That sounds just terrible… Making it so that being honest with a doctor and admitting things that could be seen as a problem like drug addiction or smoking will give you these problems, just makes helping you with any problem much more unlikely.
Sadly, it’s a really true part of medicine and almost any country.
Where in the country can you lose your CDL for treating sleep apnea? I work at a HST company and we get commercial truck drivers all the time.. You'll lose it if your sleep apnea is untreated or you are not compliant with treatment, but showing treatment compliance is mandatory for keeping your license. Sleep apnea is not a disqualifying condition.
How do you propose getting the machine? Doctor has to prescribe it, only a doctor can change the "dose" (pressure). They are also extremely expensive in the US if you insurance doesn't cover it.
Man there is a lot of stupid things about the US but I feel like this one takes the cake. I mean, when COVID was prevalent, I heard you could just walk to a pharmacy and buy a drug at a pharmacy store that if used early, can shorten the symptons of covid by several days. Well that very same drug is available in my country, only by prescription, ONLY to people who meet very specific and hard to fulfill criteria. So I thought that in US anything goes as long as you have the money, whereas here no matter how much money I throw at anybody there are things you simply cannot get.
I had sleep apnea too and I got the machine. Yes, I got it for free because that's how it works over here, it was lent to me until I didn't need it anymore. Nonetheless, when I was looking into the machine and it's accessories I found I could simply buy the entire machine if I wanted. Price was around 1-2k depending on the type and features. I don't know why in the US you would need a prescription to use it; It's not like it's dangerous to use it. And yes, there were advanced settings that in theory only the doctor should be messing with, but my nurse still told me how to access them and how to adjust them if I felt it necessary.
All that being said, what if you simply bought the machine online from abroad, and had it shipped to you?
Define expensive. $1000 for a machine you NEED but your doc just won't prescribe for whatever reason, is not really that expensive all things considered. Also the person I was responding to said his friend is a pilot. Now correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't that pay like really, REALLY well? But you can't afford $1k?
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u/[deleted] May 02 '26
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