Alaxo 6" Stent - Treating Soft Palate Obstruction
I made this thread to post my experiences with the 6” Alaxo Soft Palate Stent, in the hope that it can help others.
I have issues with my soft palate obstructing during sleep which CPAP/BiPAP do not resolve (the issue can actually be exacerbated with higher PS or EPR). This issue results in sleep never being refreshing/restorative which in turn leads to chronic fatigue and brain fog. I've been wanting to try the Alaxo soft palate stent for quite a while now to try and get improved sleep. I finally got my hands on one yesterday. I'd like to thank fellow Apnea Board member G. Szabo for helping me get a stent when I could not from Alaxo USA.
On the topic of Alaxo USA, I need to state that I had an awful experience dealing with them. They are incredibly unprofessional - once they have your money, they are not serious about shipping out orders and they don’t give any updates or provide any explanations. They ghosted me for months on all fronts – I could not speak to anyone or get a response by telephone, email, nor Facebook (my Facebook messages were marked seen, so I knew they saw them and chose to ignore them). At the 3-month mark (I was told it would take 2 weeks before ordering), I’d had enough of their radio silence and filed a chargeback/dispute with my credit card company in order to get my money back. I have seen similar complaints about Alaxo USA on YouTube and Reddit comments, so I am not the only one that has had a negative experience with them. It is clear that they do not care at all about their customers.
With that said, I will document my experiences with the stent.
Day 1:
My first session to try deploy the stent took a good half hour or so. There was a lot of eye watering, mucous dripping, sneezing, and gagging involved. It was all around very unpleasant. I was able to get the introductory tube deep enough but the moment I started retracting it, the stent would expand and hurt. It was extremely uncomfortable, especially when swallowing, so I had to quickly resheath it to avoid more pain. Following this session, I took a break for a couple of hours.
After my break, I attempted to deploy the stent once more and progress was made! It was still very uncomfortable and a bit painful to swallow or talk, but I was actually able to fully deploy the stent for a few minutes. It seems like it takes some people at least several weeks to get to this point, so I'm happy I was able to do it on the first day.
I have issues with my soft palate obstructing during sleep which CPAP/BiPAP do not resolve (the issue can actually be exacerbated with higher PS or EPR). This issue results in sleep never being refreshing/restorative which in turn leads to chronic fatigue and brain fog. I've been wanting to try the Alaxo soft palate stent for quite a while now to try and get improved sleep. I finally got my hands on one yesterday. I'd like to thank fellow Apnea Board member G. Szabo for helping me get a stent when I could not from Alaxo USA.
On the topic of Alaxo USA, I need to state that I had an awful experience dealing with them. They are incredibly unprofessional - once they have your money, they are not serious about shipping out orders and they don’t give any updates or provide any explanations. They ghosted me for months on all fronts – I could not speak to anyone or get a response by telephone, email, nor Facebook (my Facebook messages were marked seen, so I knew they saw them and chose to ignore them). At the 3-month mark (I was told it would take 2 weeks before ordering), I’d had enough of their radio silence and filed a chargeback/dispute with my credit card company in order to get my money back. I have seen similar complaints about Alaxo USA on YouTube and Reddit comments, so I am not the only one that has had a negative experience with them. It is clear that they do not care at all about their customers.
With that said, I will document my experiences with the stent.
Day 1:
My first session to try deploy the stent took a good half hour or so. There was a lot of eye watering, mucous dripping, sneezing, and gagging involved. It was all around very unpleasant. I was able to get the introductory tube deep enough but the moment I started retracting it, the stent would expand and hurt. It was extremely uncomfortable, especially when swallowing, so I had to quickly resheath it to avoid more pain. Following this session, I took a break for a couple of hours.
After my break, I attempted to deploy the stent once more and progress was made! It was still very uncomfortable and a bit painful to swallow or talk, but I was actually able to fully deploy the stent for a few minutes. It seems like it takes some people at least several weeks to get to this point, so I'm happy I was able to do it on the first day.
