Undiagnosed 36 Obese M in UK…terrified

[TomCatt]

I am a 36 year old M in the UK who is morbidly obese and struggling with apnea

My partner has witnessed me not breathing for ages and then I will suddenly jolt and gasp.

I wake often feeling extremely tired with a headache

I have been chasing a referral to a sleep CLINIC since July

I’m desperate to start cpap treatment and I’m wondering wether to just purchase my own equipment immediately?

I have struggled with my weight for he last decade. Never more so than the last 18 months when I lost my beloved father very suddenly.

It’s not that I gorge and eat crap, it’s that I have become extremely sedentary. I’m a graphic designer so my job isn’t particularly physical either.

I am attempting to put new ways of eating and exercise in place at the moment

But the vicious circle of exhaustion is really standing in my way

I’m also terrified that one night I just won’t breath at all and I will die in my sleep

It’s left the very notion of sleep as a terrifying one that no longer embrace

?

[Sleeprider]

Your NHS offers diagnosis and equipment for treating sleep apnea. The service is extremely slow and inefficient at providing care, but we have many members here from the UK that are treated and doing well. If you want to purchase a machine and pay for it and supplies until you can secure NHS coverage, that can certainly be done. Your best bet in that case is to get a machine like a Resmed Airsense Autoset that will automatically titrate your pressure needs and provides data for therapy feedback.

With that said, either calm down, or get the machine. Sleep apnea is very bad for your health and can lead to serious health problems and a dysfunctional fatigue and inability to perform complex tasks and to concentrate, and can contribute to continuing weight gain. I have not heard of anyone actually dying in thier sleep as the drive to breath is hard-wired in a way that you will arouse and breathe. If you are unable to get equipment to start therapy, there are still things you can do to improve your ability to breathe. Chin-tucking while asleep obstructs the airway of many people. You can sit in a chair and relax letting your chin drop towards your chest and feel how your airway becomes more obstructed. You can find ways to sleep without extra pillows or using an aid like a soft cervical collar to help prevent is physical obstruction, and it should reduce the frequency of events until you can get CPAP. We wrote this article for people on CPAP that experience this "positional apnea" even with CPAP. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...onal_Apnea Give it a try, and keep in touch. Hopefully someone with experience in the UK can advise how to expedite the road to therapy.

[Psychotech]

First you should go for a sleep study that would give you an idea about what type of apnea you have and what type of machine you need like cpap, bipap or an asv, well you can also rent a cpap machine for 1 month and look at the data that would tell you what kind of apnea you have (if you want to start cpap therapy right now)

[DH575]

My local cpap store will provide an at home test the same day the doctor writes a prescription. But it’s a self pay deal. $250. Is that available I Liverpool?

[freejam]

Hi Tomcatt,

I took about a month to obtain a replacement machine from the NHS. Diagnosed two decades ago and using my last machine for 13 years. I needed an upgrade.

Firstly find a sleep clinic in your area and ask your general practitioner (GP) to make a referral to the clinic to carry out a full sleep assessment. It's best to write to the GP setting out the impact of your poor sleep, e.g. falling asleep at work etc. Lay it on thick be creative. Get a copy of the referral, wait a few days and telephone the sleep clinic to obtain an appointment with a sleep consultant. Be persistent, otherwise you'll be waiting six months or more. The consultant will do a Q&A to provide a sleep apnea score. Shape your answers to maximize the score, the maximum score is 24 you'll need a score of >16, it's fairly obvious how to do this - "Yes doc I fall asleep 4 times a day".

Press the consultant for an early sleep assessment - the consultant will write to you in about a week. Then pester the clinic for the assessment, call a few times a week, you'll be put on a waiting list your job is to get yourself on the top of the list, again be creative, "I'll lose my job if I don't sort out my apnea."

Best of luck mate.

Pete

Ps or go private! And sort out in a week.