Cleared to fly
Sleep apnea has become the medical condition de jour in the military. Partly due to the 50% disability rating, partly due to advancing medical research, and I'm sure partly due to political influence from industry. Sleep studies are expensive, and from what I can see, very profitable.
I agree with all that Turbo said. Be careful what you ask for in a diagnosis, but the health effects of sleep apnea are serious and should be considered strongly.
I was diagnosed by the Navy in 2007, had surgery (agree, worst experience of my life, and it didn't work), underwent cognitive test at NAMI, and was ultimately granted a medical waiver.
I was at the two years to retirement mark in OCT '14. Given my sleep apnea, and all of the talk of the FAA mandating sleep studies based on BMI, I wanted to get the process started so any potential airline employment wasn't being held up, as well as be able to illustrate that I had held a 1st class medical with this condition for a little while. I have heard rumors of nine month waits... As stated above, the AME has to report it to the FAA. Sleep apnea is a disqualifying condition for all FAA medical certificates. You will not walk out of the office with a medical. I received a certified letter from the FAA a week or two later spelling out what they needed for review, and explained my medical was not denied (at that time). There is a laundry list of things they may want. For me, they wanted a print out of my CPAP machine and a letter from my sleep doctor.
A nurse at my sleep doctors office misunderstood the instructions and faxed only a printout of my CPAP. In addition to no letter, the printout only covered about three weeks and had some detrimentally skewing data that brought the numbers below the desired level. (I was deployed and my old machine broke, so only a short period of time with the new machine. Military duties woke me up after a couple of hours of sleep four days out of 21, driving the average use time down below the FAA desired six hours per night).
After I saw what the nurse did, I rescheduled an appointment a week or two later, had them re-run the CPAP numbers and asked the Dr to write a letter. Unfortunately, they don't spell out what they want the doctor to address very well. She wrote something like, "the patient is responding very well to CPAP treatment." She made a comment to me along the lines of 'I don't know what they want. How do I know if you're safe to fly an airplane?' More than early discussions with AN (not necesarily yours) AME, a discussion with the Dr regarding what should be addressed would be helpful. The AME, or even calling the FAA might help regarding the issues to be addressed. I included a letter explaining the previous bad data, and included that I had been medically cleared to fly combat mission in the Navy since 2007 with no side effects and mailed everything off.
A few days later, I received another certified letter from the FAA. Such a pain because I have to physically go to the Post Office which is located in the heart of the ghetto (and one can't carry a firearm into the post office), deal with the lovely people there. I digress. This letter said they still needed a letter from my doctor (which I had just mailed) and a copy of my sleep study. I was worried that they wanted a new sleep study because my last one was five years ago. It's not a hard thing, you just sleep, but it's a pain in the ass... It's expensive, but my military medical would cover that... I called the FAA to find out what they wanted, and they said they didn't have a copy of any sleep study and just needed a copy of my most recent one. I mailed a copy off and hadn't heard anything back for a few weeks.
I called the FAA yesterday to see if there was any status, or if they needed anything else since our correspondence seemed to be passing in the mail. The lady I spoke with was very nice and helpful. She informed me that my medical was approved a few days earlier. I asked her the date of issue (OCT when I saw the AME, or DEC when it was issued). She said OCT, but it is a one year clearance. Next OCT, I should anticipate the FAA wanting another letter from the doctor and another CPAP printout.
My airline career aspirations remain alive...