergy Induced Asthma

[Jah]

I've searched for threads reguarding any kind of Asthma, yet I couldn't find anything reguarding Allergy Induced Asthma. What are your thoughts/opinions on this, and being interested in SF?

My situation is this. As it stands i'm 20 years old, when I was about 14-16 years old, my Doctor put me on inhalers for having 'Asthma'. I used them for quite a while, and I never noticed an improvement. A while after I had switched Doctors, my past Doctor prescribing me with certain inhalers was brought up, so he looked further into it, and said that I was allergic to cats. After getting rid of my cat, it seemed to go away. Although every now & then, I get a wheezy kind of feeling in my chest (lasts for about 10-30 seconds), but it's nothing I can't handle, it's just a weird feeling. I have never in my life had an Asthma attack, but I don't think the Army cares about that, they just care if you've had Asthma after a certain age I think, something around 13 I believe. I still want to get into the Army, but I hope this won't hold me back. If anyone has any information with this specific type of Asthma, please fill me in.

Thanks

[Doczilla]

Any diagnosis of asthma is a disqualifier. The only shot you have is to see a pulmonologist (lung disease specialist) and do special testing to try to prove that the diagnosis was incorrect in the first place, and that you don't have asthma. Even then, it may not matter, and the Army may tell you to go pound sand.

'zilla

[Jah]

Originally Posted by Doczilla

Any diagnosis of asthma is a disqualifier. The only shot you have is to see a pulmonologist (lung disease specialist) and do special testing to try to prove that the diagnosis was incorrect in the first place, and that you don't have asthma. Even then, it may not matter, and the Army may tell you to go pound sand.

'zilla

I figured, but I know of many instances where people have still got in with Asthma, either with a waiver, or just lying. I'm not saying i'm one to lie, but I even know some Rangers on ArmyRanger.Com, that have the same case of Allergy Induced Asthma. So I know there's ways, I just want to look more into it.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Jah

I figured, but I know of many instances where people have still got in with Asthma, either with a waiver, or just lying. I'm not saying i'm one to lie, but I even know some Rangers on ArmyRanger.Com, that have the same case of Allergy Induced Asthma. So I know there's ways, I just want to look more into it.

Stop posting and read AR 40-501, then see the Doc at your MEPS station. DO NOT LIE, regardless of what the recruiter tells you.

Search for "asthma." Everyone who has it tries to make it into something else.

If you have it and keep it a secret, and somehow make it though the Q Course, when you get to a camp at 15,000 feet and have another attack while living in a dirt hut 500 miles from the nearest physician, do not expect me to save you, or to risk an aircrew to come in and haul you off.

If you cannot follow the instructions, or think that lying is a viable option, then I highly recommend that you leave this site and go back to ArmyRanger.com for the rest of your career.

TR

[Jah]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Stop posting and read AR 40-501, then see the Doc at your MEPS station. DO NOT LIE, regardless of what the recruiter tells you.

Search for "asthma." Everyone who has it tries to make it into something else.

If you have it and keep it a secret, and somehow make it though the Q Course, when you get to a camp at 15,000 feet and have another attack while living in a dirt hut 500 miles from the nearest physician, do not expect me to save you, or to risk an aircrew to come in and haul you off.

If you cannot follow the instructions, or think that lying is a viable option, then I highly recommend that you leave this site and go back to ArmyRanger.com for the rest of your career.

TR

QP TR,

I've read through the asthma threads, and I wasn't looking for thoughts/answers for a basic asthma, while trying to enlist. It's been almost 7 years since any sign of any problems, and since then I get a wheezy feeling in my chest now & then. Maybe it's because I still have my cat (but living in the garage), and that bothers me every now & then. I don't know, and I can't say because I am not a Doctor. I'm not trying to turn it into something other than Asthma, i'm trying to find out more about it, other than what I can find online. Possibly from somebody else that has it, which I was hoping to find here. I wouldn't lie if the recruiter told me to, I know he only wants to raise his numbers, and if he's one of those type of recruiters, then he probably doesn't care what happens to me, once he books me.

If something like that happened to me, I wouldn't expect anyone to save me. Because it would've been my own problem that got me into that situation. I never said lying was an option for me, I don't want to lie, and I won't. I'll get a waiver if possible, and eventually go to a Doctor and get a written letter (if everything does come out to be fine), to help me with attempting to get a waiver. As Doczilla suggested, I can possibly see a Pulmonologist, and see what he has to say at least. I'll probably look more into that, and try finding one in my area, and work from there.

I appreciate all the help.

[Texian]

Dude, you have asthma. Live with it.

The same thing has kept me out of the U.S. Military, but not from being successful at things asthmatics are not supposed to be able to do. It hasn't kept me from serving my country either. There are other equally honorable ways to serve. All you have to do is look. Not everyone can be high speed, and not everyone has to be so.

[Eagle5US]

Originally Posted by Jah

QP TR,
If something like that happened to me, I wouldn't expect anyone to save me. Because it would've been my own problem that got me into that situation.

Asthma is Asthma is Asthma...
Wouldn't expect anyone to save you? How friggin generous of you to let us all in on that. Should the other members of your team also go ahead and train without you or the skill set you are supposed to be contributing to the mission? Perhaps we can do a train-up right from the beginning carrying all of your kit as well since when you are dead, someone will have to carry it for you.

You may be reading, but you aren't listening. You have a medical problem, you still (by your own admission) have "some wheezy feeling in your chest now and then".

The Army is waivering far too much stuff to maintain numbers. I have a new LT just showing up here in Iraq from OBC....Permanent Profile with a waiver for enlistment...NO SWEATING. IN IRAQ...IN SUMMER. And another just out of AIT...no wearing body armor, no 3-5 second rush due to back pain. Permanent Profile with waiver for enlistment. I have already evacuated no less than 7 soldiers from theater for ASTHMA-3 of which had waivers and the other 4 flat out lied "to enlist get the bonus money".

Don't waste your money on a pulmonologist - don't waste our time, and most certainly don't waste someone else's training slot.

Stay away from the military and from Special Operations. You are a liability to yourself and to those around you in an austere combat environment. You may not expect anyone to save you, but I AM EXPECTED to save you because that is MY JOB with YOUR PROBLEM.

Wanna be a high speed guy? Join your police department and try out for the SRT unit or some other such job where you will be around US Hospitals and Physicians on a moments notice - that way when the CS canister goes off and you are choking for your last breath due to your reactive airway disease, they can call the pulmonologist for you.

PA

[jasonglh]

Originally Posted by Texian

Dude, you have asthma. Live with it.

The same thing has kept me out of the U.S. Military, but not from being successful at things asthmatics are not supposed to be able to do. It hasn't kept me from serving my country either. There are other equally honorable ways to serve. All you have to do is look. Not everyone can be high speed, and not everyone has to be so.

X2 Edited by Razor: Are you doing multiplication tables here, or just can't find the words to say 'I agree'?

I had really bad childhood asthma and was able to just stop taking my meds around 7th grade. I wanted to be a SF medic and did the Pulmonary function test but was still unable to get a waiver.

I went on to work as a civilian EMT before getting my RN. But guess what my asthma returned suddenly and I even went down on a run. We had pulled an elderly lady out of her burning house and I actually went down in the hallway of the ER 30 minutes later. I remember my "buds" arguing over who got to tube me.

I have tried to get into the Nurse Corp after 9-11 but still cannot get a waiver oven though I did another PFT that wasn't bad. I don't like it but I understand it. If I had gone down in the burning house we would all have been in a world of shit as my partner would have had to get 2 patients out.

[SOCOM8721]

Allergy induced asthma is onset by ANYTHING dusty or otherwise that can trigger the reaction that will cause the bronchials to close.

Working in an environment where you have the minimal amount of personnel trained to survive on their own DOES, CAN AND WILL put lives in danger if you lie, conceal or otherwise circumvent the system to get what you want for yourself.

Special Operations Soldiers do what they do because they want to be the best and make a difference, unselfishly.

You may have all of those qualities and desires but please read the last word of the previous sentence.

DO NOT BE SELFISH. If you got it, live with it and the knowledge that you have it and it could return and at the most inopportune times.

[wallowinginfun]

I was wondering if anyone here had heard about the links between gluten intolerance and asthma. I used to have allergies and excema, both of which are comonly associated with asthma patients from my understanding, and when it was suggested to me by a friend that I stop eating food containing grains they both cleared up in a couple weeks. There's a lot of information about celiac disease, the extreme version of this condition, on the net, but very little if any to be found about milder allergies. I was just wondering because it would have a pretty big impact on the military, considering how many people seem to have asthmatic symptoms. Fat chance of ever having a gluten free combat ration, though.