Hi, I'm a New member. I had a home test early December 2011. The test was by way of a clothes peg gadget on my finger overnight, and just one night !. When I returned the cloths peg gadget to my local hospital they said I was suffering from mild sleep apnoea, registering a number of 11. This I understand relates to the number of times I wake or woke up during each hour of the night. I am still not convinced that my problem is sleep apnoea. I am not a big guy, I am about 5'-10" and weigh 12 stone 4lbs with a collar size of 15". I have always been a skinny kid, although now in retirement my waistline has a mind of its own. I do NOT snore ( my wife insists ) I do have a blocked nose a lot of the time and feel that this is my problem. I have noticed that I can't seem to sleep during the daytime though, even when I feel very tired ( Sunday afternoon after lunch particularly) I do find myself dropping off then rousing up again suddenly gasping for breath. Could this be put down to nasal airway blockage. Or is that the dreaded sign. Same goes if I take the rare bath, I seem to doze but then wake panicking and short of breath. I was given a full CPAP mask just before Christmas, a bad time for me as we had lots of our familly around for a week or more, I couldn't try the machine out as there always seemed to be others around and grandchildren coming into the bedroom. After trying it one night I had to snatch it off within a few minutes. I tried it a number of times during the daytime after that but could not stand it. It feels like a worst nightmare, I just could not get on with it. Like other members on the forum I am panicking, the most I could account for was 3 hours one afternoon whilst watching TV. I have now returned the CPAP and am going to try one of the mouth piece units off the internet to see if this works for me. I do think though that I need one that allows me to breathe through my mouth as well, as if my nose blocks up I would be panicking again. I tried 'the nose test' as sugested on one of the web pages in the BSSAA website, and yes, if I hold my nostril open one side at a time I can breathe better. How can I really know if I am suffering from the dreaded curse or not ? Does anyone out there have the problem without a snoring problem ?
