Originally Posted by
BrutusBuckeye
All,
... I know what I felt like when I took this medication and I was not "right" in fact I exhibited a number of allergic side effects including heavy sweating (in normal temp environments), dizziness, facial redness, headache and finally the seizure ....
When you first noticed any of these symptoms/side effects from taking the steroids, did you report it to the docs?
Be ware, the AF medical community is like the police force "thin blue line". They will circle the wagons to protect themselves if necessary. At this point, I can assure you that they are far more interested in getting you DQ'd than return to fly.
I can guarantee that the AF doctors who prescribed the steroids are doing everything they can to distance themselves from this.
I can't stress this enough. From this point on, treat every AF medical person with extreme caution and assume that their only goal is to DQ you.
And DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. START A JOURNAL!!!
Also, go to your patient advocate and request they attend every meeting you have with AF medical personnel (as I've said before, your goal to is avoid all AF medical personnel from here on out until/unless necessary). Make sure you get the patient advocate to document (in an e-mail) that the purpose of them attending these meetings is to represent you/your interests and to document the meetings. Make sure the PA agrees to provide you a copy of his/her notes from the meeting/s. (You should still take your own notes as well as recording the meeting). Have a patient advocate with you for ANY meeting, no matter how mundane it may seem. If the PA is not available, postpone the meeting until he/she is available.
After any meeting, fully document your version of the meeting in an e-mail and send it to the doctor/s and request they acknowledge that your documentation is correct. Be sure you only send it to medical personnel, otherwise you will not be protected by HIPAA.
By the way, the only person outside of the AF medical community who can have access to details of your medical situation (unless you give express permission) is your "G" series commander. Not a supervisor, not an operations officer, not a flight commander, not an aircraft commander.
What flyerjosh said is true. Now that you have had a seizure, you will have to report it to the FAA. However, what you want now is to report a seizure due to medication prescribed by AF doctors, it was a one time event, and AF doctors fully cleared you for return to fly with documentation that the seizure was caused by the medication.