Assistance for a Friend

Just had a email from a friend of mine who has moved from Scotland to India.

She writes,

I am writing to ask advice for a friend who is suffering from sleep apnea. She is actually waking herself at night gasping for air. I have forwarded her the article you once posted regarding the link between sleep apnea and celiac, but she seems in distress about ways to cope until her insurance company will authorize a full sleep study and she be fitted with a CPAP machine (will take months unfortunately). Do you have any sleep positions, pillow type, homeopathic remedies, etc. (any suggestions really) that might help her in the mean time?

I am not sure if the friend is in India or in Scotland, but will be pointing my friend to this post.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

Well tell her to immediately start avoiding backsleeping - entirely. Tell her about tennis balls and backpacks.

This will rarely "cure" sleep apnea, but in about 50% of patients it will lower the severity.

Sorry I can't help more than that.

I am humbled by your friend's plight. Here I am complaining about an insurance glitch, and she can't even get a sleep study or help for months! I think I need to just go with the flow and know I will have my help soon, maybe not as instantly as I wanted, but, boy, am I thankful for what I have after reading this.

I wonder if someone might have a used machine /mask she can use with a sensible setting until then..... I know that is probably not recommended, but if she is as bad as you say, I'd hate to think she could stroke out before help arrives.

My thoughts are with your friend and I hope she gets help sooner than later.

If she's in the habit of having lots of caffeine (including chocolate) anytime after noon, she should cut right back, or have none at all because GERD can make things worse, not to mention how caffeine can mess up your sleep. If she has a recliner, sleeping there would help too.

A dental device, while by no means as effective as CPAP (for most people, and most likely not for someone who actually wakes up fully from apneas), could still help in the meantime. Combined with no back-sleeping, it might help. In my country, you can buy "anti-snoring" or "no-snore" dental devices. They are not necessarily cheap, but they are a heck of a lot quicker to obtain.

One idea I always had was to get a massage table and sleep face down. That way my tongue would hang down and avoid all the gravity issues! It's probably not a fun way to sleep, but desperate times can call for desperate measures.

And depending on the financial means of the friend, I would suggest just getting a local doctor to write a prescription and for the friend to go on cpap.com or cpapauction and buy a machine + software. For the mask, the Activa is a good starter mask - again good deals can be found on cpapauction. But from the sounds of it the friend probably depends on the insurance.

Another idea is to call, nag, the people incessantly, EVERY DAY, until a sleep appointment is made and/or the insurance approves it. Persistence can pay off. An over night pulse-oximetry (possibly a rental one, obtained via the local doctor) could help make the case for the insurance company as to the immediate necessity of the approval.

Good luck, I hope your friend's friend gets the help they need soon.

First, find out where she is. There's a big, big difference between nations.

I have traveled all over India, ie flew 21 times to different places in India. Took hundreds of busses, trains, ferries, etc. Studied Hindi and Ayurvedic medicine at the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur.

Visited many Indian hospitals. Many of the doctors were top notch but their equipment was sadly outdated.

Ed

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions.

My ethernet card died just after the posting, which made it a trifle difficult to reply.

I haven't heard back from my friend on where HER friend is located.

But I was able to pass on the link to this thread, so hopefully, Amelia was able to stop by and make use of the ideas.

Tell her not to eat a few hours before bed, in case she has gerd, which makes everything worse..


I have found that if I can lie on my stomach, and prop up two pillows under my arms, and sort of make my own "massage" table
in the bed, that my tongue falls forward, but I think it might help other people, more than me, because my tongue is just
WAY to big for my tiny mouth..

Also, no alchohol or sleepning aids, which might make it more difficult for her.

and then any free time available, try to grease the wheels to get an auto titration if sleep study is not on the horizon..

Emilia wrote:I am humbled by your friend's plight. Here I am complaining about an insurance glitch, and she can't even get a sleep study or help for months! I think I need to just go with the flow and know I will have my help soon, maybe not as instantly as I wanted, but, boy, am I thankful for what I have after reading this.

I wonder if someone might have a used machine /mask she can use with a sensible setting until then..... I know that is probably not recommended, but if she is as bad as you say, I'd hate to think she could stroke out before help arrives.

My thoughts are with your friend and I hope she gets help sooner than later.

When we're tired and anxious for help, it is hard to put up with the hoops our insurances want us to jump through. It drove me crazy that there was a long wait for the sleep test, and a long wait for the results, and a long wait (shortened by a cancellation) for the titration, and then another long wait for the results and yet another wait for the equipment to be ordered because the DME doesn't keep anything in stock.

Sometimes it does take the realization that things really could be a whole lot worse.

One of the things I will never cease to be grateful for is that I found this Forum before I had my first sleep test, before I had my titration, and most especially, before I had to deal with a DME.

Thanks to what I learned here, I was able to start off with a mask that worked for me, not whatever they handed me.

Thanks to what I learned here, I was able to get a data-capable machine right from the start, and the software.

Thanks to having the software, I could trouble shoot issues and get them corrected so that I was on good therapy within two weeks of getting my machine.

That's the sort of thing to be truly grateful for. 'Cause proper therapy has made a major difference in my life. And I don't think I'd've gotten that therapy without the knowledge gained from CPAPTALK.COM.

Hope it happens that way for you, too!

Elena,

Thanks for those suggestions, also. I'll send along an update to my friend for her friend. Now that I'm back on line.

Also, putting the head of her bead on an incline can help. Either with bed risers, blocks of wood, or as I did - rolled up a comforter and placed it across the head of the bed in between the mattress and box springs. Just need a few inches - not so much you slide down.