Diabetes

[Talk Wrench]

His words, not mine.

No I didnt rejoice. Like everyone else on 1(F) Sqn I was gutted to see our Groundcrew Ents Chairman leave. He was the sort of person every Sqn needs, and every effort was made to keep him.

That wasn't intimated in your post. But just imagine if you were an aircraft engineer who had just been diagnosed with diabetes and read words such as "was immediately prevented from working on aircraft." You have to admit it would put the sh1ts right up them.

Now you've expanded, I'm happy to withdraw my dissatisfaction at your post. I won't edit or delete my posted thoughts from yesterday, because it was........erm yesterday.

My apologies to you at what I considered to be an arrogant post at the time.

Anyhow, for those who have had to leave the service because of it, I can assure you that having diabetes certainly won't prevent you from working on aircraft. If of course that's what you want to do.


TW

 

[MrMasher]

Like everyone else on 1(F) Sqn I was gutted to see our Groundcrew Ents Chairman leave. He was the sort of person every Sqn needs, and every effort was made to keep him.

Not as gutted as he is now that he's been in his new post for awhile and has found out what the job really entails!!

 

[The Artful Plumber]

In my case....

In my case....

I've been out a while now but I was on a frontline station when I found out I had Type 1 diabetes and would have to inject myself several times a day for the rest of my life....

It took me a wee while to get stabilised and to get my head round things. In the meantime I was given the option of either just packing up and leaving or spending the last 2 years of my time medically downgraded and away from frontline service.

I chose the latter because it gave me the time to buy a place to live, etc. and I was posted to a quiet backwater. By the time I left the service, I'd got used to living with diabetes and felt I could do my job pretty much normally. However, I found it a little awkward whenever we had an exercise that involved living in a respirator or for hours away from the usual 'home comforts'....

The awkwardness was due to me 'opting out', though! Looking back, I took the easy option and sometimes wish I'd fought to stay on!

 

[Odie]

Each case will be looked at on it's own merits. So what happens to one person may be different to another. DT_Xtremez_41:

I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic over 6 years ago. I control my blood-sugar levels with a combination of tablets and diet. In that time I was initially downgraded to A4G3Z5, but allowed to carry on working on aircraft - including armed up ones on QRA - do guard, CCS, RAFFT and all the other fun things as long as I closely monitored my blood-sugar levels. With the clearance of the SMO I was also allowed to deploy for periods up to 30 days.
After about a year, I was seen by a med board at Henlow and upgraded to A4G2Z1. Since then I've done a number of 4 month OOA dets (I just take enough tablets out with me to last that time plus a few extra just in case), been promoted and signed on to LOS30. The biggest concern is for those diabetics who may go hypoglycemic - the risks include going a bit wibble to a diabetic coma. Generally, those on tablets (Metformin, Avandamet) are less likely to go hypoglycemic, as the tablets work in a different way to injected insulin, so may well be allowed to carry on working across the full range of duties.