Were you ever seriously misdiagnosed while in the military? The problem is often more complex than you think.

I was thrown from a gamma goat about 60' in 80 in the Corps. I have had headaches and more severe migraines all my life since then. I've also have had severe to moderate back pain. After four or five MRI's through that time on my skull they have found nothing. So I live with the headaches/migraines and ringing in the ear. The good I guess is the VA excepts responsibility for the head injury (40 %) but not the back. Finally had a doctor do an MRI on the back in 08. Told me I have Degenerative Disc Disease and protruding disk at L-3/L4, L4/L5 & L5/S1 but they say not much they can do. Guess I'll just work on my VA appeal on the back.

Another issue that may be the cause for misdiagnosis is "Sick call". Somehow, there is an idea in the Army, that anyone and everyone that may be ill and cannot do PT needs to evaluated by a provider. I would challenge all NCOs to take responsibility and have the intestinal fortitude to either tell you soldiers that they will do PT or tell them to take the day off and come back the next day. When I am seeing 30-40 patients a day for problems that are usually take care of by mom, how much time to I have to spend with the more ill and injured patients. The NCOs have clogged the system to the point where I cannot adequately take care of people. Why are people afraid to say to their soldier, take a break for a week or two? Where did this idea start that every person that may have some sort of illness or injury for a week needs a profile? Bureaucracy is the root of poor medicine, not the provider.

The contempt for actual military providers is astounding. I can understand the frustration with the VA, but the military providers care for your health and well-being. If you do not like your healthcare on AD, you can blame the system that forces the provider to work in socialized medicine. Most providers would prefer to send you where you need to go when they recognize it. However, when non-clinical people make decision, we get stuck.

Yes, I fractured my left ankle in the 1990's. Due to swelling the x'rays didn't show the fracture. When I retired from the Air Force and went to the VA for my exit physical they discovered my ankle did not heal properly. In 2003, I was bowling my left ankle shattered after I stuck on the lane. After the ankle shattered it caused a fracture of one of the bones in my lower left leg also. Needless to say took 2 plates and 12 screws to fix the problem. The surgeon said the shatter and breaking of my ankle was directly related to the first fracture that didn't heal properly. I don't blame the Dr who missed it the first time and I'm fine now after a few surgeries. The military surgeon who put me back together was awesome!

When i was first treated for my PTSD the put me on the wrong anti depression pill and it made all of my issues worse then they were which sucked til I got them to get me off the pills and to something else that worked better

Thankfully no, but I remember a young specialist in my detachment going in to have surgery on a torn ACL. When he woke up the surgeon had cut on the wrong knee! Vaiid diagnosis, invalid treatment.

Yep, the Navy docs misdiagnosed me with severe depression and anxiety and had me on meds that made me miserable until I got a referral to a civilian psych and he figured out I have Hoshimoto's Hypothyroidism. Imagine that, lol. The entire time I was telling them it was something other than depression, the meds just didn't feel right.

I can't remember what they called it, but medical gave me a round of antibiotics. It didn't work and I was still puking up a storm. Turns out I managed to get pregnant on birth control. I am NEVER taking the pill again. That sh*t doesn't work! Lol.

I also got told by the VA they almost everything in my file wasn't "clinically diagnosed" so I got disability for like one thing when I claimed twelve. The VA will get ya on the back end too.

I was in a 10k run when my head felt like it was going to explode. I went to sick call telling the PA that I need to see the Dr. I told him I never had a headache this bad. The PA kicked me out of the office telling me every one gets headaches.

A couple of days later I woke up in the hospital.

Compared to everyone else's misdiagnosis mine was nothing. Picture this a young Airman wearing hospital whites thinking she just has a cold. The doctor says she has a sinus infection and gives her Amoxicillin.

Unfortunately I actually had Mononucleosis and wouldn't you know Amoxicillin gives some with Mono a very nasty rash, so there I am in my Whites looking like a sunburned beet.

My husband on the other hand hurt his back, after seeing Physical Therapy for 6 months and being given every narcotic known to man, surprisingly he wasn't getting better. I told him to get a MRI and not leave the doctor's office until he got one ordered (by this point this healthy young man could no longer walk up stairs with out his legs going out and being numb from the waist down). He got the MRI, saw a spine surgeon and had surgery the next day. He was medically retired at 18 years, has permanent nerve damage with a spinal cord stimulator to help with his pain. He's 85% VA disable and 100% Disabled through Social Security. I deployed and came back to a civilian husband.

Yes,
...several times as a matter of fact...

Part of the 'Culture' is that too many tried everything possible to "get out of the 5-mile run".
This in turn de-sensitized some of the medics towards real injuries and issues.

In my case, as an E-7, I suffered a fractured ankle in 1994 which was misdiagnosed as 'nothing but a leg cramp'. This was probably due to the fact that I had broken it 6 days earlier and just 'toughed it out' until we re-deployed. If it had not been for the X-Ray Technician speaking up, the diagnosis would have stood. A higher ranking Doctor stepped in and had a cast put on the foot for the next two weeks.

As I prepared to retire from the Army in 2001, I was diagnosed with 'tennis elbow' and underwent physical therapy for 9 months in an effort to 'fix the problem'. At my retirement physical, the civilian Doctor noticed something in the medical files and sent me to get a few extra tests nearby. Turned out that my 'tennis elbow' was actually an 80% nerve loss in my Ulnar nerve in my right arm.

A second opinion is often what is needed but is not something you believe can be requested...