Hi all

I've been diagnosed with OSA and after a long and protracted period of Chuckle Brothers-style ineptitude from Swansea's Singleton Hospital Sleep study clinic, I was finally given a CPAP device in April last year, and was told I have around 20 apnoea incidents per hour.

At the time I asked if I need to inform the DVLA.

"No not yet" came the reply, "you don't get officially diagnosed with OSA until you try the CPAP and it's found to benefit you, a bit like the way people with asthma don't know it's asthma until they use their pump and their symptoms are relieved".

This made sense to me.

Anyway it took me almost a year to get used to the mask. I'd have periods of about 10 days where I'd sleep with no problems, then about 2 weeks of never being able to get off with it on. But over the last 2 -3 months I'm just about ok with it now.

2 issues here: I recently moved house and had to change the address on my driving licence. When filling in the forms it says I need to tell the DVLA about the OSA so I called the sleep clinic and spoke to the very same nurse as above and asked if I'd been officially diagnosed yet.

"Of course you are, that's why we gave you the CPAP device! We don't give it to people who aren't going to benefit from it!!"

"But you told me I'm not diagnosed until it's seen to benefit me, you know like the analogy you gave me with asthmatics"

"No, I would not say anything like that. You get the CPAP device if we diagnose you with OSA".

So this is the kind of stupidity I've had to put up with from them over the years.

Anyway I've been getting terrible heartburn at night and thanks to this forum I can see it's probably due to the CPAP. Not one of the doctors I've seen about my heartburn have mentioned the mask - typical.

So my question is, can the heartburn issue be treated or am I going to have to keep on using the CPAP with a bottle of Gaviscon next to my bed forever?

Hi Guest,

Gastric reflux (heartburn) high blood pressure and diabetes are common side effects with having sleep apnoea.

Perhaps get yourself checked out if you havent all ready done so .

Regards,

Hi

I posted the above, not sure why it came up as 'guest'.

Anyway what I really asked was am I going to have to keep on using the CPAP with a bottle of Gaviscon next to my bed forever?

I sincerely hope not, but you need to discuss this with your GP and your sleep doc. Are you sure that it is 100% CPAP related or could it be linked to something you enjoyed for your tea ... a lovely curry (says she who lives abroad and would DIE for a restaurant or takeaway curry!!) for example?

You should check out other causes as well ... but it might get better if you have a titration check to make sure that the pressure you are currently using is the correct one for your needs.

Do you have a humidifier? If not, that might help as the warm air might irritate your esophagus less.

I hope the situation improves soon for you, as it must be both painful and frustrating, not to mention expensive on the Gaviscon!