Fearing the worst

tprops4me · May 8th, 2008, 20:16

It's official. I have to go get a sleep study done to see what kind of sleep apnea I have. My wife has been telling me that my snoring is very loud lately and I sound like I am choking. I have been falling asleep while sitting at the computer at work all of a sudden, so I told my doc today that I am pretty sure I have Apnea. The test is a month away so I am kind of unhappy about it. I have been kind of ignoring it for fear of losing the medical, but I went over some of the Docs posts on it so I feel alittle better about it. It is better than dying from it anyway. So anyway, I am confused on what to do here. Do I ground myself until the test, or maybe just have dual flights?? I tell ya. If I ever do make it to the flight deck of an airline, I will have hit every brickwall out there. I love getting an SI medical

.

MQAAord · May 8th, 2008, 20:24

You can get a 1st class medical with sleep apnea. Trust me

It's scary when you first start the process, and there's a fair amount of red tape, but you'll get through it.

If they put you on a C-Pap machine (and if you have S.A. they probably will) for about the first week you'll want to throw it out the window. Or break it. Into a million little bitty pieces and then stomp on them. Give it a chance, get to know it, get used to it, try a different mask design if you need to, but don't give up.

An alternative is surgery, which depending on your specific circumstances you may or may not be a candidate for. You can discuss this option with your pulmonary doc.

tprops4me · May 8th, 2008, 20:28

Thanks Amber. I will keep those words close.

cre8flyer · May 8th, 2008, 22:05

Why would you lose your medical? You don't sleep while flying do you? Now. . . if you had apnea while you were awake. . . . (tee hee!)

SIUAv8r · May 8th, 2008, 23:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by cre8flyer

Why would you lose your medical? You don't sleep while flying do you? Now. . . if you had apnea while you were awake. . . . (tee hee!)

I believe the reasoning is that you're quality of sleep is not as good, therefore, you may be subject to fatigue more easily, therefore becoming a safety issue.

Hacker15e · May 8th, 2008, 23:35

Bro, this is not something to be afraid of.

This is something you should be glad was caught, and be happy about the quality of life improvement you will have when your apnea gets fixed.

I went through the same thing about 3 years ago, ended up having the full surgical fix (UPPP and a couple others).

Although recovering from the surgery wasn't all that fun, my sleep quality has been much better since then.

Apnea is fully waiverable for the medical if its symptoms are treated, either through use of the CPAP machine or surgically.

There's a previous thread in the flight doc forum that talks about this, go check it out.

mooneyguy · May 8th, 2008, 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by SIUAv8r

I believe the reasoning is that you're quality of sleep is not as good, therefore, you may be subject to fatigue more easily, therefore becoming a safety issue.

now thats a joke...the FAA worried about pilots fatigue...

tprops4me · May 9th, 2008, 07:40

Thanks Hacker. I saw your story in the other thread and thats what made me go forward with telling my doctor about it. So again, thanks for that.