You would think this happens less frequently now.

I was talking to this lady at work and she was complaining about her husband's snoring. Now that I am always looking for signs of Apnea in other people I started asking her questions. The brunt of the conversation disclosed that her husbands snores terribly, wakes at night gasping for air, suffers from episodes of RLS, wakes every morning with a headache, and is generally listless and tired all day long. hmmmm. So I suggested he see his GP to discuss the possibility that he has sleep apnea. She tells me he already mentioned it to the good doctor and he shrugged it off saying it was nothing. Now I don't know much detail the husband went into with the doctor because I honestly can't believe he would shrug it off like that. ( he also at minimum 25-30 pounds overweight if not more and is on BP medicine. I stronlgy suggessted that he re-visit the doctor again. ( Though I get the feeling he is hesitant).

I just still can't believe that the doctor shrugged it off like that.

Thought I would share that.

Jim

Very interesting, JimH. And that was good of you to try to educate the man's wife about what's really happening.

I just still can't believe that the doctor shrugged it off like that.

Oh, I can believe it. Sad, but true. Of course, as you said, there's no way to know exactly what the man told his doctor. But any doctor who's the least bit aware of what OSA is and what it does to people should have started asking some serious questions that would have gotten that man referred for a sleep study.

Unfortunately, most people have this thing about "I don't want to be on a machine!" (thinking of life support, ICU, etc.) so if the doctor was unconcerned, that was probably all that the guy wanted to hear.

After all, who are you supposed to listen to? A medical PROFESSIONAL who made it out of med school after about 4 hours worth of lectures on "sleep" (probably about insomnia.) Or... somebody who reads up about this stuff on the internet.

When I approached my own personal family doctor after my diagnosis, she said something to the effect of "lets see if some procedure can fix it, you're only 41, why do you want to go through the next 50 years of life with a mask on at night?" Funny thing is, that I am already three weeks on CPAP and I haven't had the energy to call her and tell her. Honestly, if there was a good surgical procedure that would cure me, I would be the first on line. But since there is not, not for me, then hey, the machine works great