Originally Posted by
Jaimito Cartero
There seems to be a lot of misdiagnosis mentioned on this thread. I guess I'm lucky that I had another relative who had been diagnosed with needing a cpap, and had a decent idea what needed to get done. He had to sleep sitting up, or he couldn't function.
Since then a number of relatives including one stubborn uncle, have gotten them.
I got very concerned after starting to fall asleep during the day, after getting 7 or 8 hours of sleep. As bad as drunk driving, I think. When I was younger I could stay up all night, and just get a few hours of sleep. Now, that won't work at all! 6 hours minimum if I'm going to be driving or working where I need to think. Obviously I can post on FT with no sleep.
You are right about misdiagnoses. One cause is that insurance companies spend more time and energy on forcing doctors to save the former money rather than allowing them to treat patients. My internist in MS did no more than blood tests, as they were done the lab in-house. He made enough money through lab tests and did not worry about anything else.
This is how I was diagnosed.
I am the only one in my family to have been diagnosed with OSA. I was forced to undergo a sleep study on insistence of an MD who was consulted by my surgeon in India, as I was diabetic, hypertensive, had enlarged heart, was on medication to control my lipids and was obese, with a BMI of 41. That sleep study diagnosed me to be suffering from severe OSA. A couple of years earlier, had had a minor surgery in the U.S. to remove a kidney stone when my medical history circumstances were essentially the same, but I was not recommended to have a sleep study.