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

Going all the way back to my first physical in the early 80s I don't remember them taking much longer than 10 minutes tops. Fill out the form, the nurse went over the questions while checking vision. Then go into the exam room and get blood pressure checked. Most all the M.E did was listen to my breathing and look into my throat. Later some would whisper and see if I could hear. Oh, I also looked at those numbers in the colored circles. Always had a problem with that. Still just asked if I knew the 3 colors Red Green and amber. Gave a 2-year card and on my way!

 

At that point I guess all you can do is find another ME. It's not D.O.T required but now that we have certified ME they see to worry about covering their butts from letting someone pass that might come back to bit then if a drive could have sleep apnea. If the driver has some of the warning signs of sleep apnea then he might need testing, but if not then I would start looking for a different ME. Because it probably is a scam. Getting a different ME is probably better then going to someplace they will say a driver has it.

If the driver has the standard warning signs. It could help improve his life to get checked. If you know the numbers like 5 EVENTS per and above of not breathing for 10 seconds or more that not so good. Just for and example say 15 Events per hour is 150 seconds on not breathing. That's 2.5 minutes of not breathing every hour if someone sleeps 7 hours that 17.5 minutes of not breathing every night. Try holding you breath for 2.5 minutes or 17.5 minutes and see how you feel. If you think the driver is being scammed then they should find a different ME. If the driver has 4 or less Events per hour then they will pass the sleep apnea test.

 

There are crooks in most businesses. In trucking, there are crooked brokers. Crooked roadside repair servicemen. Don't mean that all brokers are crooks. Just means over time you see who that are. This OSA subject is rife for shady crooked people. In fact, one of the things crooks depend on is few to none alternates. A crooked ME can make life very difficult for a driver. Years ago before this ME database, yes tell that moron off and leave. Today that ME once they deem you disqualified in the database it is hard to recover. This is why I stand on my position that this entire thing needs to be fixed.

 

Well I was planning on going to Schneider orientation next week.
I’m an O/O.
but at 6’3” 274 lbs., and a 20 inch neck,
It sounds like I will get forced to do sleep study. geez.

 

From what I understand, individual trucking companies determine whether a sleep study is needed or not. Even though there isn't a law that says it has to be done. Something to keep in mind.
I will pass along a good resource though, home sleep testing. It's a thing. And it's much quicker and easier than typical sleep studies. Something to look into especially when those sleep studies are booked out for so long. Good luck to ya'll that need to get those sleep tests done!

 

Also :
www.rpmhst.com
www.inspiresleep.com

 

If you have a cpap you're allowed to idle the truck right ?

 

Sleep Apnea Nightmare

This was my experience and my opinions that had happened to me personally.

I went through a sleep study scam not mentioning names . I'd never heard of sleep apnea before I went so I was totally blindsided and it was a nightmare.

Before I even went in for Orientation there they were asking me all these weird questions which I should've known was a red flag like had I been diagnosed with sleep apnea in the past and have I ever had surgery etc like why would a recruiter ask me that? I just thought hm that's weird oh well I don't have whatever it is they're talking about no big deal.

Went in for Orientation pretty standard I had a two year medical card no problem showed it to the physician they pretty much threw the two year medical card in the trash (wrote me one for I think 3 months) asked me if I had ever felt tired during the day I said no, and pretty much no to all their questions (which should have immediately disqualified me from a sleep study) except I have some allergies nothing major.

Well the physician said she's recommending me for a sleep study and I said wait that’s not required by FMCSA. She said then you won’t work here if you don't comply so before I even had my job I was threatened with a job I didn't have over something I don't need (Obviously a salesman tactic imagine if a used car salesman could say well you're going to lose your license unless you buy a car here it's the equivalency of that). So I said sure no problem that's not a big deal it was based on my neck size and BMI. The female physician was very hostile like I’m in charge you do as you’re told mentality (another red flag).

Body mass index test was created over 100 years ago and the average adult make neck size is 13.5" to 19.5" you can google it, so basically because my neck existed and some testing which is really vague the science doesn’t support it I was recommended for a sleep study based off of that which is laughably absurd. Also there's lots of conflicting research that shows people with high BMIs can actually survive longer than people with lower BMIs like in surgery for example.

When there’s big money involved people will do anything to get some of the pie. I should've got up and left right then when my employment was threatened but again I didn’t know any better at the time I was completely blind sided. (also if someone goes into those places maybe wear a hidden camera)

So I went to a, “sleep study center” (It’s like going to a car dealership and not expecting a car salesman to sell you a car) anyway I went there and that sleep specialist (or maybe it was the female Physician I’m not sure one of them said I had a, “narrow airway” marked me as a 4 Epworth meaning I have a narrow airway (my Doctor outside of the company looked at me shocked when I told him they said I had a 4 Epworth or narrow airway. My outside Doctor said I do not have a narrow airway and in fact have a Epworth at 1 meaning the largest size you can have that’s least likely to have OSA, he actually left the exam right then and started making phone calls I seen him in his office he came back maybe 15 minutes later to finish the exam).

Continuing on after I was mis diagnosed or mis recommended they gave me a sleep study which they told me if I didn’t take the sleep study I would lose my employment with Pumpkin and I said, “couldn’t I get a second opinion?”, and they didn’t directly accept that answer.

Anyway I was forced to do the sleep study or lose my employment when I did take the test I couldn’t even sleep at this point I was stressed out thinking what if I have sleep apnea and I lose the job over it?

When I went in to get the test this was before I even TESTED yet I hadn't tested yet the, "sleep specialist" or physician whatever the guy who was giving out the test who also sold the cpap machine which if it were medicare it would be considered fraud right there. Anyway before I even tested he was talking about surgery I should've just got up and left that's just insanity.

So I stayed up pretty much the entire time during the sleep study. I might’ve fell asleep the last 2 hours maybe and I thought this isn’t going to be good. I went to turn in the sleep study machine the, “sleep specialist” said I wasn’t allowed to view the, “raw data” which I thought why wouldn’t I be allowed to view the data?

Of course I had no idea what I was looking at the , "sleep physician" explained some of it pointing out I had, “sleep apnea” events while I was awake which he didn’t know at the time but I told him lol. I told him that I didn’t sleep pretty much the entire night and it seemed like he wanted to skip over what he told me was sleep apnea events when I told him I was awake and pretend like those weren’t there it was kinda comical.

At that point I know there’s something not right here so I started asking about how many people actually pass the test and mentioned is it a scam then he becomes visibly nervous like he thought maybe I was investigating him or something maybe he looked like he was hiding something.

That was just the beginning of the nightmare I would experience. So he basically said they, “would accept the results” I thought oh well whatever I guess that’s fine I know I don’t have it anyway.

Which innocently enough I figured it would read negative. It registered like 10+ events per hour mind you I was awake pretty much the entire time if not the entire time, and they were saying I was having, “events” at the start when I was awake. All I thought was wow do people really fall for this lmfao?

I thought whatever if that’s what it takes as long as I don’t lose my job (Which the female supposedly DOT Physician later I found out she was not with DOT told me I would if I refused her opinion I wouldn’t work there in Indianapolis) So I just remembered that and thought well I need this job so I’ll deal with whatever it is.

They gave me the machine which I might’ve slept with it on once because I was terrified it would suffocate me while I slept. I tried it on and tried to exhale it actually suffocated me or seemed like there was some kind of exhaust lid that would prevent exhaling. Thankfully I was awake just trying the machine out there’s no way I would go to sleep with that thing covering my face.

The first symptom I had was minor chest pains so I used it even less but I only wore it while I was awake to stay in compliance to drive and I would sleep like normally without the mask they were saying I was having 15 events per hour which is completely fictitious I know because I was awake, but if I told them I was awake they’d shut me down so I had to follow through and play along. I even caught them in email inflating my AHI events per hour in email called them out on it and they wouldn’t even acknowledge what was happening.

So I just watched tv with the machine on to stay in compliance it cut into my real sleep and my schedule. I can run on 6 to 8 hours of solid sleep working a full day. Since I had to use the machine I tried to space it out over the course of the day so I could get more sleep at night whenever I could until I couldn’t find time anymore.

Then I tried to use the machine legitimately because it took too much time to use it sparingly to stay in compliance. I tried to sleep with it half on my face and half off then went to sleep not only didn’t it register but then my low battery alarm started going off waking me up (I didn’t have the extra battery), so not only did I get less sleep because of trying to stay in compliance with something I didn’t need but it was draining my battery waking me up in my sleep.

After that I thought enough is enough I have to get out of here. I called to make an appointment with my Doctor whom I told all of this to, and scheduled a sleep study from an outside company without notifying anyone in the company so I could basically escape with my CDL intact and medical card in good standing. I knocked out the exam and the sleep study.

At that point since I had verifiable evidence they were inflating events per hour and I was awake during those, “events” so nothing else mattered to me than escaping from there with my CDL and Medical card. Thankfully I tested negative for sleep apnea and received another 2 year medical card, so I notified them if they didn’t accept my new two year medical card and negative sleep study results then I’d leave they were silent so I left and man did it feel great I felt like I escaped a nazi prison camp.

I will never work at a company that requests sleep studies and definitely never work at a place that has, “sleep centers”.

That doesn't even include studies on the negative side effects of sleep apnea machines. Like for example the machines blows heated steam through a plastic tube well surely there's plastic particles passing through the tubes going yep directly into people lungs among other things like bacteria (covid 19) and the water reservoir probably acts as a petri dish for bacteria covid 19 again among other things to top that off the tubing is pretty much impossible to clean. I don't think anyone's ever tested for that all I read are pro cpap machine manufactures explaining how safe it is like a carsales man explaining how great their cars are lol. It's a surreal how messed up this all is.

Yeah there might be a few cherry picked instances or maybe even some fake patients that are actually percentage doctors making cash off propping up sleep apnea machines, but overall it’s a dirty fraud business and should be up to the patient if they want to test etc or not.

Around 2020 I read about the massive fraud going on all over, “google sleep apnea fraud lawsuit” but the crack down isn’t enough until they launch stings on sleep centers etc with fake patients to catch Doctors. It’s just a matter of time before the fraudster’s weasel their way into buying politicians and making it the laws like insurance companies did. What a f#$#ing nightmare.

 

Lol you can't be anymore corrupt than that
Highway robbery. Well know you know what you should of done from the get go, walk the f out on the 1st try. Many other companies will scoop you up w/o the bs

 

I know right lol. Looking back I never should've went. There's been like 30 accidents in what 15 years related to sleep apnea. Cpap people over dramatize sleep apnea. Way I see it if I'm tired I go to bed. I think the real problems are ELDs, and overworked underpaid drivers.