I was honorably discarged out of the Marine Corps in 1987.  I made complaints about not sleeping while I was in the Marines----these are alll entered into my SMR.   No over the years I have found out what is wrong wit me---OSa---severe.  I have been treated in the last two months but was told by my rt that sleep apnea has really only been around 12-15 years-----I got out 22 years ago.


I am looking to pay some doctor for a medical opinion and let me describe my evidence-----got an numbers?


thanks

tim

Call the American Board of Sleep Medicine and the American Board of Specialty Medicine to find an accredited sleep doctor near you.

Vicki


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That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

timintenn wrote:

...but was told by my rt that sleep apnea has really only been around 12-15 years...

It depends what he/she means by "been around".

The first observation was probably by Charles Dickens 171 years ago.  Effective treatment (although admittedly somewhat aggressive) was 39 years ago.  Dement and Guilleminault were routinely testing for it 38 years ago.  CPAP came into play 27 years ago.

Quote:

History of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

In 1837 Charles Dickens undoubtedly described the first sleep apnea patient in “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”. One of his characters (Joe) was described as follows, “ … and on the box sat a fat and red-faced boy, in a state of somnolency.”

In 1918 Sir William Osler coined the term “Pickwickian” to refer to obese, hypersomnolent patients. In 1956, Dr. Burwell and colleagues in describing several obese, hypersomnolent patients with respiratory and cardiac failure coined the term “Pickwickian Syndrome”

It wasn’t until 1965 that a French group of investigators, Dr. Gastault and colleagues made the important observation that “Pickwickian” patients had repetitive apnea events while asleep. Following this, Dr. Kuhlo and colleagues (1969) described a marked improvement in patients treated with tracheostomy. This established that a major reason why apneas occur is the collapse and closure of the upper airway breathing passage during sleep. In 1978 Dr. John Remmers and colleagues described the interaction between sleep, the breathing muscles of the chest, and the muscles of the upper airway which explained to a large degree why the upper airway collapses during sleep, leading to obstructive sleep apnea.

In 1981 Drs. Sullivan, Berthon-Jones, Issa and Eves from Australia published the first account of treating sleep apnea patients with continuous positive airway pressure (“CPAP”), thus initiating the most common and successful treatment, currently known, for this disorder. This landmark paper prompted a vast amount of research which has shed much light on why sleep apnea occurs, how common it is and what type of treatments are most successful.

M.

timinteen have you checked with your VA rep? and have you got your medical records from when you were in? and since you were not diagnosed with SA while you were in the service it will probably be very difficult for you to prove you has SA back then and also show that it is a service connected disability. I also have moderate to severe complex SA  and I was diagnosed 15 years after I retired from the military, and I also get VA disability over 60%. But I have not tried to claim my SA thru the VA because I am not sure it is service connected, and I don't know that it could be proved that it is! Anyway you do have your work cut out for you, and even if you find a Doctor to write a report for you, I don't see how he could definitely diagnose that you had SA that far back without proper documentation. I do wish you luck on this and hope things work out for you!


_________________
White Beard with a White Beard
Resmed VPAP Adapt SV Enhanced, HumidAire 2i, ResLink with Model 8000 Flex sensor Pulse Oximeter, and ResScan 3.5 software. Respironic EverFlo OPI Oxygen Concentrator 3 lpm
EEP 9.0, min PS 6.0, max PS 16.0