Pilot Health Reg Questions

[robert l]

I'm about to go for my Class 3 Medical to start study for a PPL, and I have sleep apnea that is treated with a CPAP. Will this be a problem for my Medical?

I also have sleep apnea but I went to the Aeromed Dr. first. Big mistake ! He supposedly looked over my stuff and called me back a few weeks later for the exam. When I said something about getting a new C-PAP machine, he said, you have sleep apnea? Duh ! Did you even look at my paper work? I had to get the SD card from the back of my machine, take it to a place that deals with that kind of stuff and they did a print out for me. Which by the way, was 40 miles away. I also had to get a print out of my stress test from my cardiologist and a letter from my ophthalmologist, (blind in one eye), oh, and a letter from my sleep Dr. And my Aero doc said, I needed to get all this within a couple of weeks because he already started the ball rolling. Well, I got what he ask for and 5 weeks later I got a letter from the FAA, they needed the original print out from the stress test. (that pink, folded sheet that's about 10 ft. long. The cardiologist said they don't keep it, once he makes a digital copy and reads it, they toss it. Also, the ophthalmologist stuff wasn't good enough either and the letter from my sleep Dr. wasn't good enough either. F*&!!#G@^%?M*$#&!!!! Well, I did another stress test, (on my nickel)! another eye exam and another sleep study. All this required weeks and multiple trips even to the hospital to get a CD of my heart cath. I had 60 days in which to complete all this. OK, that's plenty of time, not so ! One Dr. was booked up for 5 weeks, I had a 3 day trip for a funeral and the sleep study was several weeks wait also. I'm making copies of everything as we speak, about 50 pages, not counting the stress test, I'm taking pictures of that ! This will all be mailed out tomorrow, the 19th, has to be there by the 25th and I'm getting delivery confirmation !!! It hasn't been a fun ride but I thought the consultation with the Aeromed Dr. was getting me on the right track. I guess I'll find out in a couple of months.
Bob

[martymayes]

I don't see how the initial visit was a mistake on your part. Obviously there was a breakdown in the process as the Dr. evidently did not look over your stuff.

I had to change Dr.'s after ~35 yrs when my Dr. retired. I went on a pre-visit to the new Dr. with "unofficial" form in hand and went over every detail regarding past and current medical conditions asking his opinion on whether or not there would be any problems and wrote down his responses, just in case he developed amnesia. He seemed kind of annoyed but I don't care. He was getting paid. I went back 2 weeks later fairly confident I would breeze through the process and that's how it went.

[robert l]

Glad it went good for you Marty. One good thing I have going for me is my wife is a nurse and used to work for my cardiologist, so when we needed something she called and he was glad to help out. His visit was the least worry of them all. Guess I'll know in a couple of months.
Bob

[robert l]

OK, yesterday I posted, whined, about all the hoops I have been having to jump through to get an up date for my 3rd class medical that I let expire years ago. I said I thought it was about 50 pages of stuff I was making copies of. The originals have to go to the FAA but I was making copies for myself, just in case. Well, I was wrong, it's happened before, a couple of times ! There weren't 50 pages, it was 92 pages and it got sent off today, overnight with confirmation request. But for now, I'm just getting ready for Saturday morning to start my trip to Oshkosh.
Bob