Inguinal hernia

Colleges and Universities A-Z Air Force Academy - Colorado Springs
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<p>Sorry for carpet bombing all the service academy boards but I’m trying to get a quick answer on this. I just posted this over on the West Point forum but maybe someone here will see it first.</p>

<p>Just got a call from my son (HS Sophomore) who went in for a physical today in preparation for running Cross Country next year. Doc wants him looked at for what sounds like a possible inguinal hernia. No symptoms and the doc says he can continue to work out, run, go to BSA camp etc for now.</p>

<p>My son’s obvious concern is what will this mean down the road when it’s DoDMERB time. I found a copy of AR 40-501 Standards of Medical Fitness. It says, in part:</p>

<p>2–3. Abdominal organs and gastrointestinal system
The causes for rejection for appointment, enlistment, and induction are an authenticated history of: …
h. Abdominal wall.
(1) Hernia, including inguinal (550), and other abdominal (553), except for small, asymptomatic umbilical or asymptomatic hiatal.</p>

<p>That doesn’t sound good.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any experience with this? Does “history” mean “ever”? Not a problem if corrected before age X? Waiverable? </p>

<p>Son is going to to be all over me when I get home wanting to know what this means for his Army career and USMA dreams.</p>

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<p>I'm not sure about all the different types of hernias, but I know that a friend of mine in basic developed a hernia, and they operated and offered him the option to stay. He didn't want to stay anyway and chose to leave, but the fact that he had a hernia and they fixed it without kicking him out makes me think it's waiverable. And you can always try to waive something, I came in with a few possible conditions, one they considered legitimate and I had to get it waived (oddly, ROTC retracted my scholarship because they refused to waive it while USAFA waived it without much trouble). It meant a lot later acceptance (April), but it's worth the process. You can probably talk to DoDMerb to see if they can elaborate, maybe they'll come through. Good luck to your son!</p>

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<p>sorry, forgot the other question. authenticated history means legitimately diagnosed with ever having something unless an age is specified. But it has to clearly be diagnosed in the medical records; I always thought I had asthma as a child and just sort of grew out of it because I was treated for it and showed symptoms when I was little, but since I was never tested and definitively diagnosed it didn't hinder my coming here at all.</p>