Central Apnea

[cooter]

Has anyone heard of a machine used for patients with Central Apnea that automatically comes on and off when you stop breathing? It's not a CPAP. I think the Dr mentioned something like a cervo device.

[Computer Tech]

I've had that problem several times but strangely if I work nights I didn't have a period, it was only on day shift. Fortunately I'm retired now so I can take naps, it seems like a couple of hours after I get up in the morning I've got to take an hour's nap. Hopefully once I get my APAP machine on Tuesday I won't have to take my nap.

Rick

[cooter]

That's really strange. You would think you would feel sleepy at night as well. My wife has a newer version mask for the cpap. I guess it's not as bulky as the older version. I love it when she's wearing it cause it drowns out her snoring a bit. ha

[Interested]

Most folks think that all treatments they have in service are recorded in their Service Medical Records (SMRs) - not true. The SMRs record out-patient treatments only - in-patient records are not in the SMRs When a troop was admitted to a hospital for in-patient treatment, SMRs sometimes reported the fact of the admission but not the treatment. Post-discharge treatments are recorded in the SMRs though.

In-patient treatment records are maintained by the hospital/medical center for a certain amount of time, and then sent "elsewhere" - they are not destroyed. However, getting these in-patient treatment records can be tedious and long drawn out because you are asking for a file by file search by a real live person through the Records Center.

Unless you told the VARO about the hospital admission, it isn't likely that the VARO will ask for the search. When you tell the VARO, however, you have to be fairly specific about the dates. For example, you can't say that you were admitted to some military hospital in 1970. You have to say that you were admitted to Wiesbaden Medical Center in October 1970 for _______ treatment. At worst, the time span must be three months or less.

There were alot of dx's back in the Nam era that they had no idea what was what, which is one of the main reasons us older vets get screwed proving our claims. Among other reasons, the lost of records in our SMR. If I had all my hospital and clinic records that are missing, I would already be rated 100% either IU or schedular. Also Rick, I believe the max for apnea with use of cpap is 50%. Not sure where you heard 60% from, but perty sure it's 50%.

[cooter]

I tried calling the hospital itself with no luck. Also sent the request form with all the info relating to my hospital stay to the archives department in St Louis with no luck. Hired a "pay if found" outfit to search with no luck. The incident involved a serious parachute fall at Ft. Benning, GA in 76 that required hospital care. Xray's, cast's, etc. The RO granted me SC on knee only due to what I stated on the exit exam. Without those xray's and hosp. notes I have 0 chance for a no brainer claim. Now the only way to proceed is to claim everything secondary to my SC knee.

[Computer Tech]

Cooter;

I looked up the sleep apnea rating and here's what I found:

50% rating Requires use of breathing assistance device such as continuous airway pressure (CPAP) machine.

The way I read this is that as long as you're on some sort of breathing assistance machine regardless of whether it's a CPAP, APAP or that ASV machine you should get a 50% rating. But how many of us old timers are going to be able to get sc'd for sleep Apnea.

Kaiser gave me a nose mask that wasn't too bad, the only problem is that they wanted $900 for the machine. Tuesday I go to the VA for my machine and as far as I know they're not going to charge for it. It'll be interesting to see what knid of mask they give me.

Rick

[cooter]

That's good to know that they'll give a rating for the ASV device. I been doing some reading today on people with central sleep apnea and according to what I read, the Dr's are pushing this device for the CSA. Also was saying that people taking opiate's like oxycodone, morphine, etc. has a big effect in getting false positive readings during the sleep study. They performed a sleep study using patients that took their meds (opiates) at 2 am and at 4 am their readings (total apneas) were triple above what they were before. The conclusion of the study found, the CPAP was uneffective for these patients. Here's the link if anyone wants to read it...http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/133/6/1484.full.