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Military and Crohn's

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 10/1/2018 4:27 PM (GMT 0)
Hey all,

I was recently diagnosed with Crohn's Disease while active duty military. Fortunately right now my disease isn't out of control. I am currently taking Mesalamine and it seems to be working fairly well. I'm wondering if there are any other military members on this page that are going through the same thing or people that are out of the military that have went through this. They aren't currently trying to Med board me or anything, but they did put me limited duty due to my Squadron deploying, I was still going through the diagnosis process. I'm wondering what the Navy will decide at the end of these 6 months. I don't want to get out of the military, but I want to be prepared in case they do give me the boot. If anyone has any advice or insight to this process, let me know. It will be greatly appreciated.


- AJ
Posted 10/1/2018 9:03 PM (GMT 0)
First off, you deserve so much respect and admiration for choosing to serve your Country. I'm sorry to hear that you've been diagnosed, but the good news is, with the advances is treatment options that there are now, there's no reason that once regulated properly, you would be able to continue in a full capacity with your military service.

I would question right off the choice of mesalamine. The mesalamine family of drugs has been considered antiquated therapy for quite some time now. Were you initially treated with Prednisone by any chance? This would have a residual effect, and make it seem like the Mesalamine might be helping you. What types of diagnostics have you had in confirming your diagnosis? Did you have upper and lower scopes with biopsies?

I would recommend a follow-up, or even a second opinion on your treatment plan. Another GI might be necessary. Good Luck going forward with your military service. Keep us posted on your progress.
Posted 10/2/2018 12:42 AM (GMT 0)
I'm a Crohn's patient and my husband is in the military, we have known several active duty service members with either Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease. Whether or not you are med boarded depends on the course of your disease, treatments required and if you are deployable or not. Some treatment options make you nondeployable, biologics and likely immunosuppressants, and these treatments are used continuously so the med board process would probably be started if you were put on them.
Please take time to learn as much as you can about Crohn's disease, unfortunately most MTF doctors do not have much experience with Crohn's patients.
Posted 10/4/2018 7:37 AM (GMT 0)
ex USAF. be VERY wary. now im going way back to the mid 80's mind you. had and have bad CD. didnt have all the treatments we have now. only steroids and sulfa drugs. was allergic to sulfa. had my 1st cd operation on july 4th '85. kept working after till i started getting sicker in oct. was told on a friday before thanksgiving that i was going to be med boarded. by the next tuesday i was separated and driving home. it can move VERY fast. at least back then... my big, giant advice is to get paper copies of all your med records and diagnosis NOW. back then in the USAF it was a automatic discharge if you did not get better quickly or were non deployable. i think you may have a better chance in these 'enlightened times' just dont count on it. go to the nearest VA help group, DAV,AMVETS,AMLEGION, VFW, and get advice from the advocates there. they may even start your VA application. also if they dangle cash in front of you to take discharge due to disability, dont take the money. before you can get and VA disability pension that all has to be paid back and its taxable if you get it from the military. no one advised me of this and it took over 3 years to repay the airforce , so i got zero pension. your VA pension will go back to your application or approval date and is tax free. if you have been in long enough to be medically retired, thats a whole new ballgame. but the help you will get from a service officer of one of the groups mentioned above can help you there. good luck AJ
Posted 10/4/2018 4:42 PM (GMT 0)
I've read a number of threads over the years where a service member was medically discharged or in the process of being due to his/her IBD illness. Chronic illness requires specialist-doctors, specialist-surgeries and procedures, and medications that would be difficult to attain when deployed abroad in remote parts of the world, and being deployed is part of that job.
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