90 day DOT medical card issued/Sleep test required, Need advice please

Everyone is getting scammed.

 

Wow, big hoss, 2 of ya. You guys are huge.

 

Went for my DOT physical this evening. Got my one year card!

 

I've been thinking the same thing and there are a lot of other factors that make a driver tired during the day. I'll name a few:

1. Repowers that happen when you are supposed to be sound asleep, letting your body recover. So instead of sleeping, you're awake, dropping and hooking, and then trying to go back to a sound sleep. Of course, having an ELD in the truck will give a driver added leverage to not be disturbed, or maybe dispatch won't care and bother you anyway.,

2. Mitigating factors of the trucking life that destroy sleep quality ever single night. Running reefers parked next to you, drivers abusing the horns late at night near the fuel islands, people just being loud around your truck.

I don't think I'll be doing any of the CPAP, sleep study waste of money stuff. I think when the day comes that the Dr. eyes me as easy prey to pad his wallet with the kickbacks received from a referral to a sleep clinic or whatever, I'm done with this job.

In the mean time, I have a DOT prehire physical I know I'll have to take in a month or so and I'm preparing for it now. I'm walking about 51 miles a week now according to my FitBit and I swim 4 times a week for about an hour. Also, in the last two weeks leading up to the physical, I will eliminate as much sugar from my diet as possible, as well as bread and pasta. Caffeine will eliminated a week before the physical to reduce cortisol levels in the body and lower the blood pressure. Lots of hibiscus tea also will help out.

The day of the physical I will have fasted for nearly 18 hours to make the urine dip strip numbers look good, sugars and specific gravity. Only water will be consumed in those 18 hours.

So if I go through all of that trouble and inconvenience, and the Dr. tells me some sleep study b.s. is needed, I'll know its all a scam. Sorry to say it, but just about everything is a scam in this system we all live under. You are either the predator or the prey.

The day of the physical

 

You do all that and still have to do cpap because you are:
1)Over 40
2)White male
3)Still have tonsils
4) Have missshaped jaw or slight overbite.
Good luck.
Lots of criteria to have to take sleep study just read the fcmvsa website on it.
Everyone is gonna get tested eventually.

 

Heres another catch 22 that guys are going through.
The medical sociaties all agree that people don’t get enough hours of sleep and that leads to all kinds of health problems. Obesity and stress to name two. They even recommend naps during the days.
Well if you tell a a dot examiner that you take naps or like to sleep a lot when you can they will flag you for apnea test because you are supposed to not have to sleep and be wide awake during all daylite hrs. to drive. They do not care about rotating schedules or odd hr at night driving times. (I believe thats one of the reasons why megas are going more and more daylight driving hrs.) If you say you take naps during breaks they see you as having apnea because you cant stay awake says them. If you say you dont sleep enough they see you as having apnea because you don’t sleep enough says them.

 

I don't have insurance, but if the company will pay for it, I'm good with it. And like I said earlier there is no rule for sleep apnea testing, the Orange Man said so! The only reason drivers are being tested for it is because the Dr's are trying to avoid being sued. Just another tactic to beat the ambulance chasing, scumbag lawyers.

I really don't care all that much anyway. There is life after trucking. I only drive maybe 5 months every year anyway.

 

Thank the lord I can just go to multiple doctors if I have to to get a 2 year card I'm not taking a sleep test it's not a law it's up to the doctors discretion I'm allowed second opinions

 

Something is up and going on with it for sure.
We’ve got “free air” digital antenae tv at the house and I’ve been noticing within the last couple months there have been sleep apnea study commercials and the usual local “heavy hitting hammer” personal injury lawyers adds talking about paydays from accidents involving commercial drivers that haven’t taken a sleep test or sleepy drivers killing people.
It is the next band wagon for sure.

 

When I did my physical last night, I marked 0 on everything when it asked, “how likely are you to fall asleep while watching tv”. On a scale of 0-5. Marked 0 on it all. It was a pre employment DOT physical but when I go to renew next year, I can go wherever to renew it.