Sleep Apnoea - anyone got it?

[andya700]

I was just wondering if anyone has it, and would like to discuss it, compare treatments, ask for help etc.
For what it is worth, I have had my fifteenth anniversary of being diagnosed and using CPAP to keep it under control, What wasn't so good was the ten years when I had unknown (to me) symptoms which went undiagnosed. But hey, you can't turn the clock back, and the upside is that I am still alive and don't fall asleep all over the place.
Apparently I am a model patient, but they don't see me at home, when I am like a cross between Father Jack and Victor Meldrew.
If anyone thinks that they may have sleep apnoea, then it may be worth them taking this test - The Epworth Sleepiness Scale - and then go to their GP to get a referral to a sleep clinic if they score highly. This is what I did back in around 2001/2 and then confronted my GP. The referrals are a lot quicker nowadays, because everyone seems a lot more clued up about it, and there are a lot more sleep clinics around.

https://www.blf.org.uk/support-for-...apnoea-osa/diagnosis/epworth-sleepiness-scale

 

[the black fox]

One of my daughters suffers from narcolepsy which I believe is similar , it was really bad through her teens and 20 and 30,s but seems to have eased off a bit these days

 

[omens]

I knew an ex-rugby mate who got it in his mid-30s. Big chap. Had to wear a mask at night.

 

[andya700]

One of my daughters suffers from narcolepsy which I believe is similar , it was really bad through her teens and 20 and 30,s but seems to have eased off a bit these days

Narcolepsy is very complicated and can result in various or all known symptoms being present - excessive sleepiness, night terrors, partial paralysis, cataplexy (where the brain cannot send messages to the muscles, resulting in sudden uncontrollable collapse). Sleep apnoea can be genetic/hereditary and usually is caused by a soft palate which collapses when asleep and/or lying down, thus blocking the nose to throat airway. This can result in snoring and then breathing stopping completely, until hopefully a large snore results in the person waking up and breathing again. The result of all this is chronic sleep depravation, which ultimately results in extreme tiredness and in the worst cases heart disorders (in my case left ventricular hypotrophy) and high blood pressure, plus the inevitable weight gain.

 

[andya700]

I knew an ex-rugby mate who got it in his mid-30s. Big chap. Had to wear a mask at night.

Which brings me nicely on to the method of improving life for someone with OSA - Obstructive Sleep Apnoea.
When I first noticed feeling tired and falling asleep at work, cinema, buses, trains, arriving home at night being semi comatose, I was probably in my mid thirties 1993/94, but I was still 5' 11" tall and 11st and very fit. Then the tiredness became worse and my weight rapidly increased.
When I was finally diagnosed in 2003, they had sent me home with an oxymeter which measures blood/oxygen levels and can tell when someone stops breathing. It transpired that I was stopping breathing 68 times per hour for around 20 seconds each time all through the night.
They (St Thomas' Hospital London) decided that I needed a CPAP - Constant Positive Air Pressure - machine, which is like a small high tech compressor, providing a constant light supply of air via a hose connected to a face mask, which you wear at night. This air supply keeps the soft palate from obstructing the airway.
The result of using this was an instant improvement in sleeping with snoring almost banished completely.
If anyone knows someone who falls asleep all the time during the day, then have a word with them, because having OSA and not being treated can be extremely dangerous and not just for the person suffering from it.

 

[Nod]

Is sleep apnoea one of the DVLA(or whatever they're called this week)'s notifiable conditions?

 

[andya700]

Is sleep apnoea one of the DVLA(or whatever they're called this week)'s notifiable conditions?

It certainly is Nod, I had to notify them as soon as I was diagnosed and compliant with using CPAP. The compliance issue is vitally important, because there are many people who say that they cannot get on with using CPAP - which is the ONLY long term cure for severe OSA - and if they are really suffering from sleep deprivation, which they certainly will be, then if they continue to drive, they are IMHO recklessly putting their own and other folks lives at risk.
In the two or three years up until I was diagnosed, I lost track of the number of times I visited my GP - weight rapidly increasing, raised resting heart rate (from 40 to 65BPM), increased blood pressure and extreme tiredness - yet he never once mentioned referring me for OSA - not that I had heard of it anyway.

 

[tomh1982]

Yep I have it & have been using cpap for about a year now. I was diagnosed as having severe OSA with pauses of upto 90 seconds & an average of 54 pauses an hour. It was quite a shock when the consultant told me the sleep study results. I was constantly tired. I would sleep all night, get up sit on the sofa with a cup of tea & drop off again. I believe I’ve had it for years but my wife started to notice that I was stopping breathing in my sleep so went to the drs & got referred to the hospital. The cpap machine isn’t the most pleasant of things to use but it has truly change my life! I would advise anyone who may suspect they have it to get checked out as there is a way to manage & also it can lead to other serious health conditions. I also know several other people with it & it seems surprisingly common.

 

[andya700]

Yep I have it & have been using cpap for about a year now. I was diagnosed as having severe OSA with pauses of upto 90 seconds & an average of 54 pauses an hour. It was quite a shock when the consultant told me the sleep study results. I was constantly tired. I would sleep all night, get up sit on the sofa with a cup of tea & drop off again. I believe I’ve had it for years but my wife started to notice that I was stopping breathing in my sleep so went to the drs & got referred to the hospital. The cpap machine isn’t the most pleasant of things to use but it has truly change my life! I would advise anyone who may suspect they have it to get checked out as there is a way to manage & also it can lead to other serious health conditions. I also know several other people with it & it seems surprisingly common.

That certainly was severe Tom. Did you notice any weight increases? Was there an almost immediate positive reaction to CPAP, where even after the first few nights you stopped falling asleep during the day? Did you go to a local clinic or one in London?

 

[tomh1982]

That certainly was severe Tom. Did you notice any weight increases? Was there an almost immediate positive reaction to CPAP, where even after the first few nights you stopped falling asleep during the day? Did you go to a local clinic or one in London?

Yeah it was a shock to be fair! Yes my weight has increased quite a bit but changing my job hasn’t helped either as it’s not physical at all. I can loose weight but find it hard to keep off which is frustrating! As far as noticing a difference it happened straight away. After the first & second night I felt amazing & my energy levels were very high & after that I guess I just got used to it. I don’t get tired at all like I used to! If I fall asleep now even for a few hours with the cpap I feel exhausted when I wake up so it definitely works. I did the blood/oxygen test after a week using it & it was back just as it should be. I just went to my gp & told him the situation load snoring/sweating while asleep etc & that my wife had thought I stopped breathing when I was asleep & he referred my for a sleep study straight away. I went to Ipswich hospital & they were really good. Got me sorted very quickly. Sounds like others may have more problems getting checked out by the sound of it.