Are you impotent or a snorer? (Sleep Apnea)

Member Name: offy

Product:	Sleep Apnea
Date:	16/07/01 (369 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Urm.... none!

Disadvantages: Noisy, long term effects, both of you get a bad night's sleep

This is my story of living with a partner with sleep apnoea, the problems it causes for both of us, the things we have tried to alleviate the problem and the disappointments we have had.

We all snore occasionally, when we are congested, when we sleep on our backs, when we have had too much to drink, etc. Sleep apnoea is a much more serious problem, which involves the person actually stopping breathing many times a night. If you have the following symptoms then you are likely to have sleep apnoea:

•Extremely loud heavy snoring, often interrupted by pauses and gasps
•Daytime sleepiness, e.g. falling asleep whilst driving, watching TV, during a conversation or at work
•Decreased interest in sex
•Anxiety or depression
•Decreased daytime alertness, loss of energy or constant fatigue
•Morning headaches
•Forgetfulness
•Irritability, short temper

If you are still not sure if you have sleep apnoea, ask the person who sleeps in your bed! My partner snores every night and up to 50% of the time I have to go and sleep in the spare room. I sometimes lay awake listening to him (just before leaving!). I count the number of times he snores, the volume slowly building, until…….nothing, he just stops breathing! Then a few seconds later there will be an enormous gasp or snore and his body often jerks as he starts breathing again. Frequently this will wake him up, but a few breaths later the snoring begins and the vicious circle starts again. Sometimes I get so distressed listening to him that I wake him up myself, which is not a popular move I can tell you.

One day I saw an advert in a magazine for a sleep disorder clinic, so I wrote off for the details. They sent me a leaflet explaining more about snoring and sleep apnoea. I must explain at this point that my partner didn’t really believe that he had a serious problem, just a loud snore that an
noyed people. It shocked us both to see some of the long term effects it can cause, such as extreme forgetfulness due to the lack of oxygen in the brain over a sustained period of time. The leaflet did not include any details of the treatment available, but offered a free consultation. Their details are:

The Sleep Disorder Clinic
98 Harley Street
London
W1G 7HZ
Telephone: 0207 2244250

Clinics are held in London and Birmingham and after much persuasion (and I mean MUCH) we duly arrived at a hotel in Birmingham where they rent a consulting suite. We were both given a load of forms to complete. They treated my point of view as sleeping partner as importantly as the snorer themselves, as I could give an accurate account of his sleep patterns. In particular we were asked if he snored through his nose or mouth. My partner was then examined and they agreed that he had a nose blockage, which caused him to have trouble breathing through his nose at night.

Then came the shock – it would cost £1000 and there were no guarantees! I was very surprised when my partner agreed to the operation and a date was booked for the London clinic.

But before we go any further about the operation, let me explain a bit about snoring and sleep apnoea. Snoring is caused by a blockage of the upper airway, which causes vibrations of the soft palate and other soft tissues in the mouth. Some causes of snoring are: smoking (irritate the lining of the nasal cavity and throat), overeating/lack of exercise (leads to an increase of fat around the throat), alcohol/sleeping pills (causes the muscles to relax), sleeping on your back (causes the tongue and fatty tissue to relax back and squash your airway) and dust and house mite (nasal congestion).

Sleep apnoea is a condition which stops you breathing when you are asleep, which then causes you to wake up in order to start breathing again. This happens again and again and again…
;.. There are three types of sleep apnoea: Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), which is caused by blockages in the throat/nose and is the most common form. The more serious type is Central Sleep Apnoea (CSA), which is when the brain does not tell the body to breathe when you are asleep. The third is Mixed Sleep Apnoea which is a combination of both CSA and OSA.. My partner was diagnosed as having OSA due to the blockages in his nose.

A small aside here. The clinic in Harley Street is actually two clinics in one – the first being a sleep disorder clinic and the second being an impotency clinic. There are leaflets everywhere about limp penises and you feel like you have to talk about snoring or the fact that you had sex last night very loudly in case anyone in the waiting room thinks you are there for the other problem. Now you know about the title of this opinion.

Anyway, the operation he went through is called Laser-Assisted Uvulopharyngoplasty (LAUP). He received a mild sedative and then an local injection. He was asked if he gagged easily (the answer was no) and then waited for his turn in the queue of people. There were some horrible noises coming from the surgery from the person before him, but he bravely entered the room. The operation involves lasering through the obstructions. Most people have their soft palate (uvula) burned off, whilst others have other obstructions, e.g. scarring burned off. If you purposely snore now with your mouth open, you will feel your soft palate vibrating. This is what my partner had sliced off with a laser! They asked him to open his mouth and take a deep breath in. They then applied the laser (which didn’t hurt due to the local anaesthetic) and when he breathed out a load of black smoke came out. He said the smell of burning flesh almost made him sick. The dreadful sounds from the previous patient had been gagging/retching sounds!

He came out feeling woozy from the drugs and he
was given some mouthwash to gargle to combat infections, some strong oral pain killers and some pain killing suppositories. I asked him how the lasering of his nose went and he said that they hadn’t done it. They said that he could always come back another time and get it done. I was fuming! Didn’t they realise how incredibly hard it had been to convince him to have this operation and I knew I had no hope of ever getting him back. They had promised to laser his nose primarily as this was the cause of his snoring and sleep apnoea.

We had to get the train back and he was not feeling very well at all. When we got home he went to bed. He refused to take the suppositories but took a tablet, which made him feel sick. Due to the swelling he snored dreadfully for the next few days. Due to his refusal to take any of the pain killers, he was in a lot of pain. Providing you take the required medication, you should be able to return to work the next day if you so desire.

Once the swelling had reduced, his snoring did slightly too, but he continued to snore through his nose (what a surprise as they had not touched it!). If he tried to snore through his mouth he couldn’t as there was no soft palate to vibrate – quite a funny sight! I’m therefore reasonably confident that for people who snore through their mouth, this would be a successful operation.

I tried to convince him to go back, but due to the pain he suffered (yes, I know it was his own fault for not taking the prescribed medication, but he doesn’t believe in taking tablets etc.) he refused. To say I am disappointed in the clinic is an understatement. They promised a nose operation to stop him snoring and instead he has no soft palate. I am still sleeping in the other room much of the time and I dread going away as I end up with no sleep, or sleeping in strange places. One New Year’s morning found me huddled on a bathroom floor of a hot
el wrapped in a couple of coats and jumpers, freezing my butt off! I had woken up dreaming of earthquakes due to the vibrations my partner was making by snoring (still at least he was breathing that night) and had to take refuge in the bathroom on the cold floor, squashed between the loo and the sink – great!

The number of times I have mentally written a complaint letter to the clinic is way past sheep counting numbers. The problem is that I know some of the problem was my partner himself, so I don’t know who to be disappointed in. I wanted to explain to the clinic how much it took to get him there and why they should have concentrated on the worst area first. I thought they might learn form my experience and do it properly on others, but I never put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). I’m sure he’s not the first to refuse to go back. Was the nose operation more difficult and therefore more costly? Was the soft palate laser all set up that day and not the nose one? I’ll never know, but as you can tell, I am bitter about the whole experience. £1000 for nothing! Neither of us gets a good nights sleep and the long term effects of this illness could start to show soon. He can be forgetful and he falls asleep at the drop of a hat.

There is another alternative for those who do not want to have an operation, and that is the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airways Pressure). This is a machine that makes you breathe. You wear a mask all night and air is gently forced in and out. I have heard of some excellent results from this machine and they cost from £350 - £1100. Other remedies are various methods of opening the nostrils, e.g. nasal strips like rugby players wear (available from chemists) and metal nasal openers which you stick up your nostrils. We have had limited success with these.

I do get some respite from his snoring by using earplugs. There are two main types – foam and silicon. The fo
am ones are available from most chemists and block out some sound, but the best ones are the silicon ones which actually form a seal in your ear. I have only found these available from The British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea association, priced £5.85 for 4. This association is a valuable source of advice on snoring and sleep apnoea. They have newsletters and advice sheets and sell quite a lot of equipment. Their details are:

The British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association
How Lane
Chipstead
CR5 3LT
Telephone 01737 557997
E-mail snoreshop@britishsnoring.demon.co.uk

They also give details of a 90 day stop snoring plan which includes working out possible causes and then going through various suggested ideas, e.g. cutting out alcohol, losing weight, trying the various devices on offer, then moving on to more serious things like the CPAP and the laser operation.

Anyway. I think I have gone on long enough. Snoring and sleep apnoea can be a serious condition (especially for the partner!). There are quite a lot of treatments on offer, and I would only suggest you have the operation as a last resort. If you do go, make sure they laser the right bit and do take the offered medication. If anyone wants to contact me for more information, please feel free to e-mail me. Good luck!

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