Driving with sleep apnea

From experience I can say it's not a scam. I had the sleep study done and I have OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea). IF you have insurance, the sleep study will only cost you the Specialist Co-Pay. Most insurances will also pay a large percentage of the cost (80/20) of the CPAP, BiPAP or VPAP (depending on which one you need) machines. Our insurance happened to pay 100% of both mine and my wife's machines. Good thing too, my wife's VPAP machine was $10,000! OUCH! Mine was $1,800. Insurance also pays for the Mask, Filters and Hoses every 6 months. Check with your insurance company and find out, you might be surprised. Be safe and Good Luck!

p.s. If you need a CPAP machine, you will not regret it. It has "Fixed" many of my health problems. I no longer have high blood pressure, thus no longer need BP meds. I am not fatigued in the middle of the day. I have lost a lot of weight. Your body burns a lot of calories when you sleep properly. And I no longer have Migraine Headaches. The benefits for outweigh the costs IMHO. Again, Be Safe and Good Luck My Friend.

 

you can't fool the machine by turning it on and not using it it measures the back pressure when you exhale.......the high end machines even measure mask leakage


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as far as the hours per week go thats what i was told at sleeppointe directly by one of there counselors. I may be wrong buts thats what I was told. I use mine far more than as it definitely gives me a better nights sleep than before I was using it. I disagree with you on targeting heavy people.when I was getting my d.o.t. me and two other were sent for a sleep study and both of us are obese. if what you say were true gary wouldnt they test everyone? or at least send to there pcp for further testing? not trying to start a arguement as all of this is good dialogue i am just saying that they should test everyone.

 

Well Thanks for the info, No I do not have insurance.
So far and going on, I have to pay for all these tests and such out of pocket.

Fri. night I have to go in and sleep in a strange bed and try and get a good sleep. yea right.
My wife and went to a nice hotel last night and the bed there was way to soft for me and I did not get a good sleep at all.
I bet if I was hooked up to the machine then I would have failed just by the tossing and turning I did

 

Well, you will not fail because you toss and turn. There is about 24 leads hooked up to you. However, what they are looking for is your regular breathing patterns and your O2 Saturation. For the most part if you O2 is good then everything else is not too important. Only other stuff the could hurt is something like Restless Leg Syndrome.

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions that you would like answered from a drivers point of view, call the information from awake.truckersforacause.com

Gary

 

Hi Gary, Ok I will check out their site.
Maybe I'm getting wound up for nothing.
For years I knew I had high blood pressure, but never took care of it.
Yes my fault. Now I'm on meds for it.
Yes I really do need to get a grip on my weight and start getting it taken off.
Been big all my life and it has never interfeared with my work or life.
But I am getting older, sigh...

 

I was anxious about the sleep test too. The room was quite comfortable, had a bathroom and tv. They try to make you as comfortable as possible. I fell asleep within about 30 mins. You are not hooked to a machine, just the leads attached to your head, face, arms and legs. It's not really that bad....

 

OK, let's revisit the targeting overweight people, for a minute here. Being overweight, (fat in my case,) is one of the signs that a person is likely to have sleep apnea. However JUST being fat doesn't mean you have it. It is just ONE indicator that you MAY have it. There are other factors as well.

And a person who is way overweight in his 20's is not nearly as likely to have it as a person who is way overweight in his 40's or older. Let's face it folks, as we age, things tend to "sag." And that includes the things that cause obstructive sleep apnea.

So if they look at you and see you are overweight, they are likely to start thinking "the possibility of sleep apnea." Then they start asking a few questions, the answers of which tend to confirm or deny. At some point, the sleep study is going to give them a solid answer.

So yes, while I'm sure there is some abuse of this sudden surge of "sleep disorders," I know darn well, from personal experience, that there is a lot of good that comes from it.

 

10-4 that don

 

Skinny people can also suffer from sleep apnea. Where is their screening test???
This is not just a fat person's disease!