Eoinpat wrote: (quote) ..... I recently did a sleep study. The consultant told me that I have moderate apnea - 15.3, but that a CPAP is not recommended unless the apnea is over 20….. I went to the ENT consultant ….. she had worked in a sleep clinic ….. and was very familiar with apnoea. She looked at the report ….. over 90% of my respiratory events happen while I am on my back. She suggested ….. my problem could be resolved if I can 'train' myself not to sleep on my back. She recommended that I find a small backpack and go to sleep wearing that - hopefully whenever I go to turn onto my back the backpack will prevent me from doing so. According to her after 40 days or so of this I should, hopefully, have managed to retrain myself out of sleeping on my back. Could it possibly be this simple?! I am very optimistic about this, but wonder if it is too good to be true! ….. (end quote)
That's good news that you have found a consultant that has worked in a sleep clinic. However, given that you are symptomatic (fatigue) and have mild/moderate SA with an AHI of 15.3 I am still surprised they are not recommending CPAP.
But as 90% of your test apnoeas were position-dependent then it does make sense to try and stop sleeping on your back. If you go down that route only, it might be a good idea to ask for another sleep study once you have <trained yourself> to not sleep on your back.
Just a caveat - in Belgium, as in France and many other countries, there is legislation to stop people with diagnosed sleep apnoea (which you unfortunately have, even though it is only mild/moderate) from driving any mode of transport (even privately, not just driving/flying as an occupation) until they are receiving appropriate and effective treatment, or a doctor confirms they do not need any treatment. There is info on Belgium at
http://www.somnolence.be/legislation_belge.html.
Given that your doctors are not offering you CPAP for your confirmed SA, it might be a good idea to ask one or both of the consultants to give you a <To whom it may concern> letter that states you are fit to drive (and fly a plane etc - whatever vehicles you are involved with!) without CPAP treatment. This will be useful in two ways - it will cover you for any insurance/police issues in case of a vehicle incident, and it may helpfully focus those doctors' minds. If they have to confirm their treatment strategy in writing they might reconsider and offer you CPAP, or at the very least an overnight titration study followed by a few weeks trial of CPAP. If your AHI and fatigue improve with the trial then you will have all the information you need to make a decision about accepting long-term CPAP. Which quite a lot of people might think would be a Good Thing - both for your fatigue and your future health.
My first 14 months of CPAP/APAP treatment clearly demonstrated that my fatigue only improves once my AHI is maintained at less than 2 events/hour, preferably less than 1. When I had an AHI of 2→15 I continued to be part-Zombie - which my doctors told me could not possibly be caused by <inadequately treated sleep apnoea>. They were wrong…
Hope it all works out well for you.