Barriers to diagnosis

Another barrier is employment-related fear. There are many in the aviation industry that have to deal with flight surgeons to maintain different degrees of medical certification to remain employed. Once you are diagnosed, you "lose" your medical until you can prove, at your own expense, that the condition has been treated and is under control according to their parameters. Many of you are familiar with how long this process can take. I don't know many people that have enough leave to take three months off to deal with this process. Many are probably afraid that they can't be treated effectively enough to get their medical clearance back. So there are people out there working critical jobs that have a disincentive to drawing attention to a serious medical problem. Kind of scary.

Is there a percentage of otherwise healthy people who CAN'T be successfully treated for SA? Just curious.

Fear of losing a flying gig; but NOT fear of killing a plane load of innocent people?
Fear of losing your CDL; but no fear of killing/crippling a busload of school children?
Please excuse me for not empathizing with anyone with these priorities.
It is not in my nature.
Too many people cannot see further than their own fear.
They will do as they choose; and we have no control but to stay out of their way.

chunkyfrog wrote:Please excuse me for not empathizing with anyone with these priorities.
It is not in my nature.

+1

chunkyfrog wrote:Fear of losing a flying gig; but NOT fear of killing a plane load of innocent people?
Fear of losing your CDL; but no fear of killing/crippling a busload of school children?
Please excuse me for not empathizing with anyone with these priorities.
It is not in my nature.
Too many people cannot see further than their own fear.
They will do as they choose; and we have no control but to stay out of their way.

I agree. For many years I blamed fatigue on shift work, and took many, many naps to cope. Last year I came off shift work. Still had fatigue. That, and my wife complaining about snoring, was my biggest clue. My work life never suffered because it had the highest priority. But my home life and off-time certainly did.

+1

Dr. DM,

Thanks so much for your perspective on the CPAP diagnosis issues. I hope it is ok to ask you a question?

Have you ever referred anyone to have a special sleep study for a condition called UARS (Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome)? I am pretty sure that I don't have OSA, but do have UARS. My husband was noticing that I often choked in my sleep. I had some really bad symptoms, hot flashes, headaches, silent reflux into my throat that only happened when I slept really deeply. I also had some unexplained episodes of heart palpitations and tachycardia. This stuff only happened to me at night while I slept. Do you even believe this condition exists?

That is why I decided to try CPAP. It has been a struggle, but when I use it, all of those symptoms mostly disappeared, except for my insomnia. So I am happy. I am hoping the insomnia will leave once I get more used to the masks. Because of the shape of my face, I have had a lot of trouble with masks fitting well.

PEF wrote:Dr. DM,

Thanks so much for your perspective on the CPAP diagnosis issues. I hope it is ok to ask you a question?

Have you ever referred anyone to have a special sleep study for a condition called UARS (Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome)? I am pretty sure that I don't have OSA, but do have UARS. My husband was noticing that I often choked in my sleep. I had some really bad symptoms, hot flashes, headaches, silent reflux into my throat that only happened when I slept really deeply. I also had some unexplained episodes of heart palpitations and tachycardia. This stuff only happened to me at night while I slept. Do you even believe this condition exists?

That is why I decided to try CPAP. It has been a struggle, but when I use it, all of those symptoms mostly disappeared, except for my insomnia. So I am happy. I am hoping the insomnia will leave once I get more used to the masks. Because of the shape of my face, I have had a lot of trouble with masks fitting well.

Hi PEF,

You're asking some good questions but this guy's posts are from 2014 so it is unlikely he will respond. I

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