Dr. Douglas Benjamin Kirsch, MD

Doug was there at the office and saw me on time - big factor for me. He goes beyond a basic explanation, he gets granular, probably b/c he is a published researcher. I made a comment that I could remember my multiple dreams, therefore I was having SA episodes. He quickly came back to refute my claim. Not a problem. He then collected data from my CPAP that validated that I was having episodes, an average of 3 per hour...which he claimed was excellent, any number under 5 he said is very good. 2 years ago, I was a mess. I was having multiple episodes along with panic attacks - swimming in a sea of cold night sweats, and needless to say afternoon naps. And grouchy as all get out. So, I am taller and better looking b/c of the CPAP usage. To comment on other peoples comments on here about Doug...you need to give more than 40 days to get use to a CPAP machine. It took me nearly 6 months until I was completely acclimated to using it nightly. One thing I did not do b/c of cost, is to get a… technician involved. I'm sure my learning curve and sleep percentage would have increased significantly had I had better insurance to pay for the specialized help. The right mask is another consideration. It took experimenting with 5 mask until I settled on one that worked for me. And even then, I still needed tweaking . Doug is very smart, very articulate, very open to discuss, but the appointment lasted exactly 20 minutes for beginning to end, no accident it was 20 minutes. But I would recommend him over another sleep Doctor that was useless. Wait time was less than 5 minutes BTW. And the nurse was excellent as well.

Dr Kirsch is a great doctor however needs to rule out particular problems causing sleep deprivation. I had a sleep study and found out I had mild sleep apnea. He put me on a cpap that caused me severe deprivation. I did not sleep well for 40 days on the Cpap. I quit using it and at least sleep some. I diagnosed myself and found I had a enlarged prostate. Dr. Kirsh should have had me check it out for nocturia. Every doctor should rule out all problems before they put one on a Cpap.

I loved his diagnosis however I think he is getting paid by Heath@Home. I did not need a CPAP at all. I did a sleep study stating I had mild apnea. I did some research and found out I had other options for treatment. He did not tell me about. Now I will have to pay the entire CPAP amount due to not working for me. They called me once after I called them about this. They have not called me back.