Trucking companies target sleep apnea

Excellent subject Cybergal!

You can sometimes get one for a couple of hundred dollars on ebay, but they are older, non-humidified units. I'd like to try one out and really think they may help more people in USA as a percentage of population.

The price is astronomical for what they are. Its like US rat poison drugs. I'd like to see someone lowball that ripoff device industry. Personally I don't need no stinkin' US Medical seal of approval. But laws would make it illegal somehow I'm sure.

It would be excellent for truck drivers though!

 

So $3000 for a Apu isnt so bad?

 

I'm currently at the Averitt Express orientation and I personally have no symptoms of apnea whatsoever. What I do have however, is enough physical signs (weight, neck size, high bp needing 2 meds) that I have been flagged as POSSIBLY HAVING apnea.
I have to pay for a sleep disorder visit for evaluation and even if I pass (DON'T have apnea) I'm out of a thousand bucks or more.
If I DO have it, I then have 90 days to have the doctors diagnosis, prescription for the equipment that will help, BUY the equipment, USE the equipment, and then will return to the company's DOT doc to get a full 1 year card. (interestingly, the same doctor saying I POSSIBLY have it and now must go to a sleep center, is affiliated with the local hospital here in Cookeville, that, surprise, operateds a sleep disorder clinic). Can you say conflict of interest?
I have til the end of this week to make a choice, pay for it here where it is cheaper than at a private clinic, or simply use my current 90 day card and then quit without following up on the apnea diagnosis (as I say, I have no physical symptoms - tiredness, snoring, waking throughout the night, etc).

 

I think you could be mistaken about CPAP machines being available on ebay as you need a doctors prescription to purchase one. I know the non-prescription parts like masks and machine filters are available on ebay though. I would also not reccomend using one without a doctors order as different people need different air pressures for their machine. This is found out by going to an overnight sleep study that your doctor will setup at a local hospital or sleep clinic.

Since I was a typical sleep apnea candidate by being overweight and just a big guy in general, my doctor would not approve my DOT physical until I had a sleep study. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and prescribed whats called a BiPAP machine. The difference between it and CPAP is that it gives a different inhalation pressure than exhale pressure. A CPAP is a constant pressure for both.

I wish I had been diagnosed a long time ago. I never realized just how much GOOD sleep I was missing because of sleep apnea. I now wake up feeling twice as refreshed and feel way more alert and energetic during the day.

 

Lack of the "awake" symptoms doesnt mean you dont have it. As for the sleeping symptoms, you are asleep and wouldn't know unless you were told. But since you are overweight AND with high blood pressure I would reccomend you do the sleep study just for piece of mind. I know it could be expensive. I was lucky that my insurance paid. But you don't want to put a price on your health. Many studies have shown that un-treated sleep apnea can lead to worse things like heart diesease and diabetes.

 

All a doctor knows is law requires them to give business to their comrades based on loosely significant statistics, and they are not disciplined in statistics themselves when that is all their profession is based on in reality(!).

Ultimately, trying a machine out which would clear breathing passage ways while sleeping, for large people predominantly is all thousands of dollars and wasted daytime appointments would amount to. REMEMBER, these are the same people that want you to get a subcription for vitamin C: a mafia style business imo.

And yes, restricting breathing and thus oxygen to the brain while sleeping can have detrimental results. DUH! Why you need to spend thousands of dollars to tell a specialist doctor that with no additional benefit to yourself except more possible brain damage until you can afford to pay them is beyond me. To hell with medical doctors who are nothing more than mafia style conmen dictated by US law: a weak feature of US Western civilization and Industry implanted laws for profiting on the masses of its citizens.

Another beneficial product restricted from the masses for up to a hundred years until the masses figure out the (in this case, Medical Doctor) scam.

 

A good cpap machine can be had for less than $500 if you don't have insurance. Most DME's (durable medical equipment) suppliers will burn you for a fortune if they can get away with it. My insurance pays 1/2 for my cpap machine and mask but it's still money well spent if it means keeping me alive. I've already had heart problems and have a pacemaker. I just wonder how much of it could have been prevented if I had known a lot sooner.

Rick

 

ddog, Just so Im understanding you. You are saying that cpap machines should be readily available without prescription. Basicly people should be able to self diagnose their sleep apnea? Am I right?

I would have to disagree if so. Many don't know they have it. Also while at the sleep study, they put a CPAP machine on you and dial in the amount of pressure you need based on what the sensors you have attached to you tell them. Too much pressure or too little and the machine wont be effective.

 

You should never purchase a CPAP or BIPAP and just use it withot doctors supervision and precription, because the pressure is very important, I'm on 15psi and that is alot and would be to much for most people. Plus many of these machines are set using a computer, mine is. I can't change the settings on it if I wanted to and it's a very compact expensive one luckily my insurance paid for it. Call differnt sleep study centers many of them will work with you on getting the sleep study done.