Why no remedial?

NJROTCDad

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Apr 19, 2018
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My DS was nominated for an NROTC scholarship. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of competing in a track meet the night before his DoD exam. After the meet he got a very severe cramp in his right calf. The next day at his exam his right calf was very sore and he could not stand on his toes and walk across the room without pain. He also had pain doing the lunges. The doctor told us that she was going to note that he had a minor acute calf injury and that he might have to do another exam once his calf felt better. His calf soreness went away a few days after the exam, and he started running again a couple of days later. Since then he has run 4 to 7 miles daily, competed in 3 track meets, and competed in the NJROTC orienteering state championships. The week after the exam he had a school physical at his pediatrician’s office. We asked the doctor to look at his calf and note the results on the exam. He found that his calf was fine. Basically, he got a bad cramp, had a sore calf for a few days, and then he was fine. Well he was medically DQ’d and he has been submitted for a waiver. We were never given any chance to redo the exam and no additional information was requested from us regarding his calf. After the DQ, on our own we submitted a letter explaining why his calf was sore, and a copy of his school physical. Should he just wait for the waiver decision, or should he try to get the disqualification reversed? I can’t imagine him losing his scholarship because of a cramp and a couple of days of soreness. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
My DS was nominated for an NROTC scholarship. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of competing in a track meet the night before his DoD exam. After the meet he got a very severe cramp in his right calf. The next day at his exam his right calf was very sore and he could not stand on his toes and walk across the room without pain. He also had pain doing the lunges. The doctor told us that she was going to note that he had a minor acute calf injury and that he might have to do another exam once his calf felt better. His calf soreness went away a few days after the exam, and he started running again a couple of days later. Since then he has run 4 to 7 miles daily, competed in 3 track meets, and competed in the NJROTC orienteering state championships. The week after the exam he had a school physical at his pediatrician’s office. We asked the doctor to look at his calf and note the results on the exam. He found that his calf was fine. Basically, he got a bad cramp, had a sore calf for a few days, and then he was fine. Well he was medically DQ’d and he has been submitted for a waiver. We were never given any chance to redo the exam and no additional information was requested from us regarding his calf. After the DQ, on our own we submitted a letter explaining why his calf was sore, and a copy of his school physical. Should he just wait for the waiver decision, or should he try to get the disqualification reversed? I can’t imagine him losing his scholarship because of a cramp and a couple of days of soreness. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
My DS was nominated for an NROTC scholarship. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of competing in a track meet the night before his DoD exam. After the meet he got a very severe cramp in his right calf. The next day at his exam his right calf was very sore and he could not stand on his toes and walk across the room without pain. He also had pain doing the lunges. The doctor told us that she was going to note that he had a minor acute calf injury and that he might have to do another exam once his calf felt better. His calf soreness went away a few days after the exam, and he started running again a couple of days later. Since then he has run 4 to 7 miles daily, competed in 3 track meets, and competed in the NJROTC orienteering state championships. The week after the exam he had a school physical at his pediatrician’s office. We asked the doctor to look at his calf and note the results on the exam. He found that his calf was fine. Basically, he got a bad cramp, had a sore calf for a few days, and then he was fine. Well he was medically DQ’d and he has been submitted for a waiver. We were never given any chance to redo the exam and no additional information was requested from us regarding his calf. After the DQ, on our own we submitted a letter explaining why his calf was sore, and a copy of his school physical. Should he just wait for the waiver decision, or should he try to get the disqualification reversed? I can’t imagine him losing his scholarship because of a cramp and a couple of days of soreness. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Has your DS followed up with DoDMERB to try to find out a status (either by contacting his tech or a supervisor)? Who knows, the paperwork could be in the review stage. I would personally try to persevere towards getting that DQ cleared up.
 
The DoDMERB tech had told him that there is nothing he can do but wait on the waiver decision. Today he talked with the recruiter who helped him through the application process and he is going to try and help get it cleared up. Here's hoping.
 
My DS has had his NJROTC instructors and recruiter call and talk to the DoDMERB tech and he told all of them that all we can do is wait for the waiver decision. My DS is resigned to wait, but I was hoping to get a second opinion on something from the forum. I think that we should go back to the doctor that did his original exam and have her re-examine him and submit a letter stating that his calf is fine now and that he passed all of the physical tests that caused him pain previously. Should we do this? Or will it just muck things up now that we're two weeks into the waiver timeline?
 
Did you guys explained that to the initial DODMETS examining Dr. at the moment? You could have postponed that physical...

Anyways, having that doctor recant his initial examination when you did not made any clarification at the moment of the examination indeed is gonna be difficult. I would suggest that you get all the paper work you can get from doctors outside of DODMETS (yes you will pay out of pocket) and have them made a letter explaining the situation and that the patient does not present any tenderness or injury etc (the verbiage may change depending on the examination but DODMETS likes those words), has a full range of motion and is able to do military training without restrictions and has been released from any kind of treatment (or even better did not underwent any treatment at all if you did not).

I had my waiver approved after getting about 4 letters from different doctors related to my waiver and I instructed them on the verbiage to use (since I have been studying this forum for a while). They will obviously support you if they find that the patient is actually in good health.

You can submit any extra documents if whenever you want and they'll process them. I submitted documents like 5 times.
 
Thanks for your input foxtrot17. I wish I could go back in time and postpone that exam for a few days, but I didn't realize at the time what a big hassle a sore calf was going to become. That's my fault, I should have postponed it if he wasn't 100%. We did tell the doctor, after the exam, why his calf was so sore and she didn't seem to think that it was a big deal. She said that DoDMERB may ask us to do a follow up exam, but they never asked us to do one. Based on your advice, I called today and talked to the doctor that did the exam. She was surprised that my DS needed to get a waiver for his calf and asked me to send her the information I had submitted to DoDMERB on it. She is going to make some calls for us and if she doesn't get anywhere, she will reexamine him and write a letter for us to submit. Thanks again.
 
Thanks for your input foxtrot17. I wish I could go back in time and postpone that exam for a few days, but I didn't realize at the time what a big hassle a sore calf was going to become. That's my fault, I should have postponed it if he wasn't 100%. We did tell the doctor, after the exam, why his calf was so sore and she didn't seem to think that it was a big deal. She said that DoDMERB may ask us to do a follow up exam, but they never asked us to do one. Based on your advice, I called today and talked to the doctor that did the exam. She was surprised that my DS needed to get a waiver for his calf and asked me to send her the information I had submitted to DoDMERB on it. She is going to make some calls for us and if she doesn't get anywhere, she will reexamine him and write a letter for us to submit. Thanks again.

Persevere on this and do not give up! My DS was completely misdiagnosed with a condition that he never had from his exam. The four weeks of waiting for clearance was a nightmare. A true test of patience! Just stay on this.
 
Thanks for your input foxtrot17. I wish I could go back in time and postpone that exam for a few days, but I didn't realize at the time what a big hassle a sore calf was going to become. That's my fault, I should have postponed it if he wasn't 100%. We did tell the doctor, after the exam, why his calf was so sore and she didn't seem to think that it was a big deal. She said that DoDMERB may ask us to do a follow up exam, but they never asked us to do one. Based on your advice, I called today and talked to the doctor that did the exam. She was surprised that my DS needed to get a waiver for his calf and asked me to send her the information I had submitted to DoDMERB on it. She is going to make some calls for us and if she doesn't get anywhere, she will reexamine him and write a letter for us to submit. Thanks again.

That's great!

Yeah my DODMETS Dr said that they might just do some extra examinations on me but I had two DQ's and waited 4 months for a waiver so I don't trust those docs. I ended up taking the bull by the horns myself after I got DQ and got all the paperwork and letters I could get from trusted Dr's. I hope everything clears up and he gets a qualified soon.
 
My DS got his waiver letter from the NROTC in the mail yesterday. His new DODMERB status is 'Waiver Granted', so that's a huge relief. Thanks to those who gave me advice on this forum, and a big thanks to the individual at UF's NROTC unit (not sure if I should name names) who made a few calls and straightened this whole mess out for us.
 
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