I would be really P.O'd if anyone thought for a minute that I should be relieved of my driver's license.  I mean REALLY P.O'd.  Just because I am diagnosed with OSA (104.2AHI untreated) doesn't mean I am falling asleep while driving.  If it means I could well then I suppose I would have to be found sleeping through a stop light or something.  Really, an alcoholic may be drunk at the wheel for goodness sake..,.  I have travelled ALOT and in the past 20 years. I have driven over a half million miles in the middle of the night after working all day to get to where my job takes me.  I used to drive across the desert every Sunday and Wednesday or Sunday and Friday evenings.  AFTER WORKING all day.  I can't even believe the idea of taking my drivers license.  If I had a history of some kind like active seizures etc maybe but I have never even had a wreck.  Who is the doctor to even make that kind of suggestion.  Absolutely rediculous!

You're in la-la land. Your deceiving yourself and putting everyone else on the road w/you at risk. There's nothing ridiculous about it. If you don't care about yourself, at least have some consideration for the innocents on the same road as you.


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Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Resmed VPAP Auto. Humidaire 3i, Simplicity & Micro masks, ResScan 3.4, S8 ResLink, Embla oximeter.

Accx4 wrote:

I would be really P.O'd if anyone thought for a minute that I should be relieved of my driver's license.  I mean REALLY P.O'd.  Just because I am diagnosed with OSA (104.2AHI untreated) doesn't mean I am falling asleep while driving.  If it means I could well then I suppose I would have to be found sleeping through a stop light or something.  Really, an alcoholic may be drunk at the wheel for goodness sake..,.  I have travelled ALOT and in the past 20 years. I have driven over a half million miles in the middle of the night after working all day to get to where my job takes me.  I used to drive across the desert every Sunday and Wednesday or Sunday and Friday evenings.  AFTER WORKING all day.  I can't even believe the idea of taking my drivers license.  If I had a history of some kind like active seizures etc maybe but I have never even had a wreck.  Who is the doctor to even make that kind of suggestion.  Absolutely rediculous!

Accx4, I don't like the idea myself...but having a driver's license is a privilege, and not a right. Yeah, you may be driving around being P.O'd at the thought of your license being taken away (hopefully that thought will cause you NOT to fall asleep. BUT on the other hand....you could go out and unintentionally hit someone and then they die. Then comes the moment when you find out how someone else has the right to be even more P.O'd than you, because you decided to get behind the wheel, knowing that you could cause an accident, and commit voluntary manslaughter.

When I was working a double shift, and going to school at the same time (about 15 years ago), I did fall asleep behind the wheel, and proceeded to run a couple of stop signs....that woke me up and I decided that if I had to forfeit working two jobs, and going to school too, that I would do that...because I surely don't want to live my life knowing that I killed someone.

Please let me know if you ever plan on visiting Las Vegas, so I can warn everybody on the streets "HEY GET OFF THE SIDEWALKS, ACCX4, IS COMING TO LAS VEGAS!

METRO P.D. would be so on you, you wouldn't know what hit you!

Accx4; Driving with untreated sleep apnea is extremely dangerous; I know, I did it before I was diagnosed -- luckily I didn't have an accident.  

I believe that it should be just as illegal to drive with diagnosed but untreated sleep apnea as it is illegal to drive with diagnosed but untreated epilepsy.  I believe that the laws should be the same for untreated sleep apnea as they are for uncontrolled seizures.

All 50 states restrict driver's licenses for persons with active seizures that are untreated or not controlled by medication.  Six states (California, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania) require physicians to report patients who have seizures to the state.  At least one state, Pennsylvania, requires that you have a physical before you can get a drivers license, and one of the disqualifying medical conditions is untreated seizures.

I have a seizure disorder ( which I'm pretty sure is linked to years of untreated OSA by the way), and there are still people with seizure disorders who feel the same way about driving.  Nothing will stop them from getting behind the wheel of a car.  This is crazy thinking. You people need a few years in therapy to figure out why you are so hell bent on destroying other people's , and your own , lives.  Take the bus or a cab there please. Virginia


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Resmed elite , 17, mirage quattro ff . 25 + years of untreated OSA

Accx4 wrote:

I would be really P.O'd if anyone thought for a minute that I should be relieved of my driver's license.  I mean REALLY P.O'd.  Just because I am diagnosed with OSA (104.2AHI untreated) doesn't mean I am falling asleep while driving.

Then should we allow untreated ecliptics and narcoleptics to drive as well?  

After all they might not fall asleep or have a seizure while driving.

ok, stupid question number 1:

can a person with narcolepsy/sleep apnea have a seizure?

Can an untreated person with sleep apnea have a seizure? Absolutely! We all have our seizure triggers. For a lot of us, it takes a pretty low oxygen desat to trigger a seizure. For others, like myself, just a bad nights sleep and a bit of an oxygen dip.  Those little space outs that many of us have, if there is a bit of confusion afterwards, it could be a seizure.  Micro-sleeps are similar, but you don't get confused after them. If you leave those small seizures untreated for long enough, they will generilize into a larger one. Unfortunetly many neorologists are only interested in getting the seizures under control with anti-convulsiants, you have to push to get off of the meds. I have been on dilantin therapy for years, it has only been in the past year since I have worked to get my apnea under control that the seizures have been stopped. I've been 7 months seizure free, and my neoro won't consider taking me off of the med until I have been free for a year, and then only after a mri and an eeg to rule out epilepsy.  A lot of time and money wasted for a condition that should have been discovered 12 years earlier.  I'm seeing my pcp tuesday, and we will discuss how things will go from here.  I've got my brain back, and I am not going to put up with this *&^% any more. Virginia


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Resmed elite , 17, mirage quattro ff . 25 + years of untreated OSA

Quote:

can a person with narcolepsy/sleep apnea have a seizure?

Yes.  Also, there may be a link between central sleep apnea and epilepsy.  Drops in blood oxygen may trigger seizures, even in the absence of epilepsy.

I was untreated up until the 27th of April.  I drive every day.  Somedays I am sleepy some days I am not.  How is that any different than anyone else?  People come to work tired for all kinds of reasons.  And carry guns for goodness sake.  Patrol the streets, drive, chase people, get out of work, grab some beers, party until the wee hours and go to work again.  That is life.  I average 4 and a half hours of sleep on nights I work.  That in itself would make someone tired.  That is life.  If I have an accident, then at that point I can evaluate my driving habits with relation to my sleeping habits.  But until then, get off my back.  You may be narcoleptic and fall asleep in your spaghetti but I have never done that.  I have dozed while driving in the middle of the night on the highway but Hmmm... last time I checked the crashed cars weren't me.  You can think I am being ridiculous but PLEASE... When I have a problem driving I will deal with it then.  To arbitrarily take someone's drivers license because of a blanket diagnosis is absolutely wrong.  Just because I have OSA doesn't mean I have driving problems.  Thats ridiculous!  And completely WRONG.  Every day someone kills someone else on the road.  They don't all have sleep apnea.  So why do they have their driver's license still?  Get real!

No one takes your liscence away because of a blanket diagnosis. They take it away because you are an impaired driver.  It doesn't matter a whit to me what is causing your impairment, you are impaired if you fall asleep at the wheel.  Go ahead and do what many epileptic people do, and lie to the doctor. You'll keep your liscence , but the moment you have an accident and injure someone else you will not be driving for a long while. You will have no need for a car in prison. But that's life. Virginia


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Resmed elite , 17, mirage quattro ff . 25 + years of untreated OSA

Our 16 year old fell a sleep at the wheel on the freeway at 65mph.  She ran off the road into the cable barrier in the center median and it ATE her car.  She was fine fortunately and no other cars were involved thank goodness.  But that is what CAR INSURANCE is for.  Accidents.  Our 16 year old has no sleep disorders other than she is 16 and works and goes to school and talks on the phone til God knows when.  I get tired when I drive long distances.  but with over a half million miles in 300 mile increments over the past 21 years I have a flawless record.  Not even a ticket.  So even if my doctor asked me honestly how I felt, I would HONESTLY reply fine.  No different than anyone else who gets up for work at 2:30am after going to bed at 10:30 and having to drive 300 miles before midnight to get up at 4:30am.  That is how it is so I deal with it.  I could get into an accident ANY DAY just backing out of the driveway.  Its the chance you take driving.  And like I said, that is what insurance is for.  I don't lie to the doctor.  I have sleep apnea but my day time sleepiness is no different than anyone elses.

You are SELFISH and ignorant w/absolutely no regard for anyone but yourself.


_________________
Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
Resmed VPAP Auto. Humidaire 3i, Simplicity & Micro masks, ResScan 3.4, S8 ResLink, Embla oximeter.

I'm not going to argue with you anymore.  Do what you want to do, and I'll continue to do what I want to do. Keeping myself and everyone else safe.  I used to be embarrassed to tell someone I have never held a driver's licsence, but not anymore. I'm proud of the fact. God bless you and your family, you need all of the blessings you can get.  Virginia


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Resmed elite , 17, mirage quattro ff . 25 + years of untreated OSA