Sleep apnea - can you buy alarms for stopping breathing

suki1001

My step dad was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and fluid on the lung. He's been in hospital, but is now at home. He might have sleep apnea, but has to take some medication for 6 weeks until he can take the test.

In the meantime, he seems to stop breathing when he's asleep. this is giving him very little sleep and he's taken to sleeping to the sofa, however, the knock on effect it's had on my mother is it's made her really ill. Yesterday, she was beside herself and saw the doctor twice yesterday. She's frazzled and makes this awful noise like she's in labour when she breaths, which isn't helping my step dad.

I stayed over so she would go to bed upstairs and get some sleep and I could keep an eye on my step-dad and today, I've sent her to bed and they are currently both asleep. him on the sofa and her in her bed.

The problem is, this arrangement is a nightmare. when I'm not here, she won't sleep (or sleeps lightly) for fear of him stopping breathing and he can't sleep much and I can't just stay here all the time.

Whilst he's waiting for an assessment, I want to know if you can get an alarm of some kind, which goes off if he stops breathing. i know it's not an ideal solution, but it's the only thing I can think of to help her relax a bit and help her be concerned when she needs to be. It might sound extreme, but I'm struggling to see how they're going to get through this for another 6 weeks.

My mum has had treatment for non-hodgkins lymphoma twice (second one still ongoing as a mild treatment - a preventative measure) and my step dad says, if she gets so much as a cold, she thinks it means it's returned. Perhaps understandable, but all this is making it far, far worse, without this, it would be difficult, but this makes it harder. So if anyone knows anything that might help - gratefully received. Not looking for medical advice, just something that might help.

Thanks

koalamummy

Sorry if this is a silly idea but would a baby heartbeat monitor help at all? Angel care and tommee tippee both make them. They alarm if no heartbeat is detected. I realise that they won't work on a standard mattress but they are really very flat so could maybe be made comfortable if some extra blankets/towels were placed under the bed sheet over the top of the base unit.

lostinrates

How long are they expecting it to take until they sleep study? I would have hoped it could be quite quick his other conditions considered?

Dunroamin

Although sleep apnoea can mean an increase of risk of other health issues and its effects can be debilitating, sufferers don't just stop breathing and die. Has your mother discussed her worries with her doctor because I'm sure s/he could reassure her about this?

I don't think an alarm would work because it's the nature of sleep apnoea that the patient stops breathing (briefly) on a regular basis and it would be going off all the time.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Sleep-apnoea/Pages/Introduction.aspx

fluffnutter

All an alarm would do would beep when he stops breathing. This wouldn't actually help at all, because it wouldn't tell you anything you don't know.

Sleep apnoea is a distressing condition that can put strain on the heart and causes incredibly interrupted sleep but he's not going to stop breathing and die. As he stops he automatically wakes up and will start breathing again.

It sounds like your mum is very anxious about this, understandably so, but I really think that a chat with someone would help to put her mind at rest a little. I know a few people with sleep apnoea and they don't need babysitting each night! It's more annoying than anything else for their OHs due to the noise they make!

suki1001

koalamummy wrote: »

Sorry if this is a silly idea but would a baby heartbeat monitor help at all? Angel care and tommee tippee both make them. They alarm if no heartbeat is detected. I realise that they won't work on a standard mattress but they are really very flat so could maybe be made comfortable if some extra blankets/towels were placed under the bed sheet over the top of the base unit.

I had wondered that myself, but I wasn't sure if there was one for adults.

suki1001

lostinrates wrote: »

How long are they expecting it to take until they sleep study? I would have hoped it could be quite quick his other conditions considered?

They went to the GP today (fortunately a joint appointment), apparently he is showing signs of improvement with the medication - so that's good. But the GP said they couldn't push it forward until his medication had stabilised all the other symptoms.

suki1001

Dunroamin wrote: »

Although sleep apnoea can mean an increase of risk of other health issues and its effects can be debilitating, sufferers don't just stop breathing and die. Has your mother discussed her worries with her doctor because I'm sure s/he could reassure her about this?

I don't think an alarm would work because it's the nature of sleep apnoea that the patient stops breathing (briefly) on a regular basis and it would be going off all the time.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Sleep-apnoea/Pages/Introduction.aspx

That's good to know, I think it's just been frightening because of the other things as well. I think the lack of sleep has had a very bad effect on them both. Fortunately they both slept today and my mum managed to eat something, so she felt a bit better. I think she's feeling so run down from it.

suki1001

fluffnutter wrote: »

All an alarm would do would beep when he stops breathing. This wouldn't actually help at all, because it wouldn't tell you anything you don't know.

Sleep apnoea is a distressing condition that can put strain on the heart and causes incredibly interrupted sleep but he's not going to stop breathing and die. As he stops he automatically wakes up and will start breathing again.

It sounds like your mum is very anxious about this, understandably so, but I really think that a chat with someone would help to put her mind at rest a little. I know a few people with sleep apnoea and they don't need babysitting each night! It's more annoying than anything else for their OHs due to the noise they make!

Thank you. It's a mixture of concerns and not just the sleep apnea. Hopefully, they'll have a bit more of a peaceful might and she said because his breathing sounds better, she'll sleep upstairs tonight, so hopefully they'll get a better nights sleep. She said he was taking a few breaths and then stopping breathing.

suki1001

Thanks so much for your help folks.

lostinrates

suki1001 wrote: »

They went to the GP today (fortunately a joint appointment), apparently he is showing signs of improvement with the medication - so that's good. But the GP said they couldn't push it forward until his medication had stabilised all the other symptoms.

That's interesting. Where I am the first study the do is done at home with some sort of equipment you wear (I know because I have to do it at some point, but I don't have sleep apnea) so one might have thought if they could do it that way where you are it wouldn't really interfere and could provide answers more quickly.