Hey guys, it seems kinda strange seeing this brought up on here. I have asked some questions on here and got a lot of responses and advice, so now its my turn to help anyone out that I can. In my previous posts I said I was leaving my medical career for a flying career, well in my medical career the last 5 years was spent in this field which is why I added an endorsement to my license for sleep disorders specialist. I am a Registered Respiratory Therapist with a Sleep Disorders Specialist endorsement. If your curious you can go to our licensing board
www.nbrc.org and read up on the credentials. I know all about the testing procedure, how the sleep report is scored, CPAP/BiPAP or Bi-Level Ventilation and the machines used for treatment, and the surgical procedures that are used. You would have a diagnosis of either Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) or Central Sleep Apnea (CSA). If you have it it will most likely be OSA, hopefully it would be OSA because CSA is central or nervous system caused and the treatments are a lot more complex and a FAA 1st class medical would probably be over. Luckily there is not nearly as many cases of CSA as OSA tho. Well I just wanted to volunteer my assistance to anyone that I can help on here. Feel free to pm me with any questions and I will be glad to help if I can.
I'll try to explain briefly a couple of issues that you guys have already brought up. If you get tested, then you will most likely be diagnosed. Its sad to say that the legalities of US healthcare makes almost everyone qualify for the diagnosis because of the possible law suits from guys like pilots and semi-truck drivers. Actually, several truckers have been sued because they fell asleep at the wheel as well as their company so airlines may make it a requirement even if the FAA doesn't just to cover theirself. Sleep is a relatively new field so there are still many variables at this point even in the medical practice of it.
The other thing that has been brought up is just beating the system by saying that you don't snore because the doctor isn't going to bed at night with you to say otherwise, and saying no to the other questions that would lead them to want to test you for Sleep Apnea like answering no to "do you get tired during the day? or Do you fall asleep easily during normal awake hours?" The actual questions may be worded slightly differently but you get the point. The truth is you probably would not pass the test without getting the diagnosis (or at least most people would not), you probably can get away with denying it by answering the questions, unless you have severe Sleep Apnea, like the people whose eyes are always bloodshot looking or the white area looks yellowish like someone who is extremely tired. The problem with denying it will catch up with you later tho. Just to explain what happens with the body in someone who has Sleep Apnea so you have a very general understanding of the long term effects. Apnea is spells of not breathing, when your sleeping and not breathing for periods of time throughout the night, your blood oxygen level goes down and the heart rate and blood pressure increase to compensate for the lack of oxygen in the bloodstream. This will lead to future heart conditions because the heart is over worked during the night when it is supposed to be resting like the rest of your body. Sorry for the long post, just sharing what I can with people who have helped me.
By the way, I'm still waiting on the regionals to hire so hopefully I can be on your side of things someday
