Sleep apnea - watching me sleep

Wrong...again.

I went to the DOT doctor for my physical renewal over a month ago. Her office is part of the same medical group. After passing the exam, I asked her why she never questioned me about apnea. I am afterall over 30 bmi and have hbp. Her response? "Because I checked your M.D. files in house and read what your doctor wrote about you not having sleep apnea."

What do you say about that?

 

Good Lord, I have never seen so many truck drivers posing as doctors, lawyers, accountants, nutritionists etc, as there are on this forum! LOL.

 

Once they hit BMI of 38 they become bus drivers and a few more pounds down the road they pop!

 

I'm talking more about let's say you go to the trucking company D.O.T physical doctor or any D.O.T doctor on the Nation list If that doctors thinks you might have sleep apnea then they can say no. That's my point your paperwork might not mean anything to the D.O.T doctor. He can say I want to see a sleep apnea test before I sign you medical card.

 

Here is the bigger point I think drivers are missing. You might have the trucking company doctor saying you need a sleep test. Your personal doctor says no you don't and it a scam or money grad on the trucking company part. That could be 100% true

So as a driver you can say no I'm not working for that trucking company or you can say yes.

What gets me is people act like, if their doctor says you don't need the test. They act like that the only possible answer. If you go to my doctor he might recommend you go to a sleep doctor. If you or anyone took the first part of a sleep test you will find out what your AHI number is. It could be a high number or low but once you know that number we can really talk about sleep apnea. Because they use the same scale and group of numbers as far as I know.

 

Actually they don't use the same set of AHI numbers, call around, you would be surprised. I have taken the test, I have an AHI of .3, yet there is a mega because of the meds I am on has already told me I would be required to take theirs, they will not accept a 3rd party, of course it will cost me $500. This is why so many are leery of companies who require you use their sleep center, buy their equipment, and only allow them to monitor it. I won't be driving there.
Maybe they should just require every driver, every 5 years.

 

If your AHI is 3 or 0.3 you don't need CPAP. So you would say no to the trucking company and their sleep test. This is what the OP question was about the monitoring. The trucking company does not have the right to monitor your sleeping. You can give them the right if you want.

If someone is using CPAP and is compliant and you show the D.O.T physical doctor your sleeping data and he still say that no good and you need another sleep test. You should walk or run away from that trucking company. Because you know 1-4 is normal for everyone. Plus the trucking company has no right to monitor your sleeping. If they are giving you a free or cheap test and maybe a free CPAP and you choose to take that deal because your ok with them monitoring you as a new CPAP user that's ok also.

The OP can say no anytime he wants but he has to understand he may have buy his own cpap if he has sleep apnea. That why talking about the AHI number good.

My AHI is good with CPAP and I would tell them no you can't monitor my sleeping unless I really want to job for some reason. Any D.O.T physical doctor can look at your data and that's were it ends.

 

The difference with me is, I have two degrees in the medical field and spent almost 10 years as a trauma surgical assistant. I also spend a lot of my free time researching health and nutrition through reading medical journals, studies and watching independent documentaries. It is very eye opening how much our health can be controlled through proper nutrition and the extent in which the food industry has contributed to the overall poor health of our country.

 

Just an observation about weight and sleep apnea. While my son was recovering from a lot of hormone issues related to a medical situation and had a little bit of weight to lose (not a lot), a cardiologist told us that if you have untreated sleep apnea, your body is sending out spikes of cortisol all night long, whenever it senses that it is suffocating, and this will keep most people from being able to lose weight. So the weight thing and untreated sleep apnea are a vicious self-perpetuating cycle.

When overweight people get their sleep apnea under control, their weight becomes much easier to manage. This was the case with my sister in law who blew up like a balloon on psych meds and was able to take a lot of weight off after getting her cpap.

 

I thought you had been a salesman?