I was wondering if there were any active duty, retired, reservist, or other military people on this forum. I retired from the USAF in '92. At the time the USAF did not seem to understand OSA and I really suffered my last two years in. I would like to hear if any of you had better luck with military doctors.

there are several of us that are in the military or are retired (i retire at the end of feb 07   ).  to answer your question it depends on which military service you are in.  in the air force if your CC writes a letter saying that you are valuable to the unit you have a good chance at staying in.

Most of the time I was in, if you were tired all the time you needed exercise and diet. The doctor I had at Edwards AFB when this started did not even mention or think of a sleep study. Has this changed any? Congrats on the retirement. Made any plans on what you are going to do?

Yes things have changed, at least in the air force.  i was told that i had OSA abot 8+ years.  it might just be the DR that i had.

Glad to hear things are changing. Glad to see you got to stay on active duty. I found another thread here on the forum that has been discussing the military and sleep apnea. It seems that the way sleep apnea is treated is different from one Military to another. The Army seems to be better able to deal with it. Hope things work well for you when you retire.

Left the Navy after 10 years and my OSA was a big part of that decision.  Had decent doc but took 3-5 months to see him.  Not many doc's for OSA.  Also took me 9 months on the waiting list for my sleep study.  If I could have gotten in once a month or so I might have been able to get the energy to work out, would have not been borderline for my weight and would have felt more comfortable in passing my PFA's for the last 10 years, but didn't want to chance getting booted so I got out when the gettin' was good.  Now I am at my doc's as fast as I can and looking at gettting better hopefully in the near future.

I retired from the USAF after thirty years and will have my fourth Sleep Study with CPAP this week.  TRICARE has never refused the doctor's referrals and will pay for the CPAP.  I will have a monthly copay (about $20) for the first year.  TRICARE provides the CPAP on a rent to purchase plan.  After the first year you have no copay, but responsible for the Mask/supplies.  The machine is paid for.  I do not know what happens if the machine fails after the first year.

Cecil


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Help me I sleeping and cannot breath...

I am active duty Air Force, been in 23 years 5 months.  I am retiring in Dec 07.  I have been on the CPAP sinse Jun 05.  I have had 2 med boards, both returned me to duty (1st 4T 3C code then 4T 2C).  I also have Dilated Cardiomyopathy, ashma, secondary pulmonary hypertension.


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I didn't go into the military myself, but I did grow up on Air Force bases

My dad was career Air Force, was forced out in '92 with the Clinton administration cutbacks that hit so many people (had a couple of years knocked off his final enlistment, forced to retire at 24 years rather than 26). He had untreated sleep apnea, which along with the damage caused by smoking contributed to the heart disease that ultimately killed him at age 53.  I'm hoping to reverse the trend, as my grandfather was also career Air Force and died at age 54 from lung cancer most likely due to smoking and extensive asbestos handling in the '70s in the service.


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