SWO with Type 1 Diabetes
Hello Domlou,
Here you state
After diagnosis Navy Med Rep informed me that no Med board was needed and I could go on to my next assignment (sea duty) with no issues except my next ship would need to have a med staff onboard.
What exactly do you mean from that??
What happens to a person once they get the DX of DM1?? Each service is different, and there is change right now in general of how diabetes is viewed. Army and Marines tend to keep them. Navy tend to find them Fit for Duty, but kick you out once you can't deploy (More on that later). Air Force kicks the majority out.
The article is a little, worthless. While yes, he does say there is a relationship between Anthrax and Diabetes, it doesn't help us.....yet. Right now there is a little group at the Walter Reed Medical trying to collect as much info as they can to see if Anthrax has any connection to DM1. So while the paper you linked said yes, the US government is doing their own thing.
Why are your blood sugar's being checked in your records?? And how much of an increase??
When/if you get medically boarded, there will be a spot on one of the first paper works they do that say if you got this before you entered Military, or if it was service connected. If they say you had this before you entered, the burden of proof IS ON THEM, not you. If it is type 1, there is no way you had this before you entered. Out of all 3 main types of antibodies, the longest one takes two years to completely destroy the pancreas, so you're safe there. The only way for the Military/Navy to prove it is to take the blood sample from when you entered MEPS, unfreeze it, test it for antibodies and the test would have to come back positive.
As for compensation, as long as we don't get kicked out with Dishonorable Discharge, Diabetes is taken care of. All service connected conditions are paid for by the US VA.
Okay, now for the "Navy is finding you guys fit but will discharge ya". Currently, there is a memo stating that "Deployabilty is paramount to a fit force" (I paraphrased it). So any diabetes that requires the use of insulin is considered to be non-deployable. BUT, Army has had a type 1 in full armor suit in the desert with the use of a pump. So Army and Marines will generally find them Fit for duty with a C code (meaning certain restrictions on where you go, but doesn't mean you can't deploy) and Air force is pretty much "F you have a nice life". Now you Sailors have done such a good job arguing in the appeals process that the boards will find you "Fit for duty", but with a C code and non-deployable. Once another office of yours see's the non-deployable part, they will kick you out reciving nothing. So there's kinda two parts to that scenerio. The first is "Can the Navy kick me out??" So far, they have, but there is a movement going against that with the boards own MAparker spearheading it. (I've been out for a while, so I don't know if there's any progress). The second part is the "Who pays for the insulin??" I would think as long as you had a service connected disability, seperating you or not, they would be able to pay for it, as long as you had proof of it. This shit is expensive, it's almost 800 bucks a month.
I want to thank Jason who was a huge help getting my package ready for this board, with out his help I would of been lost through this process...also thanks to all the other members on the board who help me out too.