And by love, I mean absolutely loathe.
I suffer from Sleep Apnea.. where my breathing stops during sleep due to closed nasal passages. This causes the body to shift and attempt to shock itself into wakening to get oxygen into the system. This means I don't get good sleep, as the body is constantly fighting to get into the deeper stages of sleep
In my case, when I did an in home sleep study, it was determined I stopped breathing 12-72 times an hour, and had 85% oxygen in the system.
So, I got a CPAP machine, and I'm going to live happily (and sleepily) ever after right?
Nope. And the medical bureaucracies are to blame. See more after the orange squiggle.
First, the CPAP machine and mask they gave me did not work. Since I sleep on my stomach, they gave me a nose mask (forces air into the nose to keep the nasal passages open). However, because I'm used to breathing through my mouth, this means I end up "swallowing" a bunch of air, which goes down the wrong pipe, and causes a condition called aerophagia, as the air distends the stomach. Painful, and copunterproductive to the goal of getting good sleep.
So, when I called the doctor, he stated that he would prefer an in-house sleep study, not only to find a mask that will better fit my issues to eliminate the aerophagia, but to find the right pressure for me (right now, I'm using a wide value of pressures (5-15).
So, that was a week ago that he put in the order for the sleep study. I hadn't heard anything from them since, until today.
Today, I get a call from the company he put the sleep study into (they have a partnership with the hospital where I met my doctor).. they let me know they are waiting for a pre-authorization from my health care company. This is frustrating enough, so I call my healthcare company, and after being on hold 15 minutes, explain the situation to them and ask if there's anything I can do to expedite the situation.
No, I can't, they say, because the company who does authorization for sleep care studies for my health care provider needs to work with the company who does the sleep studies to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed.
So a company that works for the company needs to authorize a company that works for the hospital to get anything done.
Meanwhile, I can't use the CPAP machine, and I'm worried that the insurance company will use it as an excuse to take it back (I'm not considered compliant unless I use it 21 days a month at least four hours a day).
So in short, I'm stuck in multiple layers of medical bureaucracy and can't find my own way out.
Says something about the healthcare system we have, don't it?