A Pilot’s Experience with FAA Medical Loss

This month, I reached out to someone in the aviation industry who is a friend and Instagram follower. This pilot has allowed me to share the story of his health journey. There have been more and more cases of FAA Medical loss lately due to cancer diagnoses. This pilot (and I) know that God had his hand in us meeting and curing his cancer.

Background

Devin will turn 46 years old this month. He is currently in remission for follicular lymphoma. He was diagnosed with level B3. The whole situation started back in October 2020 when he started noticing small lumps around his jawline and in his neck right below his ear.

At first, he thought that they were just cysts and didn’t really give that much attention to it. By January of 2021, he started noticing a bulge at the base of the front of his neck around his collarbone.

The bulge wasn’t too big – probably the size and diameter of a golf ball. It didn’t stick out quite that far and it didn’t hurt to touch. There was no pain to any of the knots that he noticed.

Devin typically went for a physical with this general practitioner in March around his birthday each year but, being that he had just started flying professionally for a commercial airline, Devin had put his March doctor visit on the back burner that year.

Devin’s Dream Career in Aviation

You see, aviation was an exciting new career path for Devin! His history was in civil engineering and land surveying for 20 years. He holds a master degree from the University of Florida and two bachelor’s degrees from a school in Atlanta. He got burned out in this career and decided to follow his passion for aviation and turn it into a career.

He had recently attained his ratings through ATP Flight School. One of his neighbors was a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), so he did his primary instruction before deciding to change careers. The career change started in 2018. He worked his ratings and finished in May 2019 with a multi-engine instructor rating. He started building hours and finished in late 2020. His flying career started for Part 135 based out of West Palm Beach.

Because Devin was focused on starting his new career, he did not go to his usual annual general practitioner visit in March, but instead put it off until June or July of 2021. Everything looked good! Labs came back, cholesterol and weight were good, and the Dr. said that Devin was healthy. Not too heavy, not too light.

Testing & Diagnosis

When the doctor asked if he had any questions, Devin pointed out the knots on his neck and right below his ears. The doctor started feeling the bumps and sort of had a puzzled look on his face. Devin could tell that the doctor didn’t like it. Together, the doctor and Devin discussed the situation and decided the bumps were enlarged lymph nodes.

There are several reasons why lymph nodes can be enlarged. A lot of times, lymph nodes can enlarge due to infection in the body. Sometimes it is due to lymphoma. The doctor wanted to rule out lymphoma so they scheduled an X-ray of Devin’s neck and abdomen. He left the doctor’s office, went across the street to another office, and did the X-rays that day. Within two days, the doctor called and scheduled CT scans. From there, in August 2021, Devin had a biopsy of his groin. The CT scans showed enlarged lymph nodes in his neck, chest, abdomen and groin. Devin then met with a surgeon and had biopsies done in August of 2021. On September 1st, he was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma.

The diagnosis came as he was sitting at the airport waiting to go out on a trip. He was on a 10 day rotation (10 days on five days off). He finished that rotation and asked the oncologist what the what the plan of attack was going to be. Devin’s doctor told him on September 1st, the day of the diagnosis, that he would need to come back on the 20th to have a port put in and then begin chemotherapy on the 21st.

Treatment & Remission

This diagnosis completely sucker punched Devin in the gut! He was only nine months into living his dream of being a career commercial pilot and loving what he was doing for a living. What a sad day. He informed his company that he was going to have to come off the flight line due to the chemo. They were very supportive of everything!

He got the port installed and started chemotherapy on the 21st of each month. It was a two day cycle. The first day was more of a chemo drug and the next day was more of an immunotherapy drug. The first day was typically about four to five hours and the second day was an hour and a half to two hours. Through that process, he did six months of chemo and finished it up in Spring 2022. He went back for CT scans and got the all clear and started working with his Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) to get his Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Medical Certificate back.

Health Documentation for Pilots

“That whole process of losing my medical, surviving cancer and regaining my medical…one thing that I learned was to go ahead and let your physician know that you are a pilot and that they need to keep records of everything for you!”

Devin had his oncologist document anytime that he was stuck with a needle and any kind of treatments that were done. Any kind of test they did and the results of the tests were thoroughly documented. He asked his oncologist if they could keep a folder for him so that he could pick it up at any time and send it to his AME and FAA.

After receiving his remission report, Devin submitted the records through his AME and from there it was a matter of waiting for the FAA to look through everything.

A scary and very personal story. Thank you to Devin for reaching out to me on social media so many years ago. I remember our discussions and I asked him a few days ago if he would be willing to share this story with you all.

I think it helps to show you how resilient our community can be through anything, how preparedness is so important, and how having a relationship with yourself regarding good health habits is so important.

I’m sure Devin would want each and every one of you to start scheduling routine exams with a general practitioner and keeping up with your health. It shows how much Devin loves life and flying in how he took action and leaned heavily on medical staff, his AME and the FAA to get him back doing what he loves.

Thank you, Devin, for sharing such a personal story.