I’m 99% certain I have sleep apnoea

[vipersnest1]

I’m waiting for an appointment at a respiratory medicine clinic (been waiting 39 weeks, expected wait 52 weeks).
I’ve only just found out that the Apple Watch I have will not notify me of sleep apnoea events as it’s too old, but last night my blood oxygen was 85% at one point, Thursday night it went down to 81%. Most of the time it goes down to under 90%.
I originally asked to be referred because of my low oxygen sats at night, plus I’ve been told I snore terribly.
(I’m only just above ideal BMI and have taken other measures to reduce my chances of sleep apnoea so please don’t come at me with all of that.)
I’ve never fallen asleep while driving but I am concerned - if I knowingly drive with untreated sleep apnoea it’s illegal.
I’ve done a sleep study which will be a year old by the time I am seen in clinic (I don’t know the results but don’t want to rely on ‘if you didn’t have it they would tell you’.)
There is also the added complication that I have severely restricted nasal passages and chronic sinusitis so I’m not sure what can be done to help my breathing if that’s the cause.
WWYD in my position, just wait it out, ask to be prioritised or something else?

In our area (South West) even if you test positive for sleep apnea there is a one year wait to get a C-Pap machine from the NHS.

I was fed up by having my sleep disturbed by my husband’s loud snoring, followed by a silence of quite a few seconds: this scared me so he had an appointment at a sleep clinic. They gave him a chest monitor to record his sleep patterns and it proved that he has sleep apnea.

He didn’t fancy waiting a year for a C-Pap machine and bought his own from Amazon. He now feels refreshed instead of feeling tired all the time.

The data from the sleep study is the most important thing here. If you were referred by your GP I'd start by asking them if they have access to the data and/or if you can be referred elsewhere that might have a quicker response time.

In the meantime can you get an app for your phone that records noises at night? I use an app called Sleep As Android on my phone for general sleep tracking but it does have the capability of recording noises. Assuming you've got an iPhone it might be worth seeing if you can find a similar app and then going through the recordings to see if there are instances of sleep apnoea.

I very much doubt that the clinic will be guided by an Apple Watch, they are not medical devices. If you can get someone to film you when asleep, though. They may accept that.

Thanks for the replies, @Roaminginthegloaming, @GasperyJacquesRobertsand @Toddlerteaplease.
I had no idea that I could potentially wait even longer if I do need a CPAP machine!
I’ve used a sleep app in the past but it wasn’t very good so I’ll look into it. I’ll also enquire as to whether or not the GPs can see the results although I suspect not as it would be on my NHS app too if that’s the case?
I live alone so can’t get anyone to film me, but might be able to find a way around that too. (It might also give an insight into why I’m apparently awake at times but have no recollection of it.)
My watch is accurate - I’ve checked it against a fingertip pulse ox device so know that.