Med card question

@Moose1958 may have an answer.
Seems medical schools have lowered the standards for degrees or some doctors are getting kickbacks if they'll go along with sleep apnea guesses.

 

The CE who did your physical, with the sleep study requirement enters that into a database. You are, for better or worse now tagged.

 

You can get a 2nd opinion by another examiner IF you make sure to inform the 2nd examiner of the first exam. Otherwise, you are doctor shopping and the FMCSA will toss any new card you have out. The problem though is most all examiners are picky about messing with another examiners work.

 

Besides, if you do have severe sleep apnea, wouldn't you want to know?

I had this very thing happen to me last year in April. I went to my own doctor to get a second opinion.

He prescribed a home nocturnal oximetry test first. Very simple and non evasive test that measures your blood oxygen saturation during sleep.

Mine was dropping to the high 70% range at times while sleeping. That was it, the next test was a home sleep test. I tested in the "mild" apnea range and on the mask I went.

These examiners/doctors are sitting ducks now regarding potential liability and they are going overboard on the side of caution.

 

Speaking for myself, I had a sleep study done and got the machine.After I used the machine for 2 nights I decided I'd never be without it. I didn't realize how badly I was sleeping until I put that mask on and really slept. After you try it, you really might like it.

 

40%? That does not ring true.

If A person is a certain height and a certain weight the BMI value you want is around 19 for normal anything below say 26 for overweight and nothing over that for Obese more or less. I am running 180 at moment making it edge of normal 19 or so. If I gained 10 I would be overweight. That actually influences a dose of one medicine I recieve against the State Maximum daily MME.

https://www.vertex42.com/Files/pdfs/2/bmi-chart.pdf

 

If you want a honest physical with no bs use these doctors
$75 DOT Physical Exam | Luther, Oklahoma 73054 | 405-277-3325
Team cme, not this particular Dr

 

Medical Examiners are NOT under any Liability on this issue because there are NO standards. The FMCSA dropped them after Congress slapped their hands.

Medical examiners are now doing something more like profiling than anything else. There are also tons of reasons why someone can't get a good night sleep that CPAP (or the mouthguard) won't fix.

Now if you and anybody else sleep better with CPAP you keep right on using them. However, there are a lot of crooks in this business from crooked carriers to these so-called sleep specialists that are forcing thousands of drivers into unneeded sleep studies so they can make a quick buck.

I also do not trust most of these studies because I don't know who funded them. I am still yet to see one (CONFIRMED) case of sleep apnea causing a fatality accident.

I continue to see the list of sleep symptoms growing almost every time I read about it. Every one of these symptoms can be caused by other things. If I don't sleep on the right pillow every night I will wake up with a headache.

This sleep apnea thing and all the supposed studies behind it are starting to remind me more of global warming. It can be 150 below zero outside and some jackleg climate specialist will swear it is because of global warming.

With the above diatribe said the question remains, is OSA a problem? Yes, it is. People none drivers included have problems with their tongue blocking their windpipe and they stop breathing. medical science is working on a cure. In fact, I was speaking to one of my doctors at the VA about this during my last appointment. I think the VA is going to start doing these surgical procedures. I find being tied down to a CPAP machine a royal PITA!

 

I consider this.

Truckers have managed to get along for decades since world war one.

This medical harvesting of people that are a touch "Pudgy" or overly muscle bound etc in the last 15 years has reach what I consider predatory levels. God did not issue CPAP for sleep and ###### if I fall for that hype today.

If I cannot sleep here, I'll go make it happen one way or another. Sleep for me is to REM and back, the trick is staying there long enough to matter. Not like most people.