Speaker: Bob, Soft Palate Airway Stent user
What drew you to purchase the Soft Palate Airway Stent? What's your WHY?
Bob: I started researching what I should do for my sleep apnea. Back several months ago when suddenly after years of good treatment through CPAP therapy it wasn't working right anymore. It was just wasn't being consistent. And I I went from being with an AHI under one generally to seeing AHI 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or even over 11. And so something was wrong and I talked to my regular doctor, I talked to a sleep doctor and said something, something's wrong here. I don't know what it is. Well it turns out in the end from what I could find being proactive in my health that my soft palate was collapsing. And not just on the inhale but on the exhale too and about the only way to deal with that would be surgery or the pillars or and I didn't want that to happen to my throat. So I found out about the Alaxo Stent online and saw that others had seen it and we're interested in it. And I ended up talking with a couple of E.N.T's And went with the Stent because it looked like that was going to be what was needed to help me get back to the good sleep at night that I had. And it turns out I was right to be proactive with that.
What was your initial reaction when first trying the Airway Stent?
Bob: When I first started trying to Stent, you know, it arrived unboxed it. Here it is, you know, here's the stent, here are the other pieces that go with it. This was, you know, exciting. Is this going to work. And so at first I just put the tube into my nose and during the daylight, you know when I was up and around and spent, you know, like an hour or so saying, hey, can I adjust to this thing just being in my nose? And the first reaction was a little bit of, you know, like welling up in my eyes, you know, my nose feeling like you've just stuck something in here. But it wasn't that bad. I had a runny nose for a while and then that dried up and, and now, you know, the next was okay, well let's try it with the step as well. And so, you know, I just learned, I can just set it all the way in there and and get it in and then, see how it all goes and again, a little bit of a runny nose. So I taped it down and had a day where I would walk around for a little bit in the evening and then my nose would dry up and I'd get ready for bed. and as you can see, I'm talking my wife and I can talk if it's in my mouth, I am in my throat and I didn't find it all that uncomfortable. Sometimes swallowing is a little scratchy, but my initial reaction was, wow, I shouldn't have been you know, too worried about this, it's working and so yeah. This is great. And then I slept and I had one of the best nights ever in my sleep and my AHI went all the way back down again on my bi level because I wear my mask with it and it was like this is exactly what I needed. So my first reaction was, yeah, I am so glad I pushed for this and it works and it's, you know, some irritation. But I got over that after the first few nights. It's like there's no irritation at all here as you can tell.
How has your experience been using the Airway Stent?
Bob: So my experience with this Stent, My experience has been really good. I've got it taped on now, you can tell I'm talking the same thing as I would do you know, it's getting into bed talking to my wife and functioning just fine with it and at first, you know, I had to adjust to it. It wasn't a long adjustment or a big adjustment. But when I would first put the stent in in, during the first few days, my nose would get a little runny clear runny nose. And so I decided I would put the stent in an hour or two before bed. So that was all, you know, my little nose was like fine with it once it was there. But then after that first few days, by the end of that first week especially, it wasn't the experience was just okay, I'm going to put it in and then when I'm ready for bed, not having to do it early anymore, not having to do it while I was watching Tv or something, it just, you know, okay, bedtime routine, get ready for bed, put on my pajamas, put this on and that worked out pretty well. The other piece as I've said, I had moved up from CPAP to bi level as an attempt to help correct some of the soft palate problem. It wasn't, it wasn't as I said, and so the experience of this and there was okay, well how how does that work? You know, my experience is okay, so how can I still put my mask on and so that was part of my experience to, can I do what I do every night and and it turns out, yeah I can I can I can do all of that, my experiences, it doesn't for me because I like it. I still use the pap but I haven't had to, I can nap with this thing on, I could go camping with this thing, I'm not dragging along my CPAP So anyway, my experiences after a short adjustment period, this is just really, it's just part of the bedtime routine. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna brush my teeth, I'm gonna put on my pajamas, I'm gonna crawl into bed and in there is oh yeah, stick in the step. It's pretty straightforward from when I started months ago on the stent to now it's just so part of the routine and then I get up in the morning and I pull it out and rinse it off as they show in the instruction videos and disinfect and let it dry off there next to the sink and go about my day and it's not like feel anything. It's, it hasn't changed anything inside of me. It just worked during the night for me. So, so from start to finish over these months now that I've been using the stent, it's been several days adjustment, getting used to it and just totally embracing it as part of the routine.
How has the Airway Stent improved your quality of sleep?
Bob: The stent has really improved my sleep. I've just seen in the amount of time I can sleep at a stretch. You know, like I'm not getting up to go to the bathroom quite so early, it's like stretched out. My sleep doctor is so impressed with the data of my machine. As I said here, I'll show you I can I can still mask up either with with this kind of nasal mask, nasal pillows or I have the tape down low here because I can put I wear a bleep mask that sticks adhesive wise right here onto my nostril and it actually helps seal really well with a little tale of the stent that comes out and so I use this with my CPAP most of the time. I can go without it with just the stent. And you know, quality of sleep. I'm going to show you on this right here. You know, all smiley faces. And I'm going, you know, here's a month, a month's report. And I'm like it here showing on the screen here this monthly report have zeros all month 0.0, 0.0. And I look at the data card and Oscar and look at the software of it. And I'm having the machine is having to do so little at this point because the stent is doing so much, this is helping my anatomy. And that means I'm not having any arousals from apneas or hypopneas. I'm able then to stretch out the time period before my body wants me to get up and go to the bathroom and then I come back and my body is not averse to going back to sleep and I can fit in some more if I want or I can just be up. That is so different 0.0 for a whole month of AHI On the machine. That is so different from what I had before. Even going back to when CPAP was working for me, I would have under 1 AHI But I could never go for a week of zeros I couldn't. And so the quality of sleep, it's just terrific. The data from my little pulse oximeter that I wear at night shows that I'm averaging Like 96%. oxygen at night according to this, you know and it's not dipping below 90% so even though I can't tell that quality, it's like reassuring to me to know this is really working. This is great. So I just am amazed that I found a way to have perfect AHI After having been severe AHI Without anything. It's just really improved things
Can you tell us about the support you received from the Airway Care Team?
Bob: I've had really good support from the Airway Care Team. I asked questions leading up to the time period where I was going to get the Stent and my doctor approving the Stent and, I have talked to them since about, you know, the great results I'm having and asking about, you know, like where to get more of the disinfectant. And they've always been very quick to respond to my emails, reached out by phone just, hey, it's been a week on the Stent, how is it's still going okay, we're glad to hear all of that. Are you feeling benefits? And so I get the sense that the team really wants people to succeed on this, which is, which is really good and you know, my, my doctor is willing to talk with them about it too because you know, it's just new. My doctor had never heard about this. So for the team to be able to say, yeah, we'd be glad to reach out to your doctor. That's a good thing too. I'm just really glad to have that kind of level of support for this device and it's, it's very good, very strong support system that they have going and I appreciate it. I like the responsiveness as I said and the care that they're giving.
