I understand how you feel.  I just wanted to be better and I felt like I was having to self-diagnose.  PCPs are doctors who see a wide range of issues and make less money than a specialists.  I tend to try and understand both sides, while knowing that the primary person responsible for my health is ME.  Doctors did not give me Sleep Apnea.  I do think this board serves a very useful purpose.  Once I found it, I was able to exchange ideas, which is what I want to do.  If I can help with my experiences to others, then I will.  Everybody is employed with the interests of making a buck, so are doctors.  We just have to keep them more informed as mentioned by someone earlier.  We can do that by exchanging our experiences concerning OSA and from time-to-time, giving that information back to them.  As for health insurance, I know some is better than others.  Such a pity the looming health care crisis in this country.

Vicki,

That describes many of my symptoms.  Good to hear that yours cleared up for you.  I have two books on Fibro, so I am not surprised that you describe the symptoms in such a way.  I also having a twitching problem that could explain why my muscles are sore.  I am most likely not relaxing as well at night as I could.  I find that the OSA contributes to anxiety, which does not help out.

laynei wrote:

  PCPs are doctors who see a wide range of issues and make less money than a specialists.  I tend to try and understand both sides, while knowing that the primary person responsible for my health is ME.  Doctors did not give me Sleep Apnea.  

The fact that PCPs make less money than specialist is not relevant to their ability or their willingness to spot potential OSA patients and refer  out to sleep medicine. As far as the primary person responsible for your health being you, that is entirely true. However, when responsible patients who are not feeling well go to PCP doctors, the PCP then has the duty and responsibility to be diligent and do a professional job. That means diagnosing you correctly and thoroughly. That means not just "skipping" the OSA diagnoses and blaming it on depression, anxiety or fibro and  prescribing antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. Or it could mean  doing both...prescribing medication AND a referral to the sleep study.

PCPs have to pull their load...they dont exist just to collect patient's insurance money.

Fred


_________________
"We don't need socialized medicine, what we need is insurance reform."


Resmed S8 Autoset Vantage, HumidAire 3i, Resmed Quattro ffmask

I agree that even today, most primary care doctors almost never consider OSA, unless you fit the classic profile (overweight, over 40, male, snores heavily and with a big neck). Now we know that even thin young women who don't snore can have obstructive sleep apnea. I keep sending back patients with newly diagnosed OSA to PCPs and they still continue to do the same thing.

To make matters worse, there are some people with very mild or "normal" AHI scores who are very tired, sleepy and chronically fatigued, no matter how long they sleep. These people are usually thin and more likely to be female than male. All these people have very narrow airways behind the tongue during endoscopy with them lying flat on their backs. They have multiple obstructions, but since they "wake up" subconsciously after only 1-9 seconds, these episodes don't get counted as an apnea. Some centers are calculating these episodes into the AHI to give an RDI (respiratory disturbance index), which is probably more accurate. Now there's evidence that even with a small drop in airway diameter, that you don't even have to pick up cortical brain wave arousals indicating waking up to disrupt deep sleep. It's all happening at the deep brain levels. There are sophisticated scoring techniques such as CAP (cyclic alternating patterns) that are being used experimentally. Also, inefficient sleep can lower pain thresholds. Add to this the low grade stress response which heightens your nervous system, and you are in trouble.

I don't know about angry. My father has Sleep Apnea and had been daignosed about two years before me. I knew I snored so loud that there were MANY nights that my wife had to sleep in another room. It wasn't until I had been married about five years when my wife told me that it wasn't the sleeping that bothered her, but when I stopped breathing! The next day I called my doctor (who was also my father's doctor). I told him I thought I had Sleep Apnea. He looked a little surprised and asked me how I knew. I gave him my symptoms and reminded him that I was the spittin' image of my father. He laughed and set me up an appointment with the Sleep Clinic. I was in and out in record time. What made me mad was that I had been living with the symptoms for about 15 years, my family never said anything, and my wife - who had up to then slept by my side for 5 years - never said anyting. I thought I was (and probably WAS because of the side-effects) suffering from clinical depression, but my Irish-Italian temperment would not allow me to see a doctor about it. Once I figured out what it was, there was a huge relief. I am still mad at myself for taking 15 years to figure it out!