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Another night, another failure with the APAP
This is what happened tonight. It matches what happens too many other nights.
Around 11:30, I take a couple of low-dose melatonin, and read and play Candy Crush until 12:30, when I'm falling asleep over the iPad.
Turn APAP on.
Try to adjust nasal pillows so I can breathe through them, without adjusting other headgear. Succeed.
Now to adjust straps attached to them so they stay in place.
Top strap is flopping on forehead. Tighten it.
Now the nasal pillows have moved, and I can't breathe through my nose.
Readjust bottom straps. Seems to be okay.
Turn off lights and lie down, adjusting pillow pillows (the real ones).
Everything is slightly off. The nasal pillows are leaking air and blowing on my face. Try to get things adjusted with minor tweaks. Fail.
Turn lights on again. Take off headgear and try to readjust straps.
Put the whole assembly back on.
The Velcro on the bottom straps doesn't want to attach properly. Fiddle with it some more. Can't get anything right.
By now am wide awake. Also crying in frustration. Which means my nose is plugged, which is decidedly less than optimum for using the nasal pillows.
This is the fourth night in a row that I've had this fight. One night I gave up and slept without APAP (lose). One night I managed to fall asleep with it, but woke up around 4 am with nasty cramps and spent the next hour in the bathroom (not the fault of the APAP, I suppose). One night I triumphed, and slept seven hours. What will it be tonight?
Statistics seem to indicate that if I keep fiddling and adjusting, eventually I will be able to fall asleep with the device on. But it shouldn't be a nightly struggle. There has to be a better solution, but I'm damned if I know what it is. I've tried the two major brands of nasal pillows on the market, and neither one works terribly well for me. I really dislike the full-face mask -- one major reason I had surgery this year was so I wouldn't need that. Maybe a nose-only mask would work -- I haven't tried that since the surgery.
All I know is that right now it's 1:15 am, and my alarm will go off at 7:30. In between now and then, I'd really like to get some good-quality sleep. But I guess right now, I'll play some more Candy Crush.
Around 11:30, I take a couple of low-dose melatonin, and read and play Candy Crush until 12:30, when I'm falling asleep over the iPad.
Turn APAP on.
Try to adjust nasal pillows so I can breathe through them, without adjusting other headgear. Succeed.
Now to adjust straps attached to them so they stay in place.
Top strap is flopping on forehead. Tighten it.
Now the nasal pillows have moved, and I can't breathe through my nose.
Readjust bottom straps. Seems to be okay.
Turn off lights and lie down, adjusting pillow pillows (the real ones).
Everything is slightly off. The nasal pillows are leaking air and blowing on my face. Try to get things adjusted with minor tweaks. Fail.
Turn lights on again. Take off headgear and try to readjust straps.
Put the whole assembly back on.
The Velcro on the bottom straps doesn't want to attach properly. Fiddle with it some more. Can't get anything right.
By now am wide awake. Also crying in frustration. Which means my nose is plugged, which is decidedly less than optimum for using the nasal pillows.
This is the fourth night in a row that I've had this fight. One night I gave up and slept without APAP (lose). One night I managed to fall asleep with it, but woke up around 4 am with nasty cramps and spent the next hour in the bathroom (not the fault of the APAP, I suppose). One night I triumphed, and slept seven hours. What will it be tonight?
Statistics seem to indicate that if I keep fiddling and adjusting, eventually I will be able to fall asleep with the device on. But it shouldn't be a nightly struggle. There has to be a better solution, but I'm damned if I know what it is. I've tried the two major brands of nasal pillows on the market, and neither one works terribly well for me. I really dislike the full-face mask -- one major reason I had surgery this year was so I wouldn't need that. Maybe a nose-only mask would work -- I haven't tried that since the surgery.
All I know is that right now it's 1:15 am, and my alarm will go off at 7:30. In between now and then, I'd really like to get some good-quality sleep. But I guess right now, I'll play some more Candy Crush.
no subject
Is your mask provider in town with an office you can visit? A fiiter there might be able to help with the adjustments needed so the mask and nasal pillows fit once your head is nestled into your real pillows.
The fitter at the place I went to here recently noted that the nasal pillows seemed a little small and that I might do well with the larger size. The pillows seemed fine to me in the office, but once I laid down, air was prone to leaking around the edges. I moved up to the larger size and all is well on that front. My chin has changed shape enough that a chin strap no longer works as well as it used to and I find myself pushing it back into place as it slides off the top of my head, my chin, or both once I'm horizontal. And I push the head gear around a bit, but the pillows stay well seated. I'm feeling very lucky in that regard.
no subject
I did try a larger size of nasal pillows on a previous model, and those didn't work well for me. Possibly something in-between, if it existed, would have.
I originally thought I would need a chin strap if I wasn't using a full-face mask (or possibly even with), but post-surgery, I'm taking the word of my APAP that given the acceptable AHI I'm seeing when all goes well, it doesn't seem to be necessary. (When I finally got to sleep last night, I slept for four hours, with an AHI of 3.8. Lydy says anything under 5 is normal.) If I could just get the mask/pillows adjustment to be set and consistent, I'd probably be fine with the whole shebang.
no subject
If you get your gear from a local DME, they should be adjusting the gear with/for you and willing to make changes if you have problems. Good to hear Lydy was able to help.
Some masks just don't work for some people, regardless of adjustments & sizing. I was amazed when I first started reading CPAPtalk.com boards back in 2005 and learned how many people there more or less hacked certain masks to make them work! I still recall fondly the description of using old pantyhose as straps and similar things. Though it's amazing to me how much more variety there is in masks now and in all the gear. While it still can be frustrating, it seems likely there's some solution out there which will work.
I've found the folks at cpaptalk.com very helpful, you might try posting there asking for advice or search their forums to see if anyone had similar issues with that particular mask.
I'm currently using the Opus 360 mask and it's working fairly well for me (I think). http://www.cpap.com/productpage/fisher-paykel-opus-360-HC482A-CPAP-Mask.html
Not wild about having straps on my face, but I'm getting used to it by now.
My old favorite mask, which was the first nasal pillow mask where there weren't straps on your face:
http://www.cpap.com/productpage/aeiomed-aura-nasal-cpap-interface.html
Later I tried the ComfortLite 2 as it seemed similar, but I didn't have much luck with it. That was the mask where I had struggles similar to yours:
http://www.cpap.com/productpage/Comfort-Lite-2-Nasal-Interface-CPAP-Mask.html
(And one hopes the mask you find that works is one that is made by a major manufacturer that will keep making it. I'm still bitter about the fire that destroyed the warehouse for a local company that made my preferred mask and basically wound up with them going out of business. Argh. RIP, AEIOMed.)