Marine wanting off Meds

[garfieldlea68]

Hello jfrazier1221
I am Leah Known as garfieldlea68 and I have a suggestion for you. how would you like to in my shoes I am allergic to every seizure med out there yet I have seizures There only a few I can take. the rest mean trips to the hospital and whatever (I never know what Medicine I can Take)

[jfrazier1221]

Thanks guys for the support.
As for your question CHEROKEE09, with the dept of the navy, I do not believe I would be able to rejoin, however, the National Guard will allow enrollment as long as I have been seizure free without meds for 5 years. Now if that was to happen, the next hurdle is convincing my wife to let me rejoin

[CHEROKEE09]

Leah,
My name is Shonni Known as CHEROKEE09, I am in that same boat the only meds
that I have not had any allergic reactions to are Keppra, Topamax, Tegretol X-R, Effexor X-R.

[CHEROKEE09]

jfrazier1221,

I do wish you the best of luck! on what you do
But please be careful, as you know you are priceless
to your wife and family.

[garfieldlea68]

Hi Cherokee09
Those are the same meds I'm Allergic to (I Can't take them I get Hives )

[CHEROKEE09]

Leah,

At least all you get are hives, and you are lucky on that part
me I get hives, rashes, vomiting, and more.

Do the doctors have you on a Vagal Nerve Stimulator Implant?

Cherokee09

[garfieldlea68]

They are very painful & very Itchy And I do get rashes too
my doctors have not put me on a VNS Implant
My seizures may be caused by my disability (Cerebral Palsy)

[rmitch893]

I was diagnosed with epilepsy when i was 12 and am now 17. I want to join the marines and just recently talked to a marine recruiter. He informed me that i may need to be siezure free for 5 years and must be completely off my medication. If you could share what you experienced through this process so I, and others with epilepsy who want to join the marines, can know what to expect. I also have just found out that my doctor wants to start weaning me off trileptal, one of the two meds i take, the other is Kepra. Hopefully this will increase my chances of getting in. I am also hopefull that by joiing this forum it will boost my moral because after talking with the marine recruiter is has gone down. The marine recruiter i talked to said he has only ever seen ONE person with epilepsy get into the marines. I am determined to make him see a second person get into the marines.

[jfrazier1221]

Unfortunately the recruiter was right. The good thing is that he didn't try and waste your time. With the dept of the navy you cannot have any kind of nuerological disorder. If you were not taking medication then you might have a better chance getting in. But even if your doctor was to ween you off of your medication, you still would not have been off medication long enough to get in. Also even if you were to go about a year seizure free and without medication, you will still have to get an eeg done, which will still show you have signs of epilepsy. Everything that causes seizures is everything that you will do on a daily while in the corps...sleep deprivation,stress, etc. I was considering trying to have myself weened off medication but there are too many people that depend on me being healthy. It is troublesome to think that I could have a seizure while holding my 6 month old girl. What do you think would happen if you were holding a loaded m-16 with your finger on the trigger and then you had a seizure? I would sacrifice anything to get back in, but you can't be selfish and chase a dream where you could potentially hurt someone. It saddens me to have to write this; but I had to go through a lot of therapy to come to this conclusion. Everyone has different forms one seizures, maybe yours are not as bad as mine. Still chase your dream and good luck in what you decide to do.

[rmitch893]

Thank you for that. After a couple of days i've come to the realization that i cannot join the military. For now i'm just gona think about other things like being a teenager. I wanted to join the military so I could be proud of myself and to prove that my epilepsy can't hold me back. Unfortunately it did this time. I've always tried to beat my epilepsy by doing things that doctors told me i couldn't do. Luckily i'm still very young and maybe some day i'll grow out of it. I thought about doing something in law enforcement like being a police officer. That is somewhat similar to the military. I understand what you are talking about when you say i could hurt people if i suddenly had a seizure while holding a gun. I could never live with something like that. Unfortunately i'll be reminded of the military everytime i see my father, uncles, and my cousin who are, and once were, in the military. Thank you for helping me out with my problem you really made a difference in the way i will lead my life from here on out.

[jfrazier1221]

I'm glad to help. Just remember you don't have to be in the military to serve your country. Law enforcement is a great idea and who knows...if you like that, then FBI is always hiring. Good luck!

[RobinN]

I believe you can join the Marines as a Civilian.
I agree with jfrazier there are many ways to serve your country without being in the service. My son is a Marine, and I am very proud of him, but I personally find other ways to be a proud American. Many of the recruit depots have bootcamp weekends for civilians. Maybe look into that for ways to prove to yourself you are physically fit. There are also bootcamp fitness gyms that are run by ex-military that might be a fun way to prove to yourself that it won't hold you back.

Personally finding any other passion in life will empower you.

My quote of the week:

Simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse and regret.