Newly diagnosed not sure what happens next - Scottish NHS

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on January 14, 2021 at 23:47

Welcome Mark and good to hear you got diagnosed and will hopefully soon be treated.  An AHI of 24 is classed as moderate sleep apnoea (30 and above is severe).  Good that you don't drink as it makes sleep apnoea worse.  Being overweight can also worsen it and in some cases even cause it, but with you saying you're just a little overweight it's an unlikely cause.  Very often the weight gain is actually caused by the sleep apnoea, as when people are sleep deprived (even though they don't realise it at the time) they reach for unhealthy food to get their energy from.  Also, we all burn calories during REM sleep and when people have sleep apnoea they're not in REM long enough to burn those calories.

It's difficult to know how long you'll be waiting as different sleep clinics have different waiting lists.  You were sent a welcome email earlier with a link to our private Facebook group if you have a FB account, and we have several sleep nurses and patients in our group from Scottish sleep clinics so you could ask the question there instead.  If you don't see the email check your junk box.

You will be offered CPAP which is the gold standard treatment for sleep apnoea.  You can read more about sleep apnoea over on our website https://www.hope2sleep.co.uk/sleep-apnoea-information.html

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Permalink Reply by ScottishSleepyHead on January 15, 2021 at 11:26

Hi Kath, thank you for the quick response.

Until last February I had never heard of sleep apnea, so it's been a bit of a journey until now even.

When the GP first explained sleep apnea as being asleep and your throat closing then you stop breathing I just about fell off my seat!

I've been getting a lot of information from the net but mostly American, so it's great to be able to discuss things that are relevant to the NHS.

I work from home ( last 15 years) and as my work is quite sensitive I can't use FB, so I've never had it. I'll probably use the forum for info if that's ok.

I now just want to understand more about the referral system, I'm currently waiting on the consultant to refer me to the sleep clinic at Glasgow. The consultant is currently running the ICU in Glasgow so I don't think I'll hear anything soon as he'll be tied up with more important work due to the Covid.

 I've kind of got my mind around what I will need to do with respect to cpap, so I now just want to get started.

Thanks,

Mark

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope on January 15, 2021 at 20:34

Yes it can be a shock to get the results of a sleep study Mark and to find out you're stopping breathing 24 times per hour, because this is happening whilst asleep so most often the sufferer is totally unaware of this.  This forum is mainly for people who don't have a Facebook account as our group on there is far busier.  What I would advise you to do is to change your profile so that your full real name isn't showing, because this forum is public unlike the Facebook group which is private.  I'd also encourage you to join our newsletter list and you can subscribe on this link Newsletter Subscription.

You can also ring up the Glasgow Sleep Clinic to ask how long they think you'll be waiting once the referral goes through.  The reason there's a hold up with referrals is because most often the sleep clinics are run by the respiratory clinicians, and sadly it's these same clinicians that get redeployed to COVID wards.

There's a list of the clinics in Glasgow here on the Scottish Assoc for Sleep Apnoea who are another good charity and we have great relationships with them https://scottishsleepapnoea.co.uk/scottish-sleep-clinics/

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