sleep apnoea

[Grace]

Hi all. Some of you may know the horror story which was my experience of care post-op.

Most of the problems occurred because it seemed no-one (including the aneasthetist, but I may be wrong) understood the very real significance of my having sleep apnoea.

After 2 weeks, I have now been brave enough to do a little bit of my own research.
And I find that The Sleep Apnoea Trust ACTUALLY publish a leaflet for hospital staff, outlining the VERY REAL dangers of sleep apnoea for patients having a general anaesthetic and strong pain relief:

ie .morphine or anything which causes drowsiness eg. an aneasthetic: both depresses the body's ability to wake and are likely to further 'soften' the airway, which is what leads to obstructive sleep apnoea in the first place.

The danger is that the patient will have prolonged apnoeas which could cause prolonged periods of low oxygen; suffer respiratory arrest; have heart arrythmias; and ultimately a cardiac arrest!
Oh MY WORD!!!!!!!!!

2 weeks on and I had begun to think that maybe I had been over-reacting! Turns out NOT! I actually WAS fighting for my life......

.........I am not being over-dramatic here!

I WILL DEFINITLEY now be making a formal complaint.

Apparently people with severe sleep apnoea should be cared for on HDU or ITU and monitered very closely. As I believed.

PLEASE if you have sleep apnoea - ask in advance/check with your sleep specialist (as I wish I had done) how do your providers plan to ensure your safety? If there is ONE good thing that could come out of my horrendous experience, it's that no-one else would experience anything so frightening.

Much love to you all. xxxx

 

[notahappybunny]

OMG Charis its scary! For the people who don't know, what are the symptoms of sleep Apnoea? until reading about WLS i hadn't even heard of it.

 

[phatmomma]

Thank you Charis, my husband is on the waiting list for his surgery and i will remember your advice well when the op comes closer xx

 

[marky v]

for me the expereince of my surgery and my sleep apnoea was brilliant, my surgeon was brilliantly well switched on and the lead anaesthetist understood exactly what was required, when i was taken down for surgery, i had a tube inserted before i was sedated which was not pleasant i must admit, and i was watched in ICU/HDU afterwards, my surgeon did comment that my sleep apnoea was not that noticable during surgery, altho i did lose 2 stone prior to the surgery, this undoubtedly help, i still used my cpap machine for another month or so, but after this i needed it no more, infact i was classed as "cured" 6 months ago or so, as always, different hospitals different experiences, sorry yours was not so good

 

[zns]

This is the reason that most of us have to have sleep studies in the first place. Im so sorry they didnt pay attention to your history. xx

 

[marky v]

OMG Charis its scary! For the people who don't know, what are the symptoms of sleep Apnoea? until reading about WLS i hadn't even heard of it.

Sleep apnea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[notahappybunny]

thank you xx

 

[Grace]

This is the reason that most of us have to have sleep studies in the first place. Im so sorry they didnt pay attention to your history. xx

zns they didn't just ignore my history, I actually had to fight and argue with them AFTER I'd had my anaesthetic, when I was very heavily sedated and also had been given morphine.

........and then show them how to put my cpap machine together!

I am actually VERY angry now. Their incompetence put my life at risk.

 

[NEDebz]

Charis

Thank you for sharing this. I am under the same consultant as you and also have sleep apnoea so if I get to operation stage I shall be ensuring that steps are put into place before the operation

Thanks xxx