Sleep Apnea

[thinkverybig]

I have been out of the Army since 1989 and over the years my mates have told me I use to stop breathing in my sleep and of course, I blew it off. When I heard that Reggie White died of sleep apnea, I got more serious about it and had a sleep study done and has since been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea in 2007. Can I get VA disability for this?

At what point if I do receive disability for sleep apnea, would they say the effective date is?

Another question is I am service connected for my left ankle and his sense gotten a bone spur in my right ankle and gets pain their occasionally. I have no insurance and can not get a doctor to document it as possibly the reasons of over-compensating for the left. Can I get an increase for the right ankle? What advice can you give me?

Thanks for your help!

[Pete53]

Big:

Welcome to Hadit. You need a current diagnosis which you have, you need to show in your Medical Records or by an Opinion that the sleep disorder started in service and you need to show that it caused you some problems since you left the Service. If it is severe it can get a pretty high rating.

I have sleep apnea and I use a CPAP machine that the VA gave me. Its a life saver.

[Erich]

I also have obstructive sleep apnea and the VA denied my claim for a service connection. I was prescribed the C-Pap and tried it several times with no success. I still wake up about every hour or so thru out the night. I am tired and have very little energy during the day which causes big problems in my life. I went back to the VA and told them the C-pap didn't work for me hoping they would do surgery... they esentially said that is all they could offer me. So I am stuck with this and will probably end up like Reggie White some day.

I'm told it is difficult to get this condition related to your service so you will probably have a long fight on your hands getting compensation... That doesn't mean you shouldn't try though.

[Jim MAC]

Sleep Apnea is hard to get SC for I was lucky I was arguing with my wife ( we were marriead about 1 year at the time) she said that I snored so loud and stoped breathing. I was on active duty then so I went and saw a DR who sent me out for a sleep study. This Dr (Air Force) was the first Dr who did more then give me mortrin and send me back to work. O had my sleep study dodne while I was on termnal leave. I was grantes 50 percent for sleep apena with use of a CPAP it does take awhile to get used 2. Sometimes I go to bed without wearing it and my wife will wake me up to put it on. Its going to take some work to get yours SC but I would try it get lots of buddy statements. Did you get in trouble in the military for oversleeping? Falling asleep on duty.

Jim

[carlie]

thinkverybig,

Welcome to Hadit.

"Another question is I am service connected for my left ankle and his sense gotten a bone spur in my right ankle and gets pain their occasionally. I have no insurance and can not get a doctor to document it as possibly the reasons of over-compensating for the left. Can I get an increase for the right ankle? What advice can you give me? "

Since you are SC'd for your left ankle you can go to VA and see the doc for it.

You can ask the VA doc if a new disability on your right ankle is secondary

to your SC'd left ankle. If the doc writes up that yes it is , then I would file

a request for an increase.

How do you know that your right ankle has a bone spur ?

The right ankle compensating for the left ankle would not produce bone spurs.

carlie

[fedtech]

Sleep Apnea is hard to get SC for I was lucky I was arguing with my wife ( we were marriead about 1 year at the time) she said that I snored so loud and stoped breathing. I was on active duty then so I went and saw a DR who sent me out for a sleep study. This Dr (Air Force) was the first Dr who did more then give me mortrin and send me back to work. O had my sleep study dodne while I was on termnal leave. I was grantes 50 percent for sleep apena with use of a CPAP it does take awhile to get used 2. Sometimes I go to bed without wearing it and my wife will wake me up to put it on. Its going to take some work to get yours SC but I would try it get lots of buddy statements. Did you get in trouble in the military for oversleeping? Falling asleep on duty.

Jim