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I started a post asking fro advice and it turned a bit into a journal so I decided to start one instead!
Firstly a bit about me, I'm 31, male in live in the South East. I was always a very active person travelling all over the UK and beyond teaching Outdoor Adventurous Activities at varying levels, I never used to bother my GP as I was never ill!
About 5 years ago I was advised to see my GP for a diabetes test as it runs in my family, so i plodded along there thinking that it was highly unlikely, but still possible especially as I was struggling to loose weight.
A few blood tests later it transpires that I have an under active thyroid, and high cholesterol.
It took nearly 3 years to get my medication right and I could finally start loosing weight, I had noticed that I was getting more tired but put that down to being fat, older than I used to be, less active and also this dreaded hypothyroid.
We trudged on until I kept falling a sleep at work, I initially though that everyone gets tired on shifts, and everyone nods off a little, but to nod off whilst writing patient report forms or whilst driving on blue lights was a bit too much.
I went to see my GP to ask for more thyroid meds, but my blood test came back that everything was fine and he couldn't help me.
He asked if I snored - I nearly fell off my chair laughing because I could just picture my wife kicking me every night because of my snoring. It didn't matter how I laid in my sleep I still managed to snore - he suggested that I might have OSA and said that I should get my wife to listen to me at night to see if i stopped breathing.
As I was walking away from the surgery I just kept thinking to myself, flopping doctors, what do they know - surely someone would have noticed if I stopped breathing!
Anyway she did listen 3 or 4 times, and whilst she couldn't say I stopped breathing she could say that despite my chest rising and falling, she didn't feel that it was enough to move air.
So next stop the GP again for me to eat humble pie.
My GP booked me in to see another GP who specialised in ENT, who asked me a few questions. He did a quick endoscopy, whilst showing me the pictures, but didn't mention that he had found anything of significance.
Next I was due to have a sleep study done. I managed to get a cancellation about a week later where I brought all of the kit home. It was the worse nights sleep that I have ever had. The nasal cannula dug in to my nose, the probe on my finger had to be well taped on as i moved so much at night, this meant I couldn't bend my fingers and just got cramp, and the unit on my arm dug in so much that I got a bruise.
Still I hoped that they had managed to get enough data so that I could be diagnosed one way or the other, however this wasn't to be the case. The nasal cannula didn't get any readings, although this didn't surprise me as i tend to breath completely through my mouth at night. However the mic didn't get any sound. Having said that I'm not 100% sure that I actually slept, so maybe I didn't snore!
A week later I managed to get a cancellation and a choice between a sleep in study or another take home kit. I opted to stay in as I felt that this might give better results.
I slept better than when I did the study at home, but still did not sleep well. I wasn't aware of any snoring (sometimes it wakes me up), but then I don't always know.
I have the pessimistic view that the results will come back as negative and I will just look silly to all my friends and work colleagues because I am just tired like the rest of them, having said that an Epworth Sleep Test Score of 20 is significant enough for something to be wrong...
...guess I just need to sit tight for another two weeks (unless this test failed too) and see what the Dr says
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Daryl
"Consciousness: that annoying time between naps"
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next month.