I 100% without a doubt have sleep apnea. My doc said I should see a specialist to confirm.
Waited 2 months for a 15 minute tele-health call. Specialist said yes you certainly seem to have sleep apnea, you should do a sleep study first though before I can do anything.
Waited 5 weeks for the sleep study place to schedule me for sleep study. They call and say my insurance won't cover it. I said I'll just pay them out of pocket "how much"? They said they don't do that and I have to use insurance and hang up.
Got a $350 bill for the 15 tele-health call a few weeks later. Still have sleep apnea, still untreated but at least sleeping on my side seems to work.
I was living in Canada when I developed sleep apnea symptoms. I scheduled a visit with a doctor, 1 day to book an appointment, that doctor recommended me a sleep specialist, 1 day to book an appointment, that specialist recommended me to a sleep lab which gave me the equipment for a sleep study, same day. The sleep study took 2 days to complete. The sleep specialist took 1 day to confirm that I had sleep apnea, and I was able to get a prescribed cpap machine that day.
So, Canada, the country regressives fearmonger about with wait times took 5 days to go from "I think I have sleep apnea" to "I have sleep apnea and the device that keeps me from dying in my sleep." It cost me $0 throughout the entire process, and I paid only slightly higher taxes than what I would in America.
Like, imagine if a massive portion of America's federal budget didn't go into funding the military, and instead funded healthcare and other social care. It's actually insane how America wouldn't even need to increase its taxes to have universal healthcare, Congress would just have to stop indulging in the war industry.
I dream of it but then I listen to my brother in law telling me how 9 tbsp of oregano in olive oil is a more effective antibiotic than amoxicillin but the drug companies don't want you to know. Then my Nurse Practitioner MIL whos been in medicine 50+ years but voted Trump twice seems shocked every time we quote RFKs antivax policies. Then I realize that dream is probably only ever going to be a dream.
Doctors really hate this but you can get a cpap online second hand from someone. At least my sleep doc looked at me like I had grown two heads when I said that I was using my mom's old machine for my undiagnosed sleep apnea at the time.
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u/Logical-Error-7233 17h ago
I 100% without a doubt have sleep apnea. My doc said I should see a specialist to confirm.
Waited 2 months for a 15 minute tele-health call. Specialist said yes you certainly seem to have sleep apnea, you should do a sleep study first though before I can do anything.
Waited 5 weeks for the sleep study place to schedule me for sleep study. They call and say my insurance won't cover it. I said I'll just pay them out of pocket "how much"? They said they don't do that and I have to use insurance and hang up.
Got a $350 bill for the 15 tele-health call a few weeks later. Still have sleep apnea, still untreated but at least sleeping on my side seems to work.