waiting lists/help!/VENTING!

Please nobody laugh, it's not a laughing matter if you live with this. And please don;t say ''it's only snoring''.

My OH has sleep apnea (we found out today). He first starting having this investigated in 1994. He went through the system had an operation on his nose (which didn't help) and continued to complain of the same symptoms to a number of GPs until it was finally investigated again (start of 2003). He has been referred on by 3 consultants from ENT to thorax (?) to lung/breathing dept.. Because this is an inter-hospital referral they are not obliged to stick to the 16 weeks time-scale and so it's taken until today from feb 2003 to see the right guy. He confirmed from the tests that OH has sleep apnea and he also had it back in 1994 but it wasn't as bad as it is now :mad: [so why didn't they sort it in 1994 and save us both a hell of a lot of problems!]Anyway he needs a machine to use when he sleeps. Great! finally they are going to sort it out. Only thing is we have to wait a further 3 months for a machine. 'hopefully' we won't wait more than 3 months but he also said for us to come back in 7 months and 'hopefully' we'll have received the machine by then [so are we waiting 3 months or 7!!!] I am so upset. it has taken so long to find out the problem and they are making us wait even longer for the machine. I expected the doc to confirm the diagnosis and arrange for OH to have a machine given to him in about a week or 2.

I am really upset at having to wait 3-7 months longer. The main problem with sleep apnea is he is always tired (and gave up work because of this along with him having M.E.) obviously we would like him to feel better because of this. He snores absolutely terribly. SO bad like you wouldn't believe. I can hear him at the other end of the house. It is unbearable. I am woken up 6-10 times a night with it and i sleep at the other end of the house with as many shut doors as possible. The kids are also woken up several times a night with the noise. I've made him sleep in the car or shed some nights it is so bad. I've had 3 nervous breakdowns in the time we've been together. Lack of sleep (with hindsight) was the final straw. My health has deteriorated due to lack of sleep and i believe the children are being affected by their sleep pattens being disrupted. We have even discussed us splitting up just so he doesn't sleep in the same house as us. BTW we have been told this machine will completely stop the snoring and mean his airways are kept open. So you can see why we are so keen to get this as soon as possible. I am absolutely desperate to have this problem resolved and i think we have waited long enough to have the problem resolved.

Any tips on how to get this damn machine quicker? Who do we contact to pressure? [other than GP]

Thanks for listening