Second night's review:
I went to sleep with the mouthguard in place (which is comprised of two separate pieces, not one) and my lips parted. When I had to get up in the middle of the night to take pain reliever for my stiff neck, my mouth was very dry. I don't believe I'd been mouth-breathing, so I think the parted lips were enough to let the air in and dry me out. (Maybe a one-piece mouthguard would work better, but I don't have one to try.) When I went back to bed, I applied lip balm and opted to try taping over my parted lips (with the trimmed tape), but the piece of tape wasn't quite wide enough (top to bottom) to account for the lip balm's added moisture, so I took that piece off and then applied the full 2" width (again with my lips parted). That held well and didn't break the seal at all, and I didn't wake with a dry mouth this morning.
Here's the data (short night again due to neck pain, but lower pressure needs again and lower leak). The little blip in the middle is when I tried to use the trimmed tape and realized it wouldn't hold. The first blank in the pressure graph was when I got up to take the pain med; then the little bit of usage was with the trimmed tape. (The pain hadn't yet resolved, but I wanted to go back to sleep, so I tried but was not successful.) I then opted to get out of bed again and wait for pain relief (that's the big gap). Then I applied the 2" wide tape and went back to bed for awhile. (I've always had difficulty sleeping when the sun is up, and this morning was no different. I was awake with the birds, as usual.) I may need a nap today; if so, I'll have to use a sleep mask.
Just an aside: My machine's timing is off. I went to bed around 10:30, but the data indicates an hour later. We don't do DST here in AZ, and the machine is obviously not taking that into account. I haven't figured out how to amend that; there's nothing in the machine manual about it. If anyone knows how, please advise.
Oh, one more thing I noticed: I use a hose hanger. With my Hybrid, I have to make sure that the short hose moves away from the elbow attachment on the mask in a lateral direction (either left or right) before it then moves up to attach to the 6' hose overhead. If the short hose is in front of the mask, the exhaust hits it directly and makes a lot of noise. But because the Amara's exhaust is vented upwards, it doesn't hit the short hose at all; no noise when the hose is directly in front of the mask. Another bonus, in my book.
No redness or soreness this morning, either. Still leaning towards a "yay" for this mask.
Veni, vidi, Velcro. I came, I saw, I stuck around.Dx 11/07: AHI 107, central apnea, Cheyne Stokes respiration, moderate-severe O2 desats. (Simple OSA would be too easy.
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PR S1 ASV 950, DreamWear mask, F&P 150 humidifier, O2 @ 2L.