Navy Officer Candidate Waiver denied what to do next. Please Help!

[Warr1820]

Hi everyone, I have been working on getting into the Navy for about six months now. I took the Officer’s Apptitude Rating Test and got a 58. I already have a college degree with a 3.4 gpa in science so my recruiter said that i was a great officer candidate. The only hurdle next was to get through MEPS. So the fun began. First, there were two issues my recruiter was concerned for. 1. I had kidney stones 10 years ago, and i might need a waiver for that. My recruiter had me go to a nephrologist to confirm that i did not have any current problems with stones, which i did, and of course had no issues. 2. Five years ago i was in a car accident, received a compression fracture in lower back. The compression fracture was at a 50% at first visit. I have documentation for another two visits over the course of about six months and the only advice from physician was to wear a back brace for 9 month. Now when i turned in documentation from the incident I have only documentation for 3 visits with the last visit showing the fracture reduced down to 20%. Now according to my recruiter Naval regulations requires a fracture to be acceptable if smaller than 25%, which it is, by 5%. After MEPS I received a letter stating that my request for waiver approval for history of vertebrae fracture, astigmatism, and alcohol use was denied. My recruiter is confident that it was due to the back injury since it has been a significant time period since i made the mistake of getting a dui and not due to the astigmatism since tons of people have glasses. He thinks that they didn’t approve the back waiver and decided not to approve any of them. So here’s my question. Given the fact that I only went to a couple of visits to orthopedic doctor and let the back heal on my own. If i were to see an orthopedic specialist now and show 99.99% or NO Compression, which i know it would show now, and they were to have that documentation instead of just seeing the documentation of three visits 5 years ago when my back was healing, would i get a different ruling? And, Why didn’t i get a consult done on my back if that was the primary issue? I had to get a consult for vision and the astigmatism. Sorry for long post, very frustrated and don’t know who to contact about this or who to talk to since my recruiter said, “I’ve done all I can do” and gave me a number to navy recruiting division out of DALLAS which i called, left message and got no answer back. Is there an appeal process, what should i do?

 

[GoCubbies]

not due to the astigmatism since tons of people have glasses

How much astigmatism do you have? Corrective lenses aren't only for people who have astigmatism. Many people don't have astigmatism but have to wear glasses because of hyperopia and myopia. You can tell how much astigmatism you have if you look at your eye glasses prescription.

made the mistake of getting a dui

Another red flag for someone going into the Navy. How did the MEPS doctor explain this in the physical exam form? Did he say it was a 1 time incident of alcohol misuse? In general, a 1 time incident of alcohol misuse can be explained away by youthful indiscretion (i.e. knuckleheaded mistake). However, if the doctor labeled it as alcohol abuse, then there's going to be some explaining to do for the USN reviewers.

The compression fracture was at a 50% at first visit. I have documentation for another two visits over the course of about six months and the only advice from physician was to wear a back brace for 9 month. Now when i turned in documentation from the incident I have only documentation for 3 visits with the last visit showing the fracture reduced down to 20%.

This is the piece that doesn't make sense to me. You said you had a 50% compression fracture in your lower back 5 years ago. Now, the fracture is 20%??? A 50% compression fracture tells me one of your vertebra has lost 50% of it's height. By saying you've now got a 20% compression fracture, that tells me that vertebra has gained height. That is not possible. Once you lose vertebral height, you can't get it back. It is possible that the 50% compression fracture you've had has worsened to where it is now 20% of its original height.

If i were to see an orthopedic specialist now and show 99.99% or NO Compression, which i know it would show now

Again, this is not possible. If you have a compression fracture, you've lost vertebral body height. You can't get that back. You're always going to have that loss of height. When you use the word compression, are you talking about no compression of the spinal cord or nerves that come out of the spine? One of the complications of a vertebral compression fracture is a portion of the vertebral body compressing on the spinal cord.

 

[Warr1820]

Ok for the compression fracture, the accident had reduced the vertebrae to 50% its height. The prognosis was to wear a back brace and let heal on its own so I went to appointments for the first 3 months or so, and by the 3rd appointment the bone had “grown back up” where it was only at a 20% fracture. What happens with a compression fracture or mine. From looking at it on the MRI, it looked like a door-wedge, and upon my last visit that wedge was less steep. The astigmatism was off like a half a centimeter. I’m not sure about that, but it was commented that it wasn’t huge but enough that it needed a consult for. There were 2 dui’s. One when I was a minor, 17, and one five years ago. I strongly emphasized before beginning my application package that i didn’t want to go through this process if this would be a problem for me, and was told repeatedly, “No it wont be an issue, if it were more than 2, it would be”. I know it was a mistake, I’ve learned from it and moved on. My recruiter told me he’s done all he could do, and his commanders can’t discuss which waiver I was denied because of medical disclosure reasons, and for that reason I would need to speak to them directly. He gave me Navy Recruiting Division-Dallas’ number and i’ve Left a message with the Chief Recruiter but have not received a call back. This is really frustrating. If it is alcohol and there’s nothing they can do, i understand that, but if it’s back related and all that was needed is more recent documentation, it’s a crying shame that my naval career never got off the ground because someone couldn’t return a phone call. Thanks for the reply.

 

[GoCubbies]

Ok for the compression fracture, the accident had reduced the vertebrae to 50% its height. The prognosis was to wear a back brace and let heal on its own so I went to appointments for the first 3 months or so, and by the 3rd appointment the bone had “grown back up” where it was only at a 20% fracture. What happens with a compression fracture or mine. From looking at it on the MRI, it looked like a door-wedge, and upon my last visit that wedge was less steep. The astigmatism was off like a half a centimeter. I’m not sure about that, but it was commented that it wasn’t huge but enough that it needed a consult for. There were 2 dui’s. One when I was a minor, 17, and one five years ago. I strongly emphasized before beginning my application package that i didn’t want to go through this process if this would be a problem for me, and was told repeatedly, “No it wont be an issue, if it were more than 2, it would be”. I know it was a mistake, I’ve learned from it and moved on. My recruiter told me he’s done all he could do, and his commanders can’t discuss which waiver I was denied because of medical disclosure reasons, and for that reason I would need to speak to them directly. He gave me Navy Recruiting Division-Dallas’ number and i’ve Left a message with the Chief Recruiter but have not received a call back. This is really frustrating. If it is alcohol and there’s nothing they can do, i understand that, but if it’s back related and all that was needed is more recent documentation, it’s a crying shame that my naval career never got off the ground because someone couldn’t return a phone call. Thanks for the reply.

I feel for you. I'm thinking that the USN recruiters don't think the squeeze is worth the juice in this case. They may think that getting you in is going to cause them so much paperwork that they would prefer to use their limited time on other candidates who do not need a waiver. Right or wrong, it's the way these guys work sometimes. They probably said it wouldn't be an issue (initially anyway) until reality set it. They probably tried to help out your packet but then ran into some roadblocks that they didn't foresee and now they want to move on to the next guy/gal.

If you really want to serve in the military, try another service. You never know who will waive your condition(s) until you try.