Originally Posted by
libertyrisk
Good topic, one that affects me. I've been flying T-45's & F/A-18's since 2001, with only a year and a half off from flying when I got tagged for a non-flying staff gig. I started having chronic lower back pain in 2009 but so far I haven’t talked with the flight doc about it due to the fear of being “med down”.
I will retire in three years and I fully understand that I need to get it documented, along with a few other minor issues, in order to get it in my medical record for the VA post-retirement.
My (probably stupid & fear-based) question to ya’ll is how do you go about getting it documented without having some knuckleheaded flight doc try to “med down” you? Sad to say but I haven't had much trust in my flight docs over my career. I have generally stayed away from them except for my annual flight physical. Any advice?
It's probably changed, but in the USAF in my day, the doc would hand you a huge bottle of motrin, sometimes flexeril or skelaxin, and you're down for a few days. In my case, the pressure to say "It's healed, I'm OK", so as to get back on the schedule, was immense. So I'd resume high-G flying not fully healed, and they (the docs) tended to ignore the underlying problem.
One said "You need stronger abdominal muscles." Ohhh K, my abs (at the time) were iron from all the L1 we'd do under G. That wasn't the problem.
Anyway, over the years, I found my medical record had these periodic episodes of severe spasms. That was when I realized it might become chronic. So my "documentation" consisted of copying every page from my medical records that had back pain issues before my records disappeared into the void. I wanted my own copies, which I still have if I need to go to the VA.
There's no way to document it without seeking medical attention, short of going to a private physician rather than your flight surgeon, which is probably against the rules in a big way. If I were you, I'd stop worrying about getting grounded occasionally; start thinking long term. For about 4 years after I ceased high-G flight, I was in constant mild to moderate pain, and the thought of having this the rest of my life sucked. But over time, mercifully the intervals between attacks increased. Obviously, they haven't gone away entirely.
Good luck! Seek medical help. If it's not on record, you might have issues later showing it is work-related.