Alaxo Hybrid Stent with CPAP - Therapy Thread

[yrnkrn]

Last night I slept with the Back2Sleep Large stent and bilevel 5.2/8.4, Dreamwear Gel Pillows. The stent is annoying but manageable. Without the nasal pillows it would be somewhat easier as the pillow press upon the stent holding clip.
I am trying to solve expiratory palatal prolapse and it seems the stent is helping, see the last images here where the palatal obstruction seems to be partially mitigated by the stent tube.
Depending where the collapse is, it is possible the stent could completely replace my CPAP. 
That would be interesting although the CPAP is less invasive than the stent. Or maybe because I'm more used to the CPAP.

[G. Szabo]

The stent is annoying but manageable. Without the nasal pillows it would be somewhat easier as the pillow press upon the stent holding clip.

I switched to a nasal cushion to avoid this issue.

Depending where the collapse is, it is possible the stent could completely replace my CPAP. 

 This was my hope, but it turned out to be false. 

I am happy for your progress!

[THEVGE]

It has been quiet in this thread for a while, I was wondering if you can give an update? I just figured out I have additional palatal prolapse, hence my interest in getting a stent. I am willing to pay just for testing, it sounds horrible, but so is my life current day. I also never thought I would get used to CPAP but if my sleep is disrupted I can do a lot ;-).

[G. Szabo]

It has been quiet in this thread for a while, I was wondering if you can give an update? 

Here you are: I had an incident with the hybrid stent, which landed me in the emergency room of the hospital. 

When I inserted it in my nose, I sneezed exceptionally powerfully. Due to this sudden head movement, I lost control of the stent I had just deployed. It is difficult to reconstruct what exactly happened. I might have inadvertently pushed it up into my nose with the deploying tool. But after this sneezing, I could not see the tip of the stent in my nose hole, and I could not pull it out. I also felt that it was sliding down with each swallow toward my fauces.

I could only whisper. First, I thought that I could drive (about 30 minutes) to the hospital myself. But then I realized it was not a good idea because although I could still breathe, I was unsure for how long. Fortunately, my wife understood what was happening and called 911. The emergency crew was on the scene within 10 minutes and could pull the stent out through my mouth with a long tool. I was okay immediately after it, but they took me to the emergency room for observation. It was concluded that no harm was done. I was told that due to the stent's porous net, I could still get air.   

The manufacturer claimed I was the first who "swallowed" the stent.

Understandably, I suspended the stent usage. But because of the prolapses, I developed an alternative approach, which I posted here:

Palatal prolapse mitigated with positional therapy. 

Nevertheless, I wanted to use the stent again because of its tremendous benefit. Therefore, I modified it, which I posted here:

Homemade improvement of the Alaxo Hybrid Stent, i.e., the 5" long.

I do not want to discourage anybody from using the stent. You just want to be careful when inserting it, and you might want to make the improvements I suggest above.

[THEVGE]

Ow man, so sorry to hear about this experience! Good to hear you recovered from it. Luckily for me, my PP analysis was wrong, they are more likely RERA's. I do not think I would be able to handle the stent anyway, as I have a extremely strong gag reflex. I will check out your other threads right now.