Physical for Steven's ?

What a regular doctor calls "borderline", Stevens calls "high blood pressure". But they'll give him a medicine to lower it. If it works, he's fine. But he'll have to take recheck on his BP every three months and will have to take pills everyday for rest of his life.
Overweight is ok if he can fit between the wheels on the truck to check brake slack. If he can't, he's out.
Don't ever tell Stevens doctor that you have any kind of problems. Lie only about stuff they can't find out about from your medical records. They WILL request them from your doctor.
Good luck.
I've seen many people sent back home from Stevens doctor office.

 

if he fails, they will give him a bus tix home.

As for being overweight, he will probably have to have a sleep study for sleep apnea done. Stevens will recomend a doc that charges 1800.00, but I know where it can be done for 250.00

 

I went through the physical in the first week of December. One guy was overweight and because his neck was over 18" they sent him to a sleep study. Turned out he had sleep apnea and made him buy the machine. The study and the machine cost him around $300-450 total. Stevens fronted him the money and they worked out an amount to be taken out of his check each week to repay it. Not a shabby deal, but he ended up leaving to go to Werner anyway.

The doc Stevens has is Dr. Rainwater and he runs a sleep clinic. That's how this guy was able to get such a good deal via Stevens for the study.

I am overweight too, but because I'm female and my neck is under 16", they didn't send me to a study.

As far as my BP went, I was running high because I was stressed out; came from Michigan to Dallas, starting a new job, entirely new industry, and I also tend to get white coat fever. I ended up on med hold. They took my BP the next morning and it was under the DOT range, so I passed and they gave me a 3 month card.

I just got back from my OR1 trainer's truck and went through a mini-physical Friday to check my weight and BP. Weight's dropping (oh, the life on the road) and my BP was very normal to where I usually am. So he wrote me out a card for a year.

As far as physicals go, this guy was a lot nicer than the punk I had pre-CDL school.

 

Weight's dropping (oh, the life on the road). how do you do it lol???

 

Quit parking at the front doors of the truckstop, Quit eating the fast food at the truckstop, Quit standing at the truckstop buffet shovelling in as much as you can eat!

Eat a sensible breakfast (cold cereal and dry toast), have a salad for lunch and a sensible supper. If you snack during the day (who doesn't) grab some of those "Special K" granola bars. You can buy a box of them for $4.

Go for a walk before you lay down for the night.

 

Yup.. Gotta measure and inspect the slaves.

When I was there, that's how I felt about the medical check. It's not stevens, it's the government and an industry unwilling to fight unreasonable guidelines. I'm sure it's because this industry is now beaten beyond its resolve and the ones that are just going to bend over and grab the ankles will be the ones left.

Question though. Does having a doctor who owns a sleep clinic working at stevens and finding sleep apnea wherever he goes raise a red flag with you? It certainly did with me and in fact, it ended my career in trucking. I'm back in computers now and very happy where I am, but I'm also very suspicious of the circumstances at stevens with this sleep apnea stuff. In short, I no longer trusted them.

 

Agreed about the conflict of interest there by the doctor. I also find this whole sleep apena to be BS, and the guide lines stevens and others are using, are wild guesses at best.
And the part that really gets me about the whole sleep apena, is there is no rule, not even a proposal for rule making. There are some studies, by doctors who need patients for their sleep labs to stay open. And they have kinda sold the insurance companies on the idea, but not totally. The government, not interested.

Now I like my fast food always have, but I don't order the large size. Portion size has more to do with gaining weight, than what one eats. My snacks consist of bananas, apples, oranges. Also drink plenty of water. Walking is a great way to stay in shape, and short walks will make a huge difference in ones life.

 

Did my requal physical today. Everything was fine, except I've gained 12 pounds over the last year. That put me 10 lbs above the BMI limit for my height.
Doc pointed that out and told me, "Work on getting that down. I want to see you below that number next time you're in."
No sleep study, no problems.
Guess I gotta give up those chocolate sundaes!