Im sure this is how many of us feel.
http://army.com/forum/weight-loss-surgery
Sunday, March 24, 2013
If you have answers to these questions please share
Who can we voice our concerns to with regards to
changing the requirements to allow people who have had WLS to join the
military? If there is a petition going around out there where is it? I would
like to sign it. Is there some research study on the effects of WLS on
military performance? If there is I'm willing to be a test subject so we
can prove to them that we can do the same things that non WLS candidates can
do. If no research has been done who can I talk to about initiating one?
I'm not a professional on military requirements, so
if there is anyone out there who knows anyone who was accepted after WLS
please share.
How is your health since WLS?
Now, I know that there are many people out there
who have achieved great weight loss success since having WLS. Many of
whom are as healthy as a horse now because of it with regards to not only
achieving ultimate weight loss but improvements in comorbidities they had prior
to surgery. I was reading an article on a military website and in it they
said that they do not allow people who have had bariatric surgery to join
because of our medical demands after surgery. Oh please...yeah I have to
be on calcium and vitamins for the rest of my life but those are things people who
haven't had surgery should take for the rest of their lives also. After
WLS some people are healthier than people currently serving in the
military.
My WLS
On February 5th 2013 I had vertical sleeve
gastrectomy done. Since the surgery, including the pre-surgery diet I
have lost a total of about 37lbs. Aside from health reasons for having
the surgery, in the back of mind a part of me was hoping that once I lost the
weight and met the weight requirements I could join the military again.
To my dismay, from doing research and asking around I found out and was
told that WLS is a PDQ from joining the military.
Check out this link:
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/abdominal.htmUS Army Reserves
I was in the US Army Reserves for 10 years from 1998-2008. I am an Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) veteran. I
was deployed to Iraq from 2005-2006. I got out shortly after returning
from Iraq because I wanted to focus on my civilian career. I went back to
school and received my BS in Nursing. After I graduated, I was interested
in going back into the military as a nurse, but I was told that I had gained
too much weight and I do not meet the requirements to join. Mind you,
when I joined initially I was overweight to the point where my recruiter had to
have me lose weight before my physical. And, throughout almost the
entire time I was in the reserves I was over the required weight. I was
on the Army's weight control program for almost the entire time I was in the
military. Being overweight did not hinder them from deploying me and many
other people to Iraq. I have tried all kinds of weight loss programs. Nothing worked for me and I became hypertensive after gaining the weight. I considered weight loss surgery because I felt that it was the only way for me to achieve permanent weight loss and get back to a healthy weight and a healthy life style.
Purpose of this blog
My reason for starting this blog is to give people
who have had weight loss surgery (WLS) and are interested in joining the
military an avenue to vent. There are many people out there who are
interested in joining the military and do not meet the weight requirements.
As it turns out, WLS permanently disqualifies (PDQ) you from joining...so
if you want to join and you think the only way to meet that weight requirement
is to have weight loss surgery...think again. I do not think it is fair
because people get waivers to join the military for a lot of reasons so I don’t
see why WLS surgery cant be waivered in an otherwise healthy individual. Someone
who goes as far as having weight loss surgery to qualify to join the military is
definitely a “true patriot” in my book.
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