British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association

Thu Feb 21 2008
hi all - very new to all this as i was diagnosed on monday 18th jan 2008 with OSA and told by the doctor that i have on average 15/16 apneas per hour. he also informed me that this amount is regarded as mild to moderate and doesn't - at the moment - warrant the NHS supplying a cpap machine (but that may change in the near future), and said i neede to see him again in three months time. THEN the bombshell came that i should notify the DVLA and would not be able to drive - catch 22 coming up here - so i can't drive and i can't get treatment!!!!
Luckily i have a relative who never got on with his APAP machine and stuck it in a cupboard for the past 3 years after only 96 hours usage, and he has given it to me. i have spoken to RESMED about a new mask and ressetting the machine and thats all ok to do .
my question is this How long do i need to be on the machine for so that i can let the DVLA know that i am being treated, and how long have other people lost their licenses for before they have had them returned.
thx for any help


Wed Feb 27
hi - thanks for all the advice with the dvla - i should mention that i got diagnosed with OSA on the 18th feb not 18th jan dont know what i was thinking! - anyway been to resmed today with the machine i was given, and i've bought a new mask , pipe humidifier filter etc and tonites the first nite of use.
SO, i've informed the dvla about the condition and am waiting for the forms to come through, in the meantime treatment starts tonite and the people at Resmed said to return in 21 days to download the info from the machine ( it's an american s7 - so they said but it's perfectly ok) as there is no card slot just the RS232 interface - they also said that 21 days of info is sufficient to asses whether or not i am responding to the apap and and that i probably wont lose my license - as long as i am compliant and do at least 4 hours per night on the machine.
anyway in the meantime my wife has banned me from driving until i'm sorted - so i dont have to go shopping or get her fags AND i feel better because of all the walking i'm doing (lost 5 pound in a week) didn't realise how dependant we were on the car - but if you cant use it you can adjust really quickly.


wed 28th 2008 -
1st night - bed at 1am couldn't sleep at first think it took about 20 mins
very conscious - of the noise of the air, the mask leaking, kept adjusting
looked at the time a couple of times, couldn't wait to get to 5am (4hours for compliance)
woke up at 6.15 am and switched machine off and dropped off again.
nickie (the suffering wife) said she didn't hear me snore all night until after i took the mask off and then i went onto my back. 6.25 got up straight away - felt pretty good considering that i felt that i had slept less than usual cause of looking at the clock etc.
breathing with the machine is odd - it takes more effort too breath out
and today i feel a little weak / weazy on my chest.
Got thinking about the comments Resmed made yesterday about symptoms - excessive sweating at night and weight gain-
and i can remember almost exactly when i started putting on weight and sweating really badly at night - august 1992 - i
remember it well because i had moved to usa to work and had started eating really well and drank more than i should have and i woke up 1 morning and i thought that i had wet the bed - the only thing was it happened every night for a few weeks and eventually i got used to it - SO i guess i need to get down to the weight i was before i started sweating ( about 15 stone ) i'm now 21 stone and slowly but surely i'm determined to lose it.
by the way - the bed was dry

Hi Peka,

Didn't look at your journal until after commenting on the DVLA topic.
My first experience of the CPAP machine being taken away for a week convinced me of the benefit of the therapy. At first I wasn't sure that I was that much different perhaps because I didn't want to admit the machine is here to stay.

I hope you get good results from your machine

All the best,

Martin

thx martin - i've 2 nights on the machine now , and i'm sure evrybody felt / feels the same about these machines that they don't don't want to be on one for the rest of their lives.......thats a long time.

3 nights on the machine. only getting 4 - 5 hours on it each nite - damn noise keeps waking me up, catch 22 coming up again
need the machine to sleep, can't sleep because of the machine!!!
and to top it all i have the mask that fits into the nostrils and i'm finding it difficult to keep my my mouth closed and end up with that rushing feeling i'm sure a lot of you know what i'm talking about.
machine doesn't seem to be using much water in the humidifier but then again i'm not dry at all - so did i need to spend £150 on the humdifier - oh well.
there's always tonite - i think i'm gonna have a couple of beers to see if i can get to sleep and stay asleep - it was 2.45 before i went to bed last night and the machine kept me awake until at least 3.20am.

5.41 am
went to bed at 1.30 am - all i got was noise from the mask , leakage, crap fit, hissing - aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhh
f***in hate it.
6th nite and all is NOT well - stupid thing is even with all the hissing noise blah blah, i'm still getting better/more sleep than before but i'm seriously worried that i'm not gonna get a good enough result for the doctors so that i can drive again.

Hi Peka,

I felt I had to reply in your journal because you are so clearly fed up. I can easily understand why. I am only on night 21 (a fortnight on the hospital machine and one week on the one they gave to me) and although I slept through last night for the first time, I think that was because I had a few beers. I am much more accepting of the machine than the first week.

I took me more than the first week to relax sufficiently into the routine and to accept the noise. I know I will usually wake up, probably go to the toilet, then have to put the mask back on. I have forced myself to use the machine for the six hours I have been told. However, I still don't know if I will get to keep my license and much of the time I have not felt that much better, but clearly less sleepy.

I think, after reading the experiences of the people in this forum, it is a question of time. You seem to have more helpful medical people than I do though, and you do have a couple of weeks to make progress and show them the results.

Good Luck,

Martin

slept so well last night - i was so tired i crashed from 1.30 until about 7am with only a minor argument with the mask about 5.15 am. pretty good i think which means i got about 5 hrs really good sleep .

i'm glad i did because i was given a sleeping tablet by a freind so that i could do a full night but i looked up on the net and it said not to take if i had OSA. hmm - does that include OSA being treated with cpap?

Peka, sorry thats a yes, you can't take the sleeping tablet.

Sleeping tablets relax you and the tissues around your windpipe thus making the OSA worse. Indeed if I understand it correctly a mix of severe OSA and Sleeping pill could be a 'cure' for ALL your ill's .

Sorry just an addition;


OSA is not treated by CPAP, treatment implies improvement of the underlying illness. CPAP is a therapy i.e. it keeps you going, stop CPAP and all the symptoms come back. (this is the way my private health insurance got out of paying for anything related to OSA) .

bad night friday only got 2 1/2 hours on the machine - couldn't stand the hissing.
changed the nostril attachment to the larger size for saturday night. went to a party and crashed on the sofa until 3 am. then had the best night on the machine with 6 hours . - only had 3 pints but worked a treat
the larger atachment was a better fit and even my wife noticed that the machine was a lot quieter - no hissing.
sunday - feel so much better today - refreshed - alive. if i can get a couple of good nights like last night i might even start some sort of exercise next week - we'll see

2 more good nights sleep - at least 5 hrs each night - this sleeping game is too easy - just hope it shows that next monday when i go for my results.

dunno wot's going on - started having really crap quality sleep, tossing and turning all night long and now i've fi=ound i keep knocking the mask and the seal leaks. the wife even moaned last nite because she could feel the air on her face. maybe she'ed prefer it if i took the mask off and started snoring again

got my first results today from resmed and everything seemed to be working ok all leakage was normal and the pressure needed was average at 9.4 (apap machine) the apnea index is down to 2.3 and the hypopnea index is 6.3
(AHI 8.6) - havent had a couple of good nights because i changed to a larger size mask nozzles - but resmed said it's still ok and to change back to the medium size. roll on thursday when i see the doctor.

4 1/2 hours of really good sleep - havin the medium size atachment seems to have worked - no hissing no leaking

got results from cpap and been to the doctors today thurs 20th march - doctor said she wasn't sure if she could say yes to me driving because she didn't diagnose me - but then she went through my results and going by what resmed had said and how i was feeling. - when she read the rules it said "medical opinion" so she said it is OK to drive again.
just gottas send the dvla forms back now.