Alison is no stranger to sleep apnea.  Her father was a heavy snorer and displayed the typical breathing pauses and gasping breaths at night for as long as Alison can remember.  Alison’s father was never diagnosed or treated. 

 

Alison’s sister was diagnosed and had been on CPAP for a couple of years. In late 2008, Alison began to suspect that her blood pressure, diabetes and sleepiness were symptoms of sleep apnea.  Her local doctor was reluctant to consider this possibility because Alison is not overweight and is otherwise healthy; it seems that misconceptions about sleep apnea are widespread and even the medical community can misread the signs. 

 

Eventually, Alison insisted on a referral to a sleep specialist and went for a sleep study. Alison was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and began CPAP in January 2009.  During the sleep study, Alison recorded an Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) of 35, meaning that she suffered an airway collapse event 35 times per hour.  This puts Alison’s condition in the severe range.

 

Being well aware of the long term consequences, Alison was very committed to treatment.  She found the best machine and, after trying a few standard masks, she settled on the “best of the bunch” and got started.  But it wasn’t all plain sailing – Alison had a few pretty normal problems while adjusting to CPAP.   She asked for support from her specialist and his team, did her research online and tried to solve the mask comfort issues she had with her standard mask.   Her sister passed along a few tips and tricks, but she didn’t have the same issues that Alison did.  

 

Despite being committed to CPAP, Alison woke up each morning with a sore on the bridge of her nose.  Night after night this became worse until it became a regular (and embarrassing) feature on Alison’s face.  Determined not to give in, Alison heard about Acurest through a newspaper story and was referred to us by her doctor.  

 

We first met Alison in June 2009 when she came to find out more about our custom made mask.  In July, Alison made an appointment to be moulded and she collected her new mask early in August. The week before Alison collected her new custom-made mask she went back to her specialist for a six month check-up.  The doctor downloaded the machine data and told Alison that the treatment was well calibrated and that her AHI had reduced from 35 before treatment, to 0.7 – a great result! Rather than being satisfied with this however, Alison informed us that she was looking for an AHI of zero and wanted her new mask to be the solution. Honestly, I was nervous.  An AHI 0.7 is very low, and shows that the condition is being well controlled by the therapy.  But if any mask could do better than this, I knew it would be ours.  It’s now a year since Alison was diagnosed, and six months since she started with her custom-made mask.   

 

Alison went back to her doctor for another check-up last week and she called me yesterday to give me the feedback.   In Alison’s words:  “I am delighted to say my [AHI] is now 0.1 per hour or in real terms I have 1 apnea every 2 nights.  To say that my sleep specialist was gob smacked is an understatement.  He did not believe I could improve on the previous reading but your mask proved him wrong”.

 Getting the right mask is obviously the key.  Improved comfort makes the therapy much less intrusive and easier to stick with.  But, Alison’s tenacious attitude is where it all starts, of course.  She knew from personal experience and her research what untreated sleep apnea was like.  She was committed to finding solutions to the problems she encountered and she wasn’t satisfied with second best.  Alison is always looking to improve.  She sums it up nicely herself by saying: “My personal goal is to be down to zero in 6 months when I see him next.” 

 

Stories like this make it all worthwhile for us.  I’m still nervous about Alison’s “zero target”, but striving for the ultimate treatment is what we have always done and is the reason we do what we do.   When you set goals like this, like Alison, you might just be amazed by the results!