ptsd Sleep Apnea Nexus

[old romad]

Have DMII, ptsd, hbp,all service connected and now diagnosed with sleep apnea and cpap machine issued. Which is best nexus to sc ?

[Berta]

Old Romad

"Which is best nexus to sc"

whichever one you can get a medical opinion to strongly establish.

Do you have your medical records? Perhaps a linkage was made by a doctor when you were diagnosed with this.

This is one of many studies done to reveal the association of diabetes to sleep apnea and also to

its secondary affect due to diabetes:

http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/full/127/3/1074

There are many abstracts on the net as to sleep apnea and it's relationship to anxiety disorders like PTSD as well as HBP.

If I were you I would claim it as secondary to your service connected conditions and then seek a medical opinion that strongly associates this condition to one or all of your disabilities.

[Pete53]

Hypertension and Diabetes are both primary conditions that cause sleep apnea. You should get the records that got you the CPAP and see how they wrote it up.

[stillhere]

Nomad, did you ever file for your sleep apnea? If so what nexus were you able to use. I have just been dx for sleep apnea moderate and issued a cpap machine and looking to claim it. I am sc for db2 and hypertension and heart disease.

Thanks for your help, Stillhere

[jbasser]

I filed a claim in 2005 for Sleep Apnea secondary to sc HTN. It was denied but it sent in a NOD and now it is going to the BVA fairly soon. I know it will be remended at the BVA for there was no C@P for the Sleep Apnea. The RO's will tap dance around this issue. It is best to get your Medical opinion first and then send it in.

On a stronger note, anyone that has undiagnosed sleep apnea has a horrible chance of developing Pulmonary Hypertension as well as arrythmias. So if you are issued a CPAP machine, Please use it.

[Ricky]

The reason that you guys are having a hard time providing a nexus is that the CURRENTLY (Notice I said CURRENTLY) accepted medical opinion is that Sleep Apnea aggravates other disabilities such as HTN and DMII. There are a few studies and a few doc's out there who say HTN and DM can lead to Sleep Apnea, however, the over riding majority stand on the fact that Sleep Apnea aggravates those two and increases your chances of getting them.

However, this is not to say it is impossible to do. As Berta said all it takes is a good IMO WITH AN EXCELLENT RATIONAL!. The Rational is insturmental in such a case. An IMO without a very good supporting rational in this type of claim is worthless and a waste of money. Most (not all) sleep doc's will not do an IMO so you will have to rely on a primary care or neuro doc. I have worked several claims like this in this area and only seen one of them get approved. The approved one had a very strong, this vet specific, rational. I do not have a copy of it but it provided that although the accepted medical opinion was that SA normally increased HTN and DM or led to them, in this vet blah blah blah. My opinion is based upon my 15 year history of treating this veteran in which he has presented with both DM or HTN for 10 of those years. As a result it is my opinion that both of these conditions have led to and are the direct cause of his SA. This opinion is based upon the study conducted by XXXXXXXX at XXXXXXXXXX in which it has been proven that such conditions can and have led to sleep apnea in patients blah blah. Not the exact wording, however as you can see a rational such as this is very detailed. As I recall it was about a page and one-half of rational.

The others kinda of stated that my opinion is that Mr. x has SA which was caused by HTN and DM. This opinion is based upon the fact that I am a good doctor.........

And as always all of this is just my opinion and is based upon what I have seen in the past. With the inconsistacys in the VA about all anyone can have these days is opinions for their actions will not allow anyone to base anything on fact.

[Pete53]

So when I came home from the Army and my wife says I had the symptoms and I get a IMO that links my sleep apnea to my service than what?

I have a VA CPAP for over a year now and I had a Civilian CPA for 3 years before that.

By the way when I developed a bad cough form using Lisinopril I was unable to use my CPAP cause it aggravated my cough. I just started using it again after a 3 month interval.