The Navy was the best thing to ever happen to me and I loved it until I had medical problems. I had broken out with crazy blisters on my hands and feet which were itchy and painful. They told me I had scabies. They gave me a cream which said only one treatment necessary and directed me to wash all my personal articles. It never went away and I kept going back. They kept telling me that I wasn’t following the directions and giving me the same treatment. I read up on scabies and decided that it wasn’t what I had. My condition was getting worse as time went by. I had nasty puss and blood coming out and it was extremely uncomfortable to say the least. They didn’t even listen when I talked to them. They made me so mad I quit going to see them. I tended my problem best I could with over the counter meds creams and bandages, several pairs of boots. which wasn’t cheap after a while and did my best to keep up at work. One day a Senior Chief noticed me limping down the flight line, I told him of my dilemma and he ordered me to go to medical. They continued their accusations of my ignorance and total incompetence without actually saying it outright. I kept going to medical and this had been going on for about a year. i went off on a first class and a Lt on deployment, they sent for my supervisor and he bitched at them too( loved him that day) Finally one visit during on ship I met an Indepent Duty Corpsman. I told him what I had been through and he actually listened to me. He used a razor, took a slide under the microscope and concluded I didn’t have scabies. He was surprised to be the first to do so. This change in my diagnosis supported with actual empirical evidence still didn’t help me a whole lot. He said I had eczema. He put me on prednazone, which helped a little. It wouldn’t go all the way away, it lessened the swelling, but it always came back. Of everything I was prescribed, prednazone seemed to work best, but doctors were reluctant to prescribe it do to possible harmful side affects over long periods. All the creams I ever got never really helped much. And suddenly all the doctors I’ve seen before agree that I have “Dishydrotic Eczema.” But still, nothing they did helped me, all they could do was give me tennis shoe chits, keep me LLD and give me ibprofrin when I complained about pain and itching. During all this time my condition is getting worse, the pain was getting unbearable and has drawn plenty of attention from my “shipmates.” Some of the most humerous being command Emails with coral draw art illustrations. It wasn’t for several months after deployment that someone finally gave me a referral to a dermatologist. I didn’t get much help there either. He gave me an allergy test for household chemicals, because they didn’t have one for industrial chemicals which I might actually come into contact with on the flight line do to their budget, I was told. He also prescribed ultraviolet light therapy, which is used on people who have psoriasis. PUVA, as its called, seemed to only aggravate my condition. And after a couple of months of continual light duty my command told my doctor put me on a medical board because I couldn’t work on the flight line in my tennis shoes and I was “taking up space.” And he complied. Also I had a couple of brushes with the DAPA because of my drinking, which to me at the time was my alternative over the counter pain medication of choice. Because Ibprofrin, Tylenol, hydrocortisone, benadryl and calamine didn’t have anything on Budwiser and Jack Daniels. After a couple of months of TPU and sitting on a couch at work all day, then going home and sitting on my couch at my apartment and drinking all night I started getting fat. It was painful for me to even get up. Eventually the alcohol didn’t help the pain anymore, it was just more of a habit. Eventually I got PCS orders to AIMD Oceana. These guys didn’t want to do the paperwork for my PCS since I was only scheduled to be there six months, so they put me down as TAD from my last command. Then they sent me TAD to the AIMD barracks for my duration. (big piss test loophole) . And for airmen in the Navy, the worst job ever, is working for MS’s. Despite my LLD status, I did a lot of work for those jerks. I was the only PO and was the only one who did what was expected. This was the biggest barracks on base and the biggest concern was the appearance of the grounds around the building. I was the one who moved a ton of mulch around, mowed that huge lawn with a push mower, shoveled snow, and was responsible for the two airmen inside who were supposed to be “cleaning.” Hey, some rates are easier than others and this chief was a moron. There was another chief who was supposed to be there, but he was on a med board too, he was cool, but surprise, u never saw him there. And during this period I had scheduled visits to the dermatologist. He never bothered to show up, I always saw a different intern ensign. So I was always explaining the same thing over and over. And they never did jack. Toward the end of my 6 month scheduled med board my break outs started to became farther in between on its own.. the first time it didn’t look half bad I requested to get off my med board. And they let me, I got my physicals and it was already time to decide for me to reenlist. I was wondering if I would after all that’s happened to me and I decided that the worst part of the military was over and it was all up from there, It sobered me up and I took the oath. I got my orders quick and I was outta there. I got stuck at namtrau Lemoore because my last command never send me. So to make sure I went this time the detailer pcs’d me there before I went to my next command. When I got there all pcs students had to participate in the new indoc piss test. I was confident when I did it that I was fine. And what happened before was truly in the past. Right when I relaxed, they took me in and told me I popped. I couldn’t stop cring for an hour. It was embarrassing. Every time I signed my dirtbag evals I balled. I thought I would cry at mast, but there were too many people there, I couldn’t. they gave me all the chances to leave too. After they told me I popped, they dropped me back at my room and told me to be ready for mast the next day. I packed my seabag and had my last free night as a petty officer having pizzahut and watching tv. I wanted to get my medical and service records copied , but the jerks wouldn’t let me.( I wish I could sue the navy for medical malpractice.) One chief was really great, she helped me book a plane ticket home online in her office the day I was leaving. She offered to give me a ride to the airport because I didn’t know anyone at Lemoore, but her SCPO wouldn’t let her. But I was lucky, I waited for a ride to the airport after they booted me to the curb out in the middle of the desert from a cool PO that was tad to restriction. BTW im still sober.
