Sleep Apnea

Well here is a first hand look at the new DOT Sleep Apnea for at least North Carolina. I went to get a renewal DOT medical card. It looks like the DOT as left it up to the discretion of the physician as to have you take the test or not. Here are the three areas. BMI ( Body Mass Index) Blood Pressure, Neck size. We all know about blood pressure. Your neck size for a man can not exceed 17" and your BMI no more than 35%. So my neck size was 16, OK, blood pressure , OK, but my BMI was 38%. So she called for a sleep study test because of my BMI. I order a home study test there are only three companies that do them at this writing. Cost me $249.00 You do it for one or two nights, then send the machine back they read it and give you a report you take back to the physician. Oh they give you a 90 medical card in order to get this done. Once you have the letter and take it in, you now have two choices. If it comes back and you DO NOT have sleep apnea the report is good for 5 years so keep it. They can only make you take the test every 5 years at that point. If the test results come back like mind which was very mild, you now have two choices. 1. buy the equipment to correct the problem with a card reader, or do nothing hang on to the report. They will issue you a one year card. The report is good for 2 years. So the next year you take the same report back in and get a renewal. Now the 3rd year you would either have had to correct the problem and take the card reader in with you so they could read the card within the last 30 days, or pay to have the sleep study done again. If you have extreme sleep apnea you will have to have the problem corrected. They will issue you again a 90 day card to correct or get the machine. By the way the machine from what I have seen start at about $300.00. To me its a scam and just another way of getting money from a truck driver.

Here is the funny part, I took the test to the physician who could not read it. I found out from my daughter in law who is in the health industry, that even doctors are have to take a 100 hour on line course and then go somewhere to take a written test to become or stay a DOT physician. So they are having to pay $2500 to do this so do not blame it on the doctors. Also I found out I guess since the physician could not comprehend the report I had to go back to the sleep study people to send me a letter that after getting the machine there seems to be a part in the regulations where is you only use the machine less than 70% of the time to regulate you pattern then you do not need the machine. But the only way to find this out of course is to pay $ 300 plus for the machine to see. See the scam here.

Here are some fax. Did you know that truck driving is listed as one of the top 10 most dangerous job in the world? And for that it is also one the lowest paying jobs. Coal Miners get paid $25 an hour just for 3 weeks of orientation. Then 35.00 an hour to start just to go into the mines.

I have been in this industry for almost 30 years. have 2/ 1 million mile safe driving awards. ( So I guess I am old school, I come from the days NO cell phone, NO GPS, you change your tire and fixed your truck, NO Qual Com) and for what drivers get paid to be away from home and live in a shoe box with a whooping 4 days off a month is not paid near what we should. I have seen the pay in the last few years come up, but still not enough. And with more and more DOT regulation and Medical restriction coming, for what a driver makes on a per hour bases it coming hard and hard to say we are close to minimum wage. Not hating the industries but the greed in the trucking companies. Think about it, if we are in such high demand then why are the wages so low. As a veteran driver making .55 a mile, companies look at me as an expense. When they can get a training out of school at .35 mile. It damn shame we can not unite ( not union) but unite together for what we really should be getting. We could control the country like the insurance companies do. Think about what you do. You drive, and if you work a 60 or 70 hour week you work the number of hours a 40 work person does in two years. So if you make 60K or 70K divide that in half, that is what you make in 1 year. a 70 work week for a truck is what a 40 hour person would take almost 2 week to make. Now I tell my trainee's if you are single, sell everything, do not own an apartment a car or have a girlfriend or boyfriend. Live in the truck stay on the road and in 10 years you could retire as a millionaire. But if you have a family, kids, do your time OTR for a year two at the most get some experience and then GO HOME, find a more local job. Because if you have a family this is no place to be an OTR, you will regret missing things in your child's life. No job is worth all that. If you want to know more about this area and retire in 10 let me know. I drive now because I want to not because I need to. I also drive locally so I am home every night

So if you have any questions or comments about the sleep apnea I would be glad to answer them.

Running Bear Knight ( yes that is my real name) bearh3526@yahoo.com

" OK, but my BMI was 38%. So she called for a sleep study test because of my BMI. I order a home study test there are only three companies that do them at this writing. Cost me $249.00 You do it for one or two nights, then send the machine back they read it and give you a report you take back to the physician. "

So, your saying the BMI is the determining factor as to whether you need a sleep apnea test or not?

Forgive my ignorance, but how do they determine BMI? What are they measuring? Weight and waist?

Forgive my ignorance, but how do they determine BMI? What are they measuring? Weight and waist?

Weight and height.

Did you know that pro athletes like football playser (gridiron, Rugby Union and Rugby League, Soccer doesn't count) are generally classified by the BMI scores as morbidly obese?

They're so heavy for their weight since they're packing solid heavy muscle, not fat, which is lighter than muscle tissue.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do they determine BMI? What are they measuring? Weight and waist?

Indeed it's basically a measurement of height and weight to determine how overweight someone is. But Rhys is right - if you're very muscular it will consider you "overweight". So it's not really an accurate measure of anything other than how heavy are you for your height. It's not really an indication of health.

So, your saying the BMI is the determining factor as to whether you need a sleep apnea test or not?

Indeed at most companies that is what they go by. It's been shown that Sleep Apnea is more prevalent in people who are obese so they test people if you're above a certain BMI, usually somewhere around 38-40 or so.