Sorry to continue the bombardment of questions that I am sure you all receive about medical conditions, but I had one more. As you can tell by the title, I was born with a solitary kidney. That being said, there have been no other complications. I have never had high blood pressure, protein levels in my urine are not out of the ordinary, and I have no pain. I have played contact sports such as soccer and done some martial arts in the past. As to my being physically fit, I am somewhere around a 220 or so on the APFT as of now and I am still getting better. I know that I will be able to hit that 300 mark soon. My kidney is not ectopic and is located in the normal place a kidney should be. I have never had any complications in the past and as far as I have been told, my kidney is in pretty good shape for the future.
I have done my research online and have looked up to see what the different side effects of having one kidney are. There are no physical limitations imposed as far as I have read and the only difference between my kidney and a normal persons kidney is that mine is larger and weighs approximately 1.8 times more than a normal one.
Now that I have the background out of the way it is on to my question. I am currently in college and have been putting a lot of thought into joining Army ROTC at my university. I have also looked up online that having one kidney is a disqualification for military service. I was wondering how likely it is that I will be able to obtain a waiver for this or if a waiver is necessary. I am hoping that I will be able to do the Leader's Training Course in the summer of 2010 and after that continue with the program and commission. Is any of this possible or am I going to have to give up on my dream. If you think it is possible, do you think that this will limit branches that I will be able to apply to?
Thank you for taking the time to read what I know is a long message and I thank you for taking the time to help me get a sense of where I am with this problem. It is truly appreciated.
I have done my research online and have looked up to see what the different side effects of having one kidney are. There are no physical limitations imposed as far as I have read and the only difference between my kidney and a normal persons kidney is that mine is larger and weighs approximately 1.8 times more than a normal one.
Now that I have the background out of the way it is on to my question. I am currently in college and have been putting a lot of thought into joining Army ROTC at my university. I have also looked up online that having one kidney is a disqualification for military service. I was wondering how likely it is that I will be able to obtain a waiver for this or if a waiver is necessary. I am hoping that I will be able to do the Leader's Training Course in the summer of 2010 and after that continue with the program and commission. Is any of this possible or am I going to have to give up on my dream. If you think it is possible, do you think that this will limit branches that I will be able to apply to?
Thank you for taking the time to read what I know is a long message and I thank you for taking the time to help me get a sense of where I am with this problem. It is truly appreciated.
