Cheating a sleep study

[Stom]

Now hold it!!! I sleep wearing my mask, machine running. I am not impared while driving!!! But I have to get back to work. I cannot sit home for another month, this time, without any income at all. I can go back for another test after I'm working. They are going to give me another machine and mask so I will ask them to run the tape on it to calibrate it. Troll.....just someone who is frantic to get back to work.

You are being inconsistent. In your original post, you wrote "I am a school bus driver, and I know I have sleep apnea." You did not write that you were currently under treatment for apnea using a PAP machine supplied by your doctor and/or insurance company, which is kind of a different thing than merely knowing you have sleep apnea. Nor does it really make sense. If you have a prescription for a PAP machine your sleep disorder is already **in your medical records**. Sleep tests aren't a normal test for CDL holders *unless there is medical a reason* for them. (The rule change to make sleep test screening mandatory for all CDL holders was withdrawn by the current administration last year.) Maybe the rules are different for school bus drivers. Either way, your posts don't add up as written.

[Bhubs0513]

Yes it is in my medical records but occupational health physicians don't necessarily look at those records. I have not had to send in the tape for years, but I have to this year, and since it wasn't asked for before, I have to go in for the sleep study, and I need to get through this study with positive results SO I CAN GO TO WORK.

[palerider]

Now hold it!!! I sleep wearing my mask, machine running.

*IF* you already have a machine that you've been sleeping with, then let them pull the data from that.

Your story is full of holes.

[Bhubs0513]

You can choose to split hairs with me if you choose. It's not helping. I was diagnosed with apnea over 15 years ago and have been sleeping with the machine. Yes, I know I have apnea (and really don't need this sleep over to tell me that....there, better???). I'm not trying to avoid the treatment, and I already have the diagnosis. I'm trying to avoid another month of unemployment. Is that so difficult to understand?

[Stom]

Yes it is in my medical records but occupational health physicians don't necessarily look at those records. I have not had to send in the tape for years, but I have to this year, and since it wasn't asked for before, I have to go in for the sleep study, and I need to get through this study with positive results SO I CAN GO TO WORK.

You can choose to split hairs with me if you choose. It's not helping. I was diagnosed with apnea over 15 years ago and have been sleeping with the machine. Yes, I know I have apnea (and really don't need this sleep over to tell me that....there, better???). I'm not trying to avoid the treatment, and I already have the diagnosis. I'm trying to avoid another month of unemployment. Is that so difficult to understand?

Sounds like you lied to your CDL exam physician at some point if they don't know that you have sleep apnea and a prescription for a CPAP already, and that you are trying to cheat the sleep study to make it match what you told them. Or something. Not sure. But something doesn't add up. As Palerider noted, you should be able to submit the compliance records for your current machine. Saying "I have not had to send in the tape for years" should mean that your CDL records **should already have your CPAP use on file**, no need for a sleep study, just compliance data for the machine. So I really don't know what to think other than there is something sketchy going on that you haven't told us yet.

[Bhubs0513]

Wait....they can pull data from my existing clap?? As I said before....no one has ever pulled data in all the years I've been using it and I didn't know they could. Wouldn't have just been nicer to tell me that instead of being rude, insulting, and a total jerk!!!

[palerider]

You can choose to split hairs with me if you choose. It's not helping. I was diagnosed with apnea over 15 years ago and have been sleeping with the machine.

You know, if you'd mentioned that little nugget of information in the first place, it would have been an entirely different conversation.

Yes, I know I have apnea (and really don't need this sleep over to tell me that....there, better???). I'm not trying to avoid the treatment, and I already have the diagnosis. I'm trying to avoid another month of unemployment. Is that so difficult to understand?

If you were diagnosed, and you've been being treated this whole time, then why didn't you just tell them this?

[palerider]

Wait....they can pull data from my existing clap?? As I said before....no one has ever pulled data in all the years I've been using it and I didn't know they could. Wouldn't have just been nicer to tell me that instead of being rude, insulting, and a total jerk!!!

Every cpap made records *at least* usage data, the better ones record everything that happened during the night.

What do you have? what's the Model, or REF number off the label?

[Stom]

Wait....they can pull data from my existing clap?? As I said before....no one has ever pulled data in all the years I've been using it and I didn't know they could. Wouldn't have just been nicer to tell me that instead of being rude, insulting, and a total jerk!!!

Seeing as how your OP was a question about how you could **cheat** a medical compliance sleep test required for driving a school bus, and your story keeps changing, you don't really get to blame others for the consequences of your posts.

[Gryphon]

If you go into the "Test" with your machine that you currently are using... You could "Pass" IE not have apnea during the test because your treating it with your medically prescribed machine.

Example... When I went in for my "Bi-PAP" test... They didn't have me try and sleep without anything to see if I still have sleep apnea. It's assumed that I still have it and that it would be most unwise for me to attempt to sleep without it even under the supervision of the sleep lab tech. I was hooked up to the Lab's machine for the test that night.




Your choice of wording in your original post - is a bit shaky. Combined with the obvious Poor choice in the wording of the "Subject line" in your original post.

You could have said something like "Treating my apnea successfully, but how do I cheat the paperwork system" Maybe something like that would have come off a bit better.

No one here is going to help you try and figure out how to fool a sleep test, let alone fool one and go untreated while operating commercial or civilian transport
IE: bus driver.

However... If you are already diagnosed with apnea and are happily treating it with a machine... I fail to see the issue.

Something somewhere isn't adding up and that's I think what has people upset. We do have people on this forum who can be quite direct "think 2x4 to the head" especially if they think someone may be putting others in danger due to a serious case of denial.

Ether your not very good at getting your point accross and are continueing to change your storie to try and beter explain what you "Ment to say" or your leaving some very important information out and are dancing around the bushes trying to ask questions with out actualy coming out and saying what you really want to. (or worse, your a troll and you really need to think of a better hobby then posting, inflammatory questions on a forum to rile people up)

Maybe you lied about your treated sleep apnea when you applied for your job, If they didn't ask you about it though... It may still not be an issue if you're treating it successfully.

If you're using any type of Machine, even the worst bricks that record no useful information. At a minimum, those machines record usage data and that data can be extracted to show a pattern of treatment or at least effort on your part to properly treat your condition. You can't be fired for having a sleep condition if it's being treated successfully. Unless your in some sort of crazy job like fighter jet pilot or nuclear power plant manager. Even then if you had medical proof showing you were treating your condition you might have a case to protect your job.

Hope you're able to get through this quickly with as little stress as possible.

Rest well,

Gryphon

[chunkyfrog]

Something smells "off".
Story keeps changing--inflammatory title--defensive attitude.
We may have been punked.

[greatunclebill]

Something smells "off".
Story keeps changing--inflammatory title--defensive attitude.
We may have been punked.

I didn't read where he had an original sleep test that they could pull up and submit. I also don't think i read where a doctor or DME is following him. 15 years ago could mean one of them really old machines that the DME may not have a reader for if there is one.

[Stom]

Something smells "off".
Story keeps changing--inflammatory title--defensive attitude.
We may have been punked.

Yeah, they just aren't writing like I'd expect from someone who's been compliant and has been using PAP successfully for 15 years. I'd expect someone like that to write a very different OP, such as "Successfully treated for Apnea for 15 years, what do I do to pass my DOT medical exam?" Well, that and the sound of crickets when Palerider asked what model of PAP machine they are using...

[chunkyfrog]

Most of us know the difference between cpap and "clap".
Just saying.

[Pugsy]

Most of us know the difference between cpap and "clap".

That's the auto correct thing on someone's device trying to "fix" it for us.
Happens to me all the time on my iPad if I am using it or my phone.

We all know this and there is no need to take on the role of the spelling police.
It's a typo...
I guess I could start taking on the spelling police role too and start fixing everyone's typos but man...that's a never ending job all by itself.