It could very well be your sleep apnea is compounding your ptsd. I know that since i have been using the cpap, my anger issues have all but went away. I was deployed in 2005 before i was diagnosed with Severe OSA so i understand what you feel. I was also found to have ptsd and did notice that without any chemical help, once i got the OSA under control, things did get better as far as anger and bad dreams (when i did sleep) I would recommend that you get another sleep study done and see if maybe your OSA has gotten worse and you need different settings on your machine. I have talked to quite a few folks with osa and most all say the surgery never works for long. Kinda !@#! but i will just live with the machine. I would also suggest seeing a civilian doc if possible. Hope maybe this helped some.
  
 
PS  It will be up to your CO whether you are MEB or not. Moderate OSA can be deployable. Nothing says they have to discharge you, just cant deploy to CENTCOM AOR

That definitely does help, I appreciate your reply.  I think Im going to tell the shrink that Im done with the drugs until the sleep apnea is addressed, they are making me feel more and more lethargic and at this point I feel like I havent slept in a week.  Just dont want to be doing more harm to myself than good if it is all the OSA.  At ten years in is medical retirement an option do you think?  I have a referal waiting to speak with a specialist about all this and see what they would like to do, but my shrink has also brought up the MEB idea, she wants to recommend me, I dont know if thats a good thing or bad!  Ha, thanks for the reply!

i am 23 years old and was recently diagnosed with mild sleep apnea. I was looking at my PSG and realized that 48% of my sleep is in deep sleep. I find it very difficult to wake up some mornings. The problem with this is that I miss PT formation at 0515. I set alarms to go off from 0430 to 0455 seeing that i need to be there at 0515 to be there. It seems as though no one cares about the fact i have the problem. They only care about the fact i missed formation. I am continuing to try. I have started going to bed sooner. Trying for 2130 but im not always tired seeing that i have been tired all day long and have to fight to stay awake. I just don't know what to do. The company commander seems to sympathize but i am just being looked at as a horrible soldier. Now i feel like depression is starting to set in. Not a lot but i feel like it could become a problem. i just want some kind of sympathy somewhere. i feel as though im a bad soldier now when im doing everything in my power to wake up.

Well, a sure fire way to make sure they (your command) understands and empathizes with your situation is by speaking with the unit chaplain.  Make an appointment and explain the whole situation with the chaplain, and how the way you are treated from this is seriously having an adverse effect on your mental well-being.  This is a serious issue and I have seen military leadership do this too many times to soldiers, instead of trying to understand and assist with the situation, they would rather look at it as a disciplinary issue.  After speaking with your chaplain about it, your command will pretty much not be allowed to harass you in any way about the situation, and they will know you mean business.

On the other hand, your chain of command/NCO support channel extends way passed your company.  If they are not understanding your issues, there are plenty of people in your unit that you can speak with that can help.

Another avenue is to speak with your doctor about what is going on at your unit and ask for advise there.

If you are a TRADOC soldier in initial training (MOS-I), understand that it will be difficult to show your leadership that you have a valid medical problem, where as you know, some soldiers ruin this for the rest by constantly malingering and it becomes hard for your leaders to distinguish who is faking and who is legit.

I hope some of this helps, keep your head up.

The military does not recognize mild sleep apnea as a problem. That is why they have set a limit on the degree of sleep apnea that is deployable. If you have an issue, go see a civilian doc. The military docs job is to see you are deployable. They like to omit info so they look good in their job by rating soldiers as 100%. As far as your CO giving you a hrad time about bein late for formation, all they are goin to tell you is if your doc says you have a medical issue and cant do your duty, then they will back off. The military has had way to many "malingering" issues. So if this is a legit problem, go back to your doc and get some help for the sleep apnea. I have very severe OSA and without my machine, i cannot function during the day.   Sounds to me like you may have a bit more than mild sleep apnea. Whats your stats on the sleep study?

It is NOT the ARMY Doctors job to find you fit for duty and they are bound like any other Doctor, military or civilian. The ARCENT and CENTCOM Surgeons will not grant a waiver for Sleep Apnea to areas of thaeter that do not have adequate power i.e. Iraq or Afghanistan. I was recently denied going to Qatar where they have barracks and substantial power supply. I can give you the CENTCOM Surgeons email. My Sleep Apnea is severe and now I have to sleep with oxygen (which was added after my waiver denial, two times) The first waiver denial was when I had mild sleep apnea, the second was when I had a updated sleep study and now it is severe. PM me if you need more. Stationed in Colorado Springs here.

My son was completely turned down to join because of mild sleep apnea.  Dr. even signed letter stating that it was mild enough that he could go extended time without machine.  Still denied!!

My husband is an active reservist in the National Guard-- for those who don't know, that's the one weekend a month, two weeks a year deal.  He's known he had apnea for years, but just recently had the sleep study and got diagnosed.  Still waiting on the prescription for the CPAP to process.  Since he's a reservist we see civilian doctors at a civilian hospital, but we are covered by Tricare.  A couple of days ago he got the call, he's been involuntarily selected for activation for a deployment to Afghanistan.  What we're wondering is if his diagnosis of severe sleep apnea (I believe it qualified as severe, he had 22 apneas and 169 hypopneas in an hour) made by a civilian physician will show up on his MILITARY medical record.  When he goes in for all the pre-deployment work-ups, will they see that and put him on a profile?  Or will they not even know, and leave it up to him to mention it?  If he doesn't mention it, it's not like he can just casually bring his CPAP along right?  Not sure I'm phrasing this right, but if anyone relates or has any speculation as to how this will be handled please share!

Make sure he has a copy of the complete sleep study with him when he goes through the SRP process. ( including the charts and Dr's note on his stats and a copy of the CPAP script) He will most likely be deemed non- deployable if it is severe. Sounds like it is. They will put it in his records either at his unit or at the SRP.They will label his deployability as amber and he will not be deployed. I just went through the same deal about 3 months ago and they dont mess around with it. He will probably not even make it very long at mob station. He can remain in the reserves but can not deploy to Afganistan. Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, let me know. I will be glad to help you what i can.

ARMYofONE wrote:

It is NOT the ARMY Doctors job to find you fit for duty and they are bound like any other Doctor, military or civilian. The ARCENT and CENTCOM Surgeons will not grant a waiver for Sleep Apnea to areas of thaeter that do not have adequate power i.e. Iraq or Afghanistan. I was recently denied going to Qatar where they have barracks and substantial power supply. I can give you the CENTCOM Surgeons email. My Sleep Apnea is severe and now I have to sleep with oxygen (which was added after my waiver denial, two times) The first waiver denial was when I had mild sleep apnea, the second was when I had a updated sleep study and now it is severe. PM me if you need more. Stationed in Colorado Springs here.

I just found this out today and have a copy of both the pertinent pages of the PPG and the complete printout of Modification 9 (Tsk tsk, someone took it off AKO-S and put it out on AKO) that has the changes in it regarding sleep apnea. I pointed it out to my chain of responsibility and they needless to say were not very happy with me and said I was trying to just get out of the deployment. We'll see what happens next week when I go to the PDHA.

So, I did my SRP today and have been told I'm non-deployable.

According to my unit that means, "okay, we'll take you to Kuwait. See you in a year." How that makes no sense to me.

Its still going to be up to the ARCENT surgeon to waiver you in.  Your unit will send a waiver up to him and he will more than likely deny it if your SA is severe enough.

usarmy1978 wrote:

Its still going to be up to the ARCENT surgeon to waiver you in.  Your unit will send a waiver up to him and he will more than likely deny it if your SA is severe enough.

Which apparently wasn't the case. I haven't seen it yet, but I apparently was waivered.

superslacker87 wrote:

usarmy1978 wrote:

Its still going to be up to the ARCENT surgeon to waiver you in.  Your unit will send a waiver up to him and he will more than likely deny it if your SA is severe enough.

Which apparently wasn't the case. I haven't seen it yet, but I apparently was waivered.

So the waiver everyone thought went through, didn't. I went to do a new PDHA today and I was told yet again I can't deploy. Now they're talking about separating me. Not sure what to think.

To all My Military Brothers & Sisters,
   I have been in the Military for 32 Yrs and recently been diagnosed with OSA. I have been on the CPAP Machine for 6months, I can tell you that my blood pressure has dropped to 117 / 68 , I am not tired like I used to be and finally able to think clearly. Please do not put off this serious life threathen disease do whatever you can to diagnose and treat this disease so you can live a noprmal life !

                                 MSG D
                                 U.S ARMY