sleep apnea and DOT rules

[truckerdad57]

If you are having problems with the Dot medical examiner on sleep apnea reach out to

Truckers for a Cause
Truckersforacause.com

We are a support group for drivers with sleep apnea. We may be able to help.

[Adoniscmj]

Are DOT drivers being singled out ? Yes . Will this happen to the general public ? Not for a very long time . The public out cry would scare anyone who is elected .

You have too much faith in the politicians and the the sheeple who can vote.

And not enough fear of the creeping nanny state and big brother/big business state.

I believe this happens to regular drivers in Australia as well. i.e. not commercial drivers, and your doctor will rat you out. It even happens to regular drivers in some states here in the US as well. Someone ticked off their doctor because they weren't going back and paying the doctor for regular and unnecessary return visits and the doctor got the state to take his drivers license away.

It's kinda scarry. I am not a truck driver but when I got a copy of my medical records from my sleep doctor he put a statement in it saying he warned me that if I feel tired I was not allowed to drive, That would be fine, but he never said that to me and I never told him that I drive drowsy. I have never driven my car while super tired and I told him that I don't feel drowsy during the day despite having moderate OSA. I think this is his way of covering his own ass. But this could be used against me in court if I were to be involved in an accident. I would most likely have to prove that I used my CPAP the previous night. What would happen if the card was damaged or it didn't record that I used it? Kinda Freaky!

[AlanE]

I think this is his way of covering his own ass.

I had the same thing but on the PSG interpretation report from a doctor I never met

[me50]

To Alan, E great idea I'm home every night so that would help. My wife suggested putting it on our black Lab who snores . I regret getting diagnosed it is such a pain especially if you have a CDL . The first six months I lost weight but now 3 years later I don't feel any better , wonder if I need the pressure bumped up ?

try and be glad you know about this because if you don't realize it now, not knowing and knowing and not using a machine can cause problems with your organs and one day, you could wake up. While I would rather not have OSA, the reality is that I do and I am not ready to leave this earth so I do whatever it takes to accomplish the goal of living for a lot more years. As far as your pressure being bumped up, it would be helpful if we know what machine you are using and if it is data capable or not. Look by the button where you turn the machine on and update your profile with machine type, pressure, mask you are using, etc. If it is data capable, download sleepyhead and look at your data to see if you can find anything out of the ordinary that would indicate you need to increase your pressure.

[Mosquitobait]

I use machine every night and company doctor knew this. I did not like the idea that he put me out of work till he got the report. Felt he should have given me a 30 day card till he got report from doctor.
Then he could have given me my 2 year card.

It's the pits, but doctors are often up a tree as well. I have 2 truck drivers and a couple of commercial pilots in my annual diabetes class - they complain about all the rigamarole, but at least the state now finally does electronic doctor reports to get the approvals through quickly. They do GET the importance, but it's just the time and meeting multiple appointments, and getting the data in the correct format that plagues them.