Pre Sleep Study Newbie

If my question has been asked and answered in the past --- please point me in that general direction New to the forum so the first thing I did was search for my topic. Maybe I didn't put the right key words in --- hope someone here can give me some advice.

A few months ago, I was referred to the Sleep Study Clinic where I live. My GP suspected sleep apnea so an assessment was done and I was advised to schedule a Sleep Study as soon as possible. The problem was that I didn't have health insurance and I didn't want to apply for county assistance. I thought I'd just wait for the enrollment period to open on November 15th.

It seems like it's getting worse --- falling asleep multiple times of the day; not being able to sleep more than 2 hours a time at night. Desperate times call for desperate measures as they say so I applied for county health insurance online last evening. It may be a couple weeks before I get a decision from the welfare department. The clinic let me know that they won't set up an appointment until I am covered --- I've been told that when I make the appointment, it will probably be 2 weeks or more before they can actually do the sleep study. So I may not get relief for another month or so --- maybe more.

My question is: What do I do in the meantime to survive? Are there any remedial measures I can take while I wait it out? Up until recently, the lack of sleep wasn't fun but I was still pretty much functional.

Has anyone else been in similar circumstances? If the county insurance doesn't pan out, I'm actually considering going to Canada ( it's a 5 hour drive from here ). This dilemma will be over once the enrollment period is open.

Thanks for any feedback I can get on this! I know everyone here complete understands how debilitating sleep apnea is.

SDR

If the county insurance doesn't pan out, I'm actually considering going to Canada ( it's a 5 hour drive from here ).

That won't help you unless you are a landed immigrant or citizen and have been in the province for at least 3 months and it depends on the province coverage. Some places you will wait for up to 2 years to get a study done unless you have more coverage at work.

Do you have the funds available to purchase a full data cpap/apap machine now? Perhaps a slightly used one? They are out there if you know what to shop for.
People do self diagnose and self treat but it takes some education and work and enough money to buy what you need.

Good luck with the county assistance...hope your county is much faster than what we have around here.

If you are not able to purchase a lightly used machine, can you sleep sitting up at night?
Sometimes that will help with the symptoms until you can get a real sleep study and get a fix on what you actually need.

SerafinaDllRose wrote:If my question has been asked and answered in the past --- please point me in that general direction New to the forum so the first thing I did was search for my topic. Maybe I didn't put the right key words in --- hope someone here can give me some advice.

A few months ago, I was referred to the Sleep Study Clinic where I live. My GP suspected sleep apnea so an assessment was done and I was advised to schedule a Sleep Study as soon as possible. The problem was that I didn't have health insurance and I didn't want to apply for county assistance. I thought I'd just wait for the enrollment period to open on November 15th.

It seems like it's getting worse --- falling asleep multiple times of the day; not being able to sleep more than 2 hours a time at night. Desperate times call for desperate measures as they say so I applied for county health insurance online last evening. It may be a couple weeks before I get a decision from the welfare department. The clinic let me know that they won't set up an appointment until I am covered --- I've been told that when I make the appointment, it will probably be 2 weeks or more before they can actually do the sleep study. So I may not get relief for another month or so --- maybe more.

My question is: What do I do in the meantime to survive? Are there any remedial measures I can take while I wait it out? Up until recently, the lack of sleep wasn't fun but I was still pretty much functional.

Has anyone else been in similar circumstances? If the county insurance doesn't pan out, I'm actually considering going to Canada ( it's a 5 hour drive from here ). This dilemma will be over once the enrollment period is open.

Thanks for any feedback I can get on this! I know everyone here complete understands how debilitating sleep apnea is.

SDR

Hi Sera- welcome to the forum. My circumstances were somewhat similar to what you seem to be experiencing; I have a poor HMO for health insurance, and had to wait over three months to get a referral for testing. My symptoms were getting increasingly worse, and I struggled with deciding on what to do. I have read that sleeping on your side or with your upper body slightly elevated can help with apneas, so you may want to try that.

I found an online DME where you can order an in home apnea test without a doctor's prescription; if interested, PM me for the info. I believe the test is $250.00 and this fee can be applied toward the purchase of a new apnea machine with this particular DME. Another idea would be to consider renting a machine until you can buy one or rent through insurance.

However, as I found out after finding this forum - you really want to know what kind/ type of machine will work best for all of your needs before you spend any money on one! Others more experienced with apnea on this forum can give good advice with that

I apologize to everyone who so kindly responded to my desperate post in September. A lot has been happening the last month and a half with family and classes --- not good at taking care of myself until I am totally miserable

SleepyEyes21 - I attempted to PM you a few minutes ago but it looks like the message is in my Outbox and nothing indicated in Sent. Is there something else I need to do to send it?

Update --- I applied for county health insurance and received a denial in the mail last week. I understand that Canada is not a viable alternative so I just wait until enrollment opens on November 15th. I tried sleeping sitting up ( thank you for the tip ) but it's just getting worse. I have a few hundred dollars but not $2000+ for a sleep study at the clinic.

I am grateful for this forum --- you understand where I'm coming from and I appreciate everyone's suggestions

SDR

SerafinaDllRose wrote: I have a few hundred dollars but not $2000+ for a sleep study at the clinic.

For that few hundred dollars you could pick up a quality lightly used auto titrating machine. You could still go through the open enrollment process and get a sleep study, then decide if you want to get another machine and use this one as a backup or sell it. If you are doing well on it, you may decide to skip the sleep study. Short of that, you could limit yourself to stomach and side sleeping. You could benefit a bit from that if you're one who has more events when supine sleeping. Maybe propping your chin to keep from tucking your head would help a bit too. Some go so far as to buy a foam neck brace, others use a c-shaped pillow, anything to keep the neck aligned. None of these measures will cure you but together may mitigate the events enough for you to feel a bit better during your wait. Once you get the sleep study process rolling, sometimes you can expedite it if you're willing to be on call if there's a cancellation.

PMs appear in the outbox until they are picked up by whoever you write to... so give it some time.

SerafinaDllRose wrote:I apologize to everyone who so kindly responded to my desperate post in September. A lot has been happening the last month and a half with family and classes --- not good at taking care of myself until I am totally miserable

SleepyEyes21 - I attempted to PM you a few minutes ago but it looks like the message is in my Outbox and nothing indicated in Sent. Is there something else I need to do to send it?

Update --- I applied for county health insurance and received a denial in the mail last week. I understand that Canada is not a viable alternative so I just wait until enrollment opens on November 15th. I tried sleeping sitting up ( thank you for the tip ) but it's just getting worse. I have a few hundred dollars but not $2000+ for a sleep study at the clinic.

I am grateful for this forum --- you understand where I'm coming from and I appreciate everyone's suggestions

SDR

Hi Serafina - I sent you info via PM. Hope you get to feeling better soon