Hi. I have no idea what I'm doing.

[grass]

I'm using Flonase (allergies, etc) and I've tried mixing some Neti Pot salt into the humidifier to help.

Er...am I the only one to think adding ANYTHING other than water (preferably distilled) to the humidifier is a bad idea?

Adding salt to the humidifier serves no purpose other than to promote corrosion of your water tank. The salt cannot evaporate, and will only concentrate in the water that remains behind in the tank, thus becoming even more corrosive.

Ya got me here. I'm just doing what my DME suggested to help with congestion. I'll ask about this again.

Dear Journal,

It's now been 20 nights with no sleep.... Last night I tried adding a thin layer of Lansinoh to the bridge of my mask where the jetways keep pinging me right in the lookers (eyeballs). That helped absolutely none and I ended up chunking the mask across the room in a recreation of one of my 2yr old's tantrums. Following that I slept all.... night.... long.... though the same can't be said for my wife. I have a meeting today with the DME to do another refit or new mask selection.

Love,
Me

[Janknitz]

Ya got me here. I'm just doing what my DME suggested to help with congestion. I'll ask about this again.

Time to stop depending on your DME for advice. He's a bozo.

Read my mask fitting tips for Taming the Mirage Quattro. The LOOSER your mask is around the top of the nose (air cushion masks) the better the seal because the air fills the cushion to hug your nose.

[grass]

Time to stop depending on your DME for advice. He's a bozo.

Read my mask fitting tips for Taming the Mirage Quattro. The LOOSER your mask is around the top of the nose (air cushion masks) the better the seal because the air fills the cushion to hug your nose.

Agreed 100% which is why I'm here. I do think I have it perhaps a bit too tight(er than I think it should be) but any looser and the thing "face farts" on my back and nearly slips right off when I lay on one of my sides. It's possible that the mask size is correct, but the head gear isn't(too big?).

Also, after reading so much on here, I've seen multiple references to checking the mask fitting while laying down at the the DME which they haven't done. Another reason for my 100% agreement above. The beautiful thing is each time I go back to see them the more knowledgeable I am thanks to this community. I'm taking my data with me to discuss what I'm seeing on SleepyHead now that I know how to do that. They've never offered to show me any data up to this point.

Again, a huge thanks to everyone here.

[Janknitz]

I thighten my mask a lot at the bottom, in order to leave it fairly loose at the top.

The downside is that this is not great for the airway or teeth.

My FF mask always leaks when I lie on my back and it's not a great position for apnea anyway. I use one of those U-shaped neck pillows sometimes to keep the mask propped up in the right position if I want to sleep on my back for a little while (it rarely lasts long). I took most of the buckwheat filling out of the pillow so it's really soft and moldable.

On my sides, if I "spring" a leak, all I have to do is snuggle my face into the pillow to stop the leak.

[grass]

I just returned from my refitting with the DME. I really, really had to try to stay calm after the "therapist" (here after always put in quotes) tried to tell me the data looked good. I told him my averages "look" good but that each of those spikes in the data points equalled a disruption in my sleep.

Anyway, I left with the Quattro FX. I made him hook me up to an S9 at the shop before I would sign for it. It felt ok there, and I pushed on it from multiple angles to test for leaks. Only a few nights will tell how it works. After these 30 days are over, I don't anticipate going back to this shop again. They seem to be throwing darts at the CPAP wall instead of making educated, qualified decisions.

[Tatooed Lady]

I like my quattro fx also. It fits my relatively flat, wide-ish face better than the f-10 does.

[HoseCrusher]

Adding salt to the humidifier serves no purpose other than to promote corrosion of your water tank. The salt cannot evaporate, and will only concentrate in the water that remains behind in the tank, thus becoming even more corrosive.

Unfortunately your comment is not correct. On my machine I have been actually able to measure and confirm that salt ions will travel from the humidifier water up the hose and out the mask. Just like being on a salt water beach...

I will add that after a couple of years of adding salt to my humidifier water I have no corrosion and no build up in my tank. Also, no congestion...

[grass]

Well, last night was the first night with the full-faced Darth Vader mask. The Quattro FX actually did pretty well. There was one point last night I took it off briefly because my nose was itching. I must have fallen back asleep before putting it back on... whoops. I woke some time later and put it back on; it was still in my hand filling helping the ceiling fan move some air about.

Definite progress.

I took a screen cap from SleepyHead, but can't see how to upload the photo onto the board natively. My firewall at work prohibits me from getting to most sites to share an image, like imgur etc.

EDIT: Perhaps this will work: https://www.flickr.com/photos/98018587@N06/14615167080