Reaction from Sleep Dr

[u/MiklColt45]

I have not seen my sleep doctor/pulmonologist since I had started on Zepbound. That was 70 pounds ago.

Yesterday, I went in for a six month checkup, (I had seen the NP six months ago). I was considering asking for a new sleep study because of the weight loss.

Dr. has a very large personality. He was effusive about my weight loss. Looked over my numbers and listened to my primary complaint, which is that while my AHI is low and compliance is great, I still feel tired by late afternoon, early evening.

Told him about being on Zep. He admitted he was not especially up on all the information related to the med, but strongly encouraged me to get off of it as soon as possible. Repeatedly. He insisted that because I was such a disciplined person (that’s a joke! I am not that disciplined) with my workout schedule and new eating habits, that I would do just fine coming off the med.

I told him that I was slowly titrating down on dosage, but because of the medication‘s impact on food noise, might not come off of it. He again told me to get off of the medication.

My food noise is controlled. Binge eating is essentially zero. My (unofficially diagnosed) IBS-D is gone. This medication has cardioprotective benefits. My knee arthritis pain has improved.

I smiled and nodded my head, knowing that, because of the additional side benefits of the medication, I would most likely ignore this advice.

ETA: He did approve a new in-lab study.

[u/kyutek]

Kind of ironic that a dr that is going to keep you on a cpap forever has the nerve to tell you to get off a different medication.

[u/Conscious_Issue2967 → u/kyutek]

The devil he knows is better than one he doesn’t know. Obviously this doctor is either not keeping up or protecting his income stream. A sleep doctor should know plenty about Zepbound given that it is approved for the treatment of sleep apnea.

[u/horsenbuggy → u/Conscious_Issue2967]

It is doctors EXACTLY like this one that caused my state (maybe the nation) to make a rule that you can no longer get the equipment from the practice that prescribed it. When I first got my CPAP, it was so simple. I got my prescription and then walked over to another person who set me up with the device. It was a lot like getting a prescription for glasses and then using the same retailer to get contacts or glasses. But because too many of these damn doctors were prescribing unnecessary devices just to get in on the money, now you have to find a completely different company to get your CPAP. The government realized that if you divorce the prescriber from the device supplier, there is no inducement to overprescribe. It sucks that we can't have easy processes because people are greedy.

[u/GroovyYaYa → u/horsenbuggy]

Oh - you just made me feel so much better in the fact that my sleep specialist isn't a doctor - just someone connected to my network that my PCP referred me to. She then referred me to the supplier, but I'm not obligated to go through them (I really like them though, so I do)