Can anyone offer any insight into qualifying for surgery with a 35 bmi and a sleep apnea diagnosis? My PCP referred me for a sleep study that I'm doing tonight at home because I said I have concerns about sleep apnea. If the test comes back with mild sleep apnea will that qualify as a comorbity or does it have to be moderate or severe? I have Kaiser in Northern California. I'm thinking I may have mild sleep apnea and I forsee Kaiser saying that it's not severe enough to qualify. So frustrating!

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I really don't know. I had WLS last Monday and they discovered I had a mild case while coming out of surgery. They had to delay my pain meds until I completely came to. It wasn't a big deal. They want me to do a study when time permits

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Same boat !

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I'm curious to any replies... I do my sleep test tomorrow.

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My BMI was 37 when I had surgery and I was diagnosed with sleep apnea a year and a half ago. I've never been told by any doctor that my apnea mild, moderate or severe. It's just apnea and I use a cpap. My insurance looked at my BMI and that I was being treated for sleep apnea. Simple as that.

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I have bcbs and their comorbidities list severe sleep apnea. Your right though, it is still sleep apnea. Keeping my fingers crossed my insurance is as nice as your.. ty!

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I wondered also with a low bmi, did you loose your weight fast and did you get to a point were you had to monitor getting too thin ?

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I have BCBS too. Hopefully your process is as painless as mine. I'm only 5 weeks out from surgery. I'm losing slooooow, but I just tell myself my extra skin will have an easier time going back to normal.

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That's so true !! And me too ,TY this gives me hope !

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You are telling my story with the exception that I was approved and had surgery on September 13th. Pre surgery: I am a 45 year old male 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighed in at 285. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea 3 years ago. With the exception of that diagnosis all of my pre-surgery tests came back very good. However with that said I was approved and had surgery September 13th I was surprised my insurance approved the surgery without hesitancy.

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Many insurance plans are similar, so I looked up what my insurance requirements were. It reads

Clinically significant obstructive sleep apnea.

So I did an internet search and came up with the following article. http://www.aasmnet.org/Resources/clinicalguidelines/OSA_Adults.pdf

This article goes into a lot more detail than I want to digest. But OSA is the abbreviated term for Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Clinically from my perception means that it was diagnosed in a clinic by medical professionals, such as a sleep study. Significant would mean that the results were detectable and serious.

So this overview paragraph seems to be a good summary.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common disorder affecting at least 2% to 4% of the adult population and is increasingly recognized by the public. The signs, symptoms and consequences of OSA are a direct result of the derangements that occur due to repetitive collapse of the upper airways: sleep fragmentation, hypoxemia, hypercapnia, marked swings in intrathoracic pressure, and increased sympathetic activity. Clinically, OSA is defined by the occurrence of daytime sleepiness, loud snoring, witnessed breathing interruptions, or awakenings due to gasping or choking in the presence of at least 5 obstructive respiratory events (apneas, hypopneas or respiratory effort related arousals) per hour of sleep. The presence of 15 or more obstructive respiratory events per hour of sleep in the absence of sleep related symptoms is also sufficient for the diagnosis of OSA due to the greater association of this severity of obstruction with important consequences such as increased cardiovascular disease risk.

I got the results and they said I have mild sleep apnea but they couldn't give me the specifics at the lab because apparently my dr has too. I'm assuming she's going to say to loose weight, at which point I'll ask for a bariactric referral again and she'll more than likely say no. So frustrating!

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My sleep apnea abated with the weight loss. That said, I used my machine until the readout showed there were no episodes for over 3 weeks. (My bipap tracked episodes where it needed to increase pressure). I ask, but no one I have slept with since I have dropped below 230 has ever mentioned the fact that I snore, which is really dang cool for everyone involved.

@@khoktzen severe sleep apnea is considered not breathing 45 times in the night.

I know this bc I just took an at home test, was mine was only about half that.

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@@khoktzen severe sleep apnea is considered not breathing 45 times in the night.

I know this bc I just took an at home test, was mine was only about half that.

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I was averaging 50+ episodes per HOUR during my sleep study. I wonder if that qualifies as extreme.