1. Sleeprider deserves to be raised to knighthood or some kind of medal or something. The man is a hero and a living legend, who has helped untold number of people with their apnea. I'm not kidding. Thank you, Sleeprider, for all that you do.
2. OP really should pursue the NHS route. Maybe it'll take a while, but once the gears are in motion he'll at least get access to a steady supply of ASV machines, for free. There will also be a paper trail of effective treatment, which might be important for insurance purposes further down the line (mortgages or life insurance or whatever which might require a medical checkup).
3. If you have a bed partner who tells you that you're not breathing, or that you snore loudly: get tested and get treated. Don't shrug it off. Deal with it. The sooner, the better.
4. CPAP doesn't have to be unsexy. I really don't understand why virtually all CPAP pictures include full-face masks with bulky headgear. The vast majority of CPAP users can get by with nasal pillows with minimalist headgear. Using those pictures instead would reduce the anxiety people feel about getting on CPAP. [1]
5. AHI is a largely meaningless number. "Mild" apnea can be just as devastating as "severe" apnea. AHI only looks at events/hour, it doesn't look at when the events occur (e.g. during REM), how many are back-to-back, and how much your sleep is actually disrupted. You can have a "normal" AHI of 5 and still get absolutely trash sleep because of un(der)treated sleep apnea.
I used the Swift FX for a long time, which is the predecessor to Airfit P10. Unfortunately they do not make them any more, and for some reason the P10 feels like it is putting my septum in a vice, it pinches it so hard. I can use a little bit of tape to cushion it, but it is a pain and still not the greatest.
I've ended up going with the N30i which is okay unless I'm a little congested as it kind of pinches my nostrils shut slightly, in which case I use the P30i fitting with the aforementioned tape. I miss the FX.
Any references or links on AHI and bad sleep? Seems like that is the gold standard for measuring severity of sleep apnea but I haven’t found it a very good measure for my own experiences.
No references I'm afraid. AHI is convenient because it's a single number, but just like BMI, it ignores a lot of context. RDI (RERA, respiratory effort related arousal index) might be a slightly better measure, but still imperfect. Intuitively, AHI doesn't make much sense. There are multiple sleep stages, if an AHI of 4 prevents you from entering REM sleep, or if it keeps knocking you out of deep sleep, you're going to have a bad time even though the numbers look good.
1. Sleeprider deserves to be raised to knighthood or some kind of medal or something. The man is a hero and a living legend, who has helped untold number of people with their apnea. I'm not kidding. Thank you, Sleeprider, for all that you do.
2. OP really should pursue the NHS route. Maybe it'll take a while, but once the gears are in motion he'll at least get access to a steady supply of ASV machines, for free. There will also be a paper trail of effective treatment, which might be important for insurance purposes further down the line (mortgages or life insurance or whatever which might require a medical checkup).
3. If you have a bed partner who tells you that you're not breathing, or that you snore loudly: get tested and get treated. Don't shrug it off. Deal with it. The sooner, the better.
4. CPAP doesn't have to be unsexy. I really don't understand why virtually all CPAP pictures include full-face masks with bulky headgear. The vast majority of CPAP users can get by with nasal pillows with minimalist headgear. Using those pictures instead would reduce the anxiety people feel about getting on CPAP. [1]
5. AHI is a largely meaningless number. "Mild" apnea can be just as devastating as "severe" apnea. AHI only looks at events/hour, it doesn't look at when the events occur (e.g. during REM), how many are back-to-back, and how much your sleep is actually disrupted. You can have a "normal" AHI of 5 and still get absolutely trash sleep because of un(der)treated sleep apnea.
[1] Nasal pillow mask: https://www.resmed.com.au/healthcare-professionals/products/...