Sleep study needed for Schneider will other companies need one too?

Their are different levels of sleep apnea. Anything below 5 AHI is normal and no sleep apnea. Anything above 30+ is severe sleep apnea. People can record themselves sleeping and listen for sleep apnea. It when someone usually gasping for air. They stop breathing for 10 seconds is 1 sleep apnea Event or AHI. People can also get blood oxygen sensor you hook to your finger and see if you blood oxygen levels are dropping at night when sleeping. Because when someone stop breathing blood oxygen level drop also.

Remember hearing guys in the TV rooms at truck stop snoring really load and then they get very quiet and like all of a sudden they gasp for air. That's sleep apnea. I never knew that before. Those guys would get tired from sitting in dark room and fall asleep. Notice how you never see those guys anymore.

 

The question has never been about if OSA is a real issue or not. For some people it is. It is as I stated some clinics are invested in sleep labs and either directly selling CPAP machines or getting a percentage of the sale from a contractor that does. These doctors don't examine the driver they tell them no card till you do a sleep study. They follow now none existant FMCSA guidelines in doing so. Further, I am starting to hear from drivers that say these mouth guards are working great. There is some progress been made in surgery. to stop the throat from being obstructed.

There are MEs all over the country that does it right. They will sit and talk to the driver and ask them questions about how they are resting. They will examine the driver's throat. Then if they are not satisfied most will advise the driver to consider a sleep study. This is not what some of these MEs that are crooks are doing. they have a captive driver they see as a cash cow. They won't even discuss the issue with the driver. It's get a sleep study or go pound sand! That is what is pissing me off.

 

The FMCSA has found 18 instances of sleep apnea related crashes in rail, CMV, and sea since the year 2000.
If that alone does not tell you it’s a money grab then nothing will

 

Honestly I don't think the question of if is a question anymore. The behavior of these MEs settled that a long tine ago. To me the question is how do we fix it.

 

Schneider is pretty anal.
Can you believe they refused to do a sleep study on my dog?
They don’t allow intelligent life forms in the truck.

 

Their are two parts to a sleep study in a sleep lab. The first night they see if you have OSA. That's were of you know the number some it can be helpful. You need 5 or more OSA to meet the minimum requirements for CPAP. Then 30+ is severe sleep apnea. Each sleep apnea Event is supposed to be 10 seconds or more to count as an Event. Yes the doctor could lie or just make up the numbers. You can ask to see the sleep report I guess. You can see when someone stops breathing on a sleep report. You can see every single breath and you can see when someone is not breathing. So it pretty simple to see. If the sleep lab says you have 5 or 6 Events per hour. Maybe they are scamming someone. If they say you have 15 or 30 or 60+ Events per hour. They probably are not lying on those numbers.

The mouth gaurds of jaw things don't do very much. The skin in someone throat can be stretched and that's were the problem can be. Mouth gaurds can't do anything for that. Did people know even the cheaper sleep apnea test are not always the best option. The test were you wear the mobile machine when you sleep is not as good as sleep lab

In a sleep lab they can see everything. They can see when you're sleeping and they can test and see if you brain is telling you lungs to breath. They can see if you chest is moving but you not getting are into you lungs. Probably the biggest benefits of a real sleep lab, they can change the air pressure and see how good you sleep. They can dial in your exact pressure need so you get good results. If your not sleeping good like I was not. They can switch to BiPAP and give two pressure setting. That why someone can be on CPAP and they say it doesn't work. If they got the cheap sleep apnea test like Schneider uses they are ok. The problem is if someone has a more complex sleep apnea they can't do BiPAP pressure settings. They just check the basic sleep apnea. Then they give them an automatic CPAP machine. The CPAP machine is actually changing the air pressure on each breath. The only downside is if someone needed a BiPAP they will never know this because you need a real sleep lab for that testing.

 

The benefit of getting a CPAP is that they will let you idle your truck year around. Because they're not allowed to give the chance that your machine cuts off.

At least that's how it used to be.

 

Not anymore.

 

Where do I begin? You keep going on about OSA and how it is diagnosed. I get that and fully understand this. Also, I never stated anything different. In fact, I think I went as far as to say if CPAP is helping you I am happy. CPAP is helping drivers get better sleep. My problem with all this though is the ugly underbelly of this OSA-Sleeplab-CPAP thing. You MUST understand that there are medical examiners that are crooks. They REFUSE to give a card to somebody using the now-defunct FMCSA guidelines as their reason to order sleep studies. These examiners have a financial interest in these sleep labs and in CPAP sales.

You made your decision to use the CPAP device, good for you. Now however you are trying to sanctify that choice by going on about how alternate solutions don't work. I am sorry but you are FLAT WRONG! The person I spoke of in an earlier post that uses the mouth guard is fully cleared to drive and has his card AND has a OSA diagnosis! I have also through my research found other people that use them. There also has been a lot of medical research into surgical fixes for OSA too.

The difference between a crooked Medical Examiner that is feeding business into OTHER parts of their medical business and a simple Medical Examiner that is following the rules is like night and day.

Even the carriers themselves fed into that FMCSA guidelines crapola when they developed their own sleep labs and started selling CPAP machines. This has become such a boondoggle I tell drivers caught in this to flee if they can.

One more point and I am done. I do not have OSA. I have had a sleep study done some time ago. What I have are (other) medical issues that don't allow me to get much (REM) sleep. I wake up about every 10 to 15 minutes because I have to move my body to take the pressure off either my shoulder or my hip. I do not have alertness problems during the day. I am fully awake and my ability to solve problems has not changed. The only exception to this is when I get one of my epileptic seizures. Because of my experience with lack of quality sleep I honestly do not feel that untreated OSA is all that bad a malady. A malady that very soon there will be a fix for that will allow people to throw the CPAP machines and the mouth guards away and put these dang crooked Medical Examiners OUT OF BUSINESS!

 

Then Schneider has gone full retard, and it should be treated like Swift, Western Express, cr England, etc. Not that it wasn't far from it before anyway. If the ic program is still okay that's probably the only reason to go there at this point.