I just had my DOT physical today and I have to take a sleep study?

There is no regulation fuzzy, only recommendations. The DOT is about scared to crack down on sleep apnea because it will put a big dent in the industry so they are taking this indirect approach with the medical examiners to slowly get drivers tested. If you aren't tested there is no hard evidence. When they feel they replaced the bad meat with good meat then the rules will get even stricter. I see that a few years away.

Besides all that the doctor isn't going to pull wool over your eyes. If he thinks you might have it there is a good chance you do. No one watches you close enough to know. Someone that is borderline will become worse with age. The trucking lifestyle is enough to worsen one's condition. Sleep Apnea leads to other health problems like type II diabetes. If nothing else a sleep study gives everyone a peace of mind.

phrogs I see you as a coin toss and possibly the examiner recently completed his sleep apnea awareness and is a little over zealous. Look at my last quote is the recommended guidelines. Unless your BMI is greater than or equal to 35 you don't quite fit the mold yet. I've heard a BMI of 33 from other sources. If your BMI is greater than you do fit the mold.

There are alot of changes going on and not everything is fully implemented yet as far as the physicals. Doctors are being required to be DOT certified, drivers are required to to give their state's DMV their proof of medical certificates. By next year the doctors will be tied in directly with the CDLIS computer system and they will report their findings directly.

Since it's not up and running yet you could try another physician as no one knows you have been to that one. Or you can go ahead and get it over with. Legally you can't shop for a more favorably medical certificate. If you were involved in a fatality you will get dragged into court and they will find out. So that part lies on you.

Best case scenario, get tested and they say you are a mild case with no further treatment needed. Then you have proof and should get a 2 year card.

From what I've seen almost everyone diagnosed and treated say they feel like a new person. They didn't know they felt bad as it slowly creeps up on you over the years.


Medical Examiners Report
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/TOPICS/mep/report/Sleep-MEP-Panel-Recommendations-508.pdf

Medical Panel Recommendation

 

My opinion....You may have sleep apena, you may not. Doctors are not Gods. Some make mistakes, some have monetary reasons to recommend a sleep study because they either get kick backs or own the clinic. There are also lots of stupid or scared doctors that over react to regulations. Some are paid by trucking companies to pass or fail certain prospective drivers.

In short, many doctors have became like politicians. They belong to the highest bidder. When you bend over for that paticular exam, just make sure both the doc's hands are not on your shoulders. That is what is happening to you with many DOT physicals.

 

Bmi and nc are not good indicators. This regulation is being pushed by the cpap manufacturers and sleep study places. Skinny bmi appropriate people have sleep apnea just as often. I believe it is over diagnosed.

 

It's no different than a pill. Make it and then push it. There is a lot of crookedness. I was pretty much raped on my Cpap but I went on my own because I know I needed it. Now only if I can find a suitable treatment. Not everyone is cut out for a Cpap.

I see it as a fairly new hot topic going in 10 different directions. There is a lot of good but there is a lot of bad happening too. You have to remember some of these DOT people sit behind a desk all day wondering what they can do today to justify their job. Hmmm, what causes fatigue? Let me count the ways. When they are done with this one then will come another.

Even as severe case I am if I could take my naps when I wanted too I still could run with the best. When you are told when you can sleep you have to be told how you sleep.

 

The FMCSA has been making recommendations instead of actually following rules to make laws and regulations. Just simply putting out "recommendations", on sleep apnea anyway, isn't going to fly. They need to have hearings on these things. And they haven't.

http://www.insidefmcsa.com/medical/congress-clears-sleep-apnea-bill/

Maybe the folks at FMCSA need to be tested. They seem to have a memory issue when it comes to following rules on regulatory issues!

 

And food for thought. FMCSA says they found over 100,000 drivers without health cards. So? There fore, all drivers are having to jump through new hoops because of them.

Did you know, most crimes in the U.S. happen at night? So, let's have a curfew so all citizens will not be out committing crimes!

 

Good grief. Who would have ever thought a drivers physical would ever be taken to this level?
In the day when you went for a medical card it was simple.......the doctor would look in one ear and the nurse would look into the other ear...if they saw each other you passed! :smt003

 

The law passed last fall that the FMCSA CANNOT simply use guidance for sleep apnea testing.

The so-called sleep apnea bill that quickly made its way through both chambers of Congress in recent weeks was signed into law by President Barack Obama Tuesday, Oct. 15. The law forbids the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from using guidance alone to address sleep apnea screening for drivers.
The law does not require FMCSA to make a sleep apnea screening rule. Rather, it requires that if the agency take action, it do so via the formal rulemaking process rather than guidance, as the agency had hinted it would do.

http://www.overdriveonline.com/sleep-apnea-bill-becomes-law-fmcsa-cant-use-guidance-to-address/

Remember reading some years ago about the amount of money spent via lobbyists to push Congress to make it law that all drivers had to be tested. It was not for safety, it was to make money for the clinics providing the testing.

 

As much as sleep apnea is a real thing (I have it and it is sever), there is an equal issue about the foundation study they used to start all of this. It came out of the U of V driver fatigue study where they looked at accident reports for several years and concluded there is no conclusion that fatigue of drivers driving passenger cars and SUVS caused those accidents. In the entire report there was two truck incidents reported and these two were not caused by the trucks but by the drivers of the cars themselves. The other problem with the report is that the questions asked during the accident reports didn't include anything about sleep. This report is somewhere on the FMCSA website and is cited in the minutes of the sleep apnea advisory board meetings as the foundation study when this all started.