Who initiated the diagnosis of your Sleep Apnea

[Fredman]

Rooster, I have had to rewrite this post a few times. Let me point out though you are a member and a citizen of country either by birth or choice. You pay taxes ( I assume that you do) and you know what by your choice to stay in your country, you do pay taxes.

I see your point. I think you are putting forward that no one likes having to pay for someone else that may not want to pay for their own well being or take responsibility for themselves. If so, I am in total agreement with you.

The problem is no matter what we do, we will always have those folks that expect a hand up for free...and then we will have the people that are trying but just can't make it.

We can take a hard line stance or we can try to be moderate. There are no easy answers.

So back to why I made the statement...it's my personal opinion (notice I said my) that you can't put a price on a persons life. We have, if you read the posts, some struggling with CPAP costs for equipment and diagnoses. I think it is a shame and a disgrace that hard working people have to do without the care they need.

[roster]

....... I think it is a shame and a disgrace that hard working people have to do without the care they need.

.......

You apparently are quite a reasonable person Fredman and no doubt have a heart that is unselfish and feels for the needs of others. So back to X, Y and Z.

Let X be you and Z be an apnea sufferer that has worked hard all his life. Z is old, worn out from apnea and unable to earn the amounts of money needed to sustain a decent lifestyle (sounds a little like me) and buy additional cpap equipment and another titration study that is desperately needed.

X has this deep desire to do something for Z. X is very noble.

In the U.S. we have lots of people who are like X. Some of them are running for various government offices.

So what does X do? In the U.S., X takes money from Y to help Z. X does not care that Y is a charitable giver who likes to decide whom his money is to help. X wants to decide whom Y's money will help.

X often takes Y's money to help "poor" people. Even more often X takes Y's money to help well-to-do farmers and businessmen.

Y feels compassion for Z and often donates money and does volunteer work that will benefit people in Z's condition. Y is getting damn fed up with X. .

[Fredman]

Thanks Rooster I really do understand and appreciate the points you make, because just outside my work there are folks panhandling for money. The cost of policing and medical care that they often incur because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol does make me angry. It's so bad that the cops and the paramedics know these people by name.

Sometimes I wish we could make them work for the benefits they receive. So while I do feel compassionate, I really do understand.

I wish we could satisfy everyone...oh well. Anyways the good news we have the technologies to deal with Sleep Apnea and this forum to share ideas and knowledge.

[bigcat]

Girlfriend is RN, MSN and she made me go get a sleep study.

[Goofproof]

.......but the point I am making is that no one should - and I don't care if we are in a free market economy or socialized economy - no one should be held back from getting the medical attention they need. ......

Fredman,

Let me see if I understand your position.

Let's talk about three people (or three groups of people) and let's call them persons X, Y and Z.

In your position, you believe that one of these people, say X, should have the power to force one of the other people at gunpoint, say Y, to pay for the medical needs of a third person, say Z.

If that is your position, then who will get the role of person X?

I'll take a shot at that "X" Job, I'm still a pretty good shot to 400 yards. Jim

I don't get around very good you may have to drive "Y" past my lawn chair...

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): Power

[mmsiciliana]

I've been known by my family for years as being someone who could and would sleep any chance I got. If I went to visit my sister in another state for her annual 4th of July party, I would be sleeping most of the day while everyone else was getting ready for the party. Driving to work, a mere 20 minute trip, I would be nodding off at the wheel. If I had to work that night, I'd try to be sure to take at least an hour nap or I'd never make it.

I kept a PILLOW IN MY CAR so I could nap whenever I had the chance, such as sitting in my car in the parking lot at the orthodontist's office while my son was having his checkups inside, or going out to my car during work hours to take a nap because I couldn't keep my eyes open any more.

I was taking classes towards a Master's Degree where I would drive to another city for the weekend, take 4 hours of classes on Friday night, 8 hours of classes on Saturday and 6 hours of classes on Sunday, once a month. If there wasn't any interaction between the professor and the class, I'd doze through boring classes. I'd spend the night at one of the local motels and an aquaintance of mine, who happens to be a retired nurse was also taking the classes. She asked me to study with her one day and I said I was going back to my room to take a nap. She said, "You sleep too much. You need to be checked for sleep apnea." (She's very bossy.)

I had mentioned several times to my doctor(s) over the years that I was always tired and they had checked my thyroid over and over which always came out great. I also had episodes where I'd wake up gasping for air in the middle of the night, feeling that I was dying, but I thought it was stress. So, at my next doctor visit, I mentioned again that I was tired all the time, would wake up gasping for air about once or twice a month and had been doing that for several years, and that a retired nurse said I slept too much. He said, "I'll guarantee you that you have sleep apnea, but we'll do the study to make sure."

So I had the split night study. The nurse told me that they would monitor me and *if* I had more than 5 episodes an hour, they would then put a cpap mask on me to determine the proper pressure. I thought there was no way I could possibly stop breathing more than 5 times an hour...after all, I only woke up about once or twice a month gasping for air... I ended up with 40 events per hour over a 3 hour period.

Maria

[roster]

...... because just outside my work there are folks panhandling for money. The cost of policing and medical care that they often incur because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol does make me angry. ......

Fredman,

Maybe X likes helping those drug addicted panhandlers. Maybe X even ministers to prison inmates and parolees, most of whom have abused drugs, and helps them financially (like I do).

You see, the problem is all about who will decide how X's money is spent. Some people say Y should decide how X's money is spent and some people say X should decide how X's money is spent.

Rooster

[motogary]

I'll be the bigger man and give the credit to my wife.

My snoring had been getting worse and worse since we had been dating and then eventually married. Not coincidentally, my weight had been climbing as well.

My wife was getting more and more annoyed at my snoring, so I told her I'd go to an ENT to have him look into it. Well, I kept procrastinating. In the meantime, she began to note that I would stop breathing every now and then, or so the thought.

Well, you all know what that triggers...sleep study. And the rest is history.

Identical story here. My wife kept nagging, er, urging me to see a specialist.

[bbacher]

My wonderful wife!

I've been on Lexapro for about 3 yrs, being diagnosed with depression. But in January my wife finally convinced me to see a doctor about my snoring and gasping for breath in my sleep. In February I started CPAP and my life has changed! I quit the Lexapro about a month ago, and I feel better than ever.

I WISH my psychiatrist had suggested a sleep study rather than putting me on that horrid drug.

[SleepGuy]

My doctor (internal medicine). It was almost an afterthought during an annual physical but I had talked about feeling tired enough that he send me home with an overnight oxymeter. Bingo. I am very happy for having a good doctor!!!

Ironically, about a year before that I had visited an ENT specialist about a throat problem and he asked about SNORING but offered nothing about OSA, sleepiness, etc. All he was interested in was surgical and treatment options for snoring. He had me try Flonase--YUCK.

[Rumur]

I had a pretty bad bout of bronchitis and went to see my doctor. He was not available, so I saw a different doctor. He looked at my airway and asked if I had ever been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. I told him no. He then started asking me a bunch of sleep related questions and told me to consider a sleep study. At a followup, I asked my regular doctor if he thought I could have it and he said yes. Scheduled me for a sleep study and the rest as they say is history.

[deerslayer]

I'll be the bigger man and give the credit to my wife.

My snoring had been getting worse and worse since we had been dating and then eventually married. Not coincidentally, my weight had been climbing as well.

My wife was getting more and more annoyed at my snoring, so I told her I'd go to an ENT to have him look into it. Well, I kept procrastinating. In the meantime, she began to note that I would stop breathing every now and then, or so the thought.

Well, you all know what that triggers...sleep study. And the rest is history.

Identical story here. My wife kept nagging, er, urging me to see a specialist.

me also......except i still get jolted awake by her jumpy leg

[lifeartist59]

I went to a new family physician, and wanted to discuss my attempt at weight loss. This is what initially brought up have a sleep study done, and I did not have symptoms. If any symptoms of any sleep disorder were present, it is that I have a difficult time falling asleep. Unfortunately, that is worse than ever now. I really do not want to take sleep aids either since I take other medicines and don't want to add to the side effect of mixing them. I hope that I see some positive results soon, I wonder what length of time and what results I can expect since its been almost a year now?

[Guest]

my uncle Al

[sharon1965]

i had been dx'd with fibromyalgia 13 years ago...but symptoms were increasing in severity and fatigue was becoming debilitating...
a neighbour had been off work for six month sick leave due to OSA, and i happened to chat with him outside one afternoon...his symptoms sounded awfully familiar, so i got a referral from my (skeptical) GP to a sleep specialist and was dx'd with severe OSA in dec. 2006; been on cpap since jan. 2007