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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsMy DOT physical certification is up in the air.
I'm a trucker and all CDL holders have to pass a Department of Transportation physical given by a certified doctor. My physical certification expires in a few days so I went to the doctor to get re-certified.
A new thing starting last year with the DOT physicals was that they have to check for signs of sleep apnea. These include body mass index and the size of your neck relative to the size of your throat. I am a fat guy and I have an 18.5 inch neck so they said I have to get tested. I can do everything at home, but it's going to put me out of work for a little bit.
Back when I smoked cigarettes, my wife told me that I snored a lot and sometimes gasped for air in my sleep. Around the time I quit smoking I tried to get tested for sleep apnea, but my insurance wouldn't cover it. Evidently, I had to be dying from it before my insurance kicked in. They wouldn't just allow me to get tested. The test at the local hospital costs $4800 and I can't afford that so I went without the test. As time went by without me smoking, my wife said my snoring greatly improved and I stopped gasping for air in my sleep so I figured I was okay anyway.
I don't have any of the symptoms of sleep apnea now, but the doctor said that since I have the physical traits that can cause it I have to get tested regardless. If it does turn out that I do have it, I'll have to get CPAP machine to sleep with, and do another test with it before I can be certified to drive again. This time the insurance has to cover it.
Commercial drivers are held to a much higher standard when it comes to certification and their licenses. You can't just decide you want to drive a truck for a living one day and just hop in one and go. To haul hazardous materials now you have to be certified by the TSA. You know how dealing with them goes. I was born in Germany to American parents. They ask for your place of birth on the hazmat security clearance application. I have to put Germany down and I can't offer any explanation at the time I'm filling out the application that shows that I'm a U.S. citizen. So I turn in the application and my clearance gets denied because they don't think I'm a U.S. citizen and that I'm in the country illegally. That's happened to me both times I've applied. The second time despite actually having obtained clearance the first time I applied. Then I have to go through a month of bullshit proving I'm a U.S. citizen that involves sending copies of my most sensitive personal documents in the mail.
Fuck that. I let my hazmat endorsement expire when I started driving for a company that didn't require it.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,681 posts)I hope it goes smoothly.
Hey, I can dream, can't I?
Good luck!
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)This gives me a few days during the week to scout for jobs. I have an interview that I just scheduled a few minutes ago that I would not have been able to go to if I wasn't going to be off work. I got the call that they were interested while I was in the exam room at the doctor's office waiting for the doctor.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,681 posts)Best of luck!
I'm sure they'll love you.
denbot
(9,901 posts)I'm home and am trying to get in to see my doctor later this week.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)The tape measure.
denbot
(9,901 posts)Not my doctor, but one out of the same office. I think I am going to get away with printing out the DOT form on card stock, and getting it signed off with a normal physical.
I don't have sleep appnia BTW.
rurallib
(62,444 posts)maybe you will have another option.
Good luck.
petronius
(26,603 posts)apnea would get insufficient recuperation during the sleep period?
I know it's a serious issue so forgive my bemusement, but it's strikes me as funny that the DOT would want truckers to be good sleepers - staying awake seems like more of a job qualification!
Good luck with the bureaucracy...
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)People with sleep apnea tend to be tired when they are supposed to be alert. But, yeah, we've come a long way since the days of white lines and little white pills.
For the most part, the new regulations are for the better except when it comes to log book regulations. They still haven't sufficiently sorted that one out. But if everyone who had a driver's license had to undergo the same testing and regulations that truckers do, those tests and regulations would be history in short order.
CanSocDem
(3,286 posts)...letting doctors, the DOT, the highway patrol and the border patrol invade every facet of my life, looking for something wrong, I feel a lot better since I retired. I thought of maintaining my class 1 but it would mean allowing the medical industry to inspect my bodily fluids for signs of non-compliance.
Hell with that. I'm old enough and smart enough (thanks to my years as an OTR driver) to make my own decisions. Logbooks made a liar out of me but I lived to tell about it....
.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Fuck that guy Tobin, he either has a vested interest in a testing clinic or he's totally ignorant of what the FMCSA rule actually is on sleep apnea, and he can't because THERE ISN'T ONE YET.
That doctor has no right whatsoever to mandate that you need testing for apnea as there is no ruling yet in force under the FMCSA that says he can do so
The testing companies are telling doctors that apnea testing is mandatory, and that is a flat-out lie.
Congress directed the FMCSA through legislation that they were not allowed to bypass their own rule-making process and only use guidance in enacting any sleep apnea testing criteria. There must be a rule put into force, guidance alone isn't enough.
Call OOIDA, seriously, give them the lowdown. You don't have to be a member and they just might be glad to hear from you on this issue and how doctors are totally misinformed on it.
kacekwl
(7,021 posts)what is the OOIDA ?
NewDeal_Dem
(1,049 posts)You know, I bet a lot of people don't think to question people like doctors. I'm guessing that's a part of where you get your user name.
MADem
(135,425 posts)If so, I'd put the base name in as the city (e.g. Ramstein AFB Germany) --might help them figure out you were a US citizen born abroad.
Tobin S.
(10,418 posts)They would probably still ask for proof from me even though that information is probably readily available in one of their data bases seeing as how I have a social security number.
Besides, I'm done with that now.
MADem
(135,425 posts)embassy/consulate, would have stood you in good stead all those years!