Is Sleep Apnea a disability?

BlackSpinner wrote:I am "being treated" and by that as far as OSA is concerned all my symptoms have disappeared. If yours haven't then you need to get back to your doctors and find out what else is happening. Effectively treated sleep apnea is not a disability. Your sleep apnea may also be being treated effectively but there are other problems that now shine on their own. Xpap treatment is NOT the be all and end all of therapies. Your body may be so damaged by years of low O2 and disturbed sleep that it needs more then simple cpap treatment.

I'd be willing to bet that many people here would say that they aren't symptom free just from CPAP and that there aren't other issues that can be corrected because it's the CPAP and apnea that's causing them, but that apnea untreated is still worse than with CPAP (and in some cases even that's not true).

As for addressing other issues, even if I wanted to our system isn't interested. As far as the doctors here are concerned, I'm fixed. Hell, just getting the sleep studies at all has been a total of almost six years worth of effort (although admittedly there was a gap that was my own fault because of anxiety about being on a machine for the rest of my life). I'm almost positive that whatever damage has been done, and I'm positive that there has been damage because I'm certain that I've had this my entire life despite the fact that the doctors aren't interested in finding out the cause, only treating the symptoms, is permanent and untreatable anyway.

ddk wrote:doctors aren't interested in finding out the cause, only treating the symptoms, is permanent and untreatable anyway.

How right you are. Treating symptoms without creating even more bad symptoms is hard. Determining the cause is harder and being able to do anything about it is REALLY hard. Takes time and effort to move from symptom treatment to actual fix. Doctors seem to be able to only spend a small snapshot of time with each patient now and then and medicine immediately goes into the "dark ages" when you step past dealing with symptoms on most medical issues beyond very common problems.

cosmo wrote:How many hours of sleep did you get?

I manage 7-8 hours each night. Sometimes more. I think I still wske up more than I am aware but all the Md & Np care about are my compliance & AHI and the don't care to look beyond that.

Reason for calling treatment for Sleep Apnea a Disability: A chance to latch onto the government tit, and receive money without working.

Reality: Make sure the government has one for everyone in the world to latch on to. Will this cure anything? In reality: No, because greed, given onefree ride, the next person will want two.

Then voting well not be fair, the party willing to give everyone everything will get 100% of the vote. Our money will be printed overseas, as no-one in the U.S. will hold down a job. This is the progression we have in place for ourselves.

As a people we have had the Golden Goose long enough, now the Gold is gone, all we gets the Goose! Jim

ddk wrote:

mattman wrote:Woo! I wish. Nah. I mail my card in every 3-6 months and my AHI stays in the 2-5 range overall. Well under anything that I'd consider to be untreated apnea.

Mine hover around the 3-4 mark. Then the other night, for no reason that I can fathom, it shot up to 9 and I felt awful that day.

Then there are days when it's a 2 and yet inexplicably I still feel horrible. Mostly I have good days, but it's entirely unpredictable. And even on the best days, I still have other issues like sore teeth from clenching and sore back from awkward sleep positions due to the mask.

By your logic, someone who can't walk but has a wheelchair is 'being treated'. Having a treatment is great, but it doesn't eliminate the disability. I think the real issue here is that you don't want to think of yourself as having a disability. And yes, I thoroughly believe that sleep apnea is a disability.

True dat.

Interesting thread, it started two years ago then flipped to present.

The "disability" topic comes up from time-to-time, and opinion is a bit divided. I do believe that untreated, or unsuccessfully treated sleep apnea can be at least partially disabling or can lead to certain disabilities eventually. Most of us just know that from unsavory memories.

However, successfully treating OSA with xPAP can be, to make up a term, "Re-abling".

I for one would take offense if someone tried to state that I have a disability. (In fact, I would challenge such an individual to a five-mile foot race followed by a game of concentration.)

I have great respect for, and feel no judgment toward folks with disabilities, whether from OSA or any other cause. In some cases (not all, naturally) people can improve or regain their abilities, and this is worth the attempt so long as one's doc goes along with the program. I prefer the world of, as the USA commercial used to say, "be all that you can be", and that is my constant and consistent objective.

I didn't mean to turn this into a pep-talk. The topic is quite interesting and important to me.

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I wouldn't consider it a disability in terms of employment. I do believe there are some limited situations where it should be considered a disability. For example, carrying the medical equipment on a plane and not being charged an extra luggage fee. It is medical equipment that we can't go a full 24 hours without.


Truck drivers (and some other jobs) should be able to get battery packs for their machines with insurance. It would be nice if everybody could, but as long as those who really need it for their job can get it, that is what is really important.

BAsically issues where we need to be able to carry and use our medical equipment.

That said, it would be nice if businesses were accomodating with small things, but I certainly wouldn't consider it a legal issue for a hotel to provide an extension cord. It would be nice if they loaned us one for the night if we need it. But we knew before traveling that this is a common issue, so it shouldn't be a "legal" requirement.

I have had DSPS (delayed sleep phase syndrome, severe night owl basically), so I have had sleep "issues" for over 20 years. My only expectation of my employer is that I have asked for afternoon/evening shifts, and that is what I get. It works well for them too as most people do NOT want closing shifts, and here we have the person with the highest seniority wanting only closing shifts. On rare occasions, I work an earlier shift, but my boss always asks me first. The only downside is that I cannot accept a promotion. There is no such thing as an evening department manager. It would not be practical to change that.

I wouldn't consider it a disability in terms of employment.

It can be if you're one of the unlucky folks who don't fully respond to treatment and end up with something like cognitive impairment. Unfortunately, as I have discovered as the result of having two disabilities that fall under the ADA, disclosing to employers is a crapshoot. I don't even intend to do it again unless I absolutely have no choice.

You're better off thinking how to work around your issues without getting an employer involved. Unfortunately, in some cases, if your disability threatens employment, you may have no choice but to disclose which is not an ideal situation.

By the way, your arrangement with your employer is similar to what I had with one several years ago. I worked in a job in which people went to lunch in shifts. I needed the early shift in order to take medication. Because that was an unpopular time to go to lunch, it was an easy sell to make:)

49er

Goofproof wrote:Reason for calling treatment for Sleep Apnea a Disability: A chance to latch onto the government tit, and receive money without working.

Reality: Make sure the government has one for everyone in the world to latch on to. Will this cure anything? In reality: No, because greed, given onefree ride, the next person will want two.

Then voting well not be fair, the party willing to give everyone everything will get 100% of the vote. Our money will be printed overseas, as no-one in the U.S. will hold down a job. This is the progression we have in place for ourselves.

As a people we have had the Golden Goose long enough, now the Gold is gone, all we gets the Goose! Jim

I bet you're a Republican and white.

49er wrote:

I wouldn't consider it a disability in terms of employment.

It can be if you're one of the unlucky folks who don't fully respond to treatment and end up with something like cognitive impairment. Unfortunately, as I have discovered as the result of having two disabilities that fall under the ADA, disclosing to employers is a crapshoot. I don't even intend to do it again unless I absolutely have no choice.

You're better off thinking how to work around your issues without getting an employer involved. Unfortunately, in some cases, if your disability threatens employment, you may have no choice but to disclose which is not an ideal situation.

49er

I think in a situation like the above, I would try to go the route of being sick and using sick leave for treatment. If we are sick for longer than our sick leave allows, we can appply for temporary disability. I would rather go that route than try to get special accommodations for my employment.

As it is, all of my coworkers and my boss all know that I have sleep apnea, and some nights are better than others. They know I feel better than I did before I started treatment. But they also know that some days I don't feel quite as good. I still do a good job, and they have their bad days too

Several years ago, I had an irregular heart beat. I was off work for two weeks, and still quite tired when I returned. They didn't complain when I moved slower and took short breaks in the closet, just sitting down for 5 minutes or so at a time. They knew it was better than me staying home.

On rare occasions, I do use my asthma. We have vents that need to be professionally cleaned on a regular basis. To save money, they have reduced how often they get cleaned. If they get bad (we all feel the air quality is bad), and we are told they can't be cleaned yet, then I complain that the air quality is bad, and it is making my asthma worse. They seem to get it taken care of faster, and everybody is happier about it. I have medical proof of my asthma, so it helps in that case.