Post
by QueSera » Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:44 pm
Two nights with the Bleep (ordered from cpap.com)
First night:
-- Used an alcohol wipe to clean my skin, almost passed out, lesson learned.
-- Applied the adhesives so that they were vertical and parallel up my nose. Weird overlap, lots of bunching, lots of leaks.
-- Clicked everything together with the vents facing down (pointed at my body), and then it was Shake, Rattle and Roll - air in my eyes, leaks everywhere, noise, noise, noise. I gave it an hour and put my Dreamwear original on.
Second night:
-- I used a witch-hazel wipe on my skin, and it was perfect.
-- I studied every picture I could find and made 2 changes:
-- I placed the adhesive pads exactly as they look on the cpap.com page. This way, the ports pointed straight down, and I was able to smooth the pads down over the creases on each side of my nose. I have had leaks in this spot with almost every mask ever, and
-- I connected the ports to the frame with the vents pointing up, away from me. This is how it looks on the package!
I double-checked it all and went to sleep. There was almost no noise, and what there was didn't bother me. So, yay!
PERFECT MASK ... until I spent 3+ hours on the phone this morning trying to find a Medicare-participating DME who could get it for me. Short answer: no such thing.
However, a lovely person at Aetna (my provider) was finally able to offer me this plan:
1. Ask my doctor to call the Authorizations Dept and request Pre-Authorization, and appeal when they deny it. (Had to do this 3 times last year to get my ASV approved.)
2. Ask the doctor to write a new Rx for the Bleep specifically, send this to cpap.com.
3. Order it myself and pay for it.
4. With all this in place, Aetna will reimburse me 100%.
5. So she said.
The computer I used for Sleepyhead has died, so I have no leak data. But I ran a Mask Fit as soon as I was hooked up and there was no air, no noise anywhere.
The adhesive stayed good all night, which really impressed me because it was so difficult to find mouth tape that would stick like that. (I use K-tape for that, the stuff that athletes use on their muscles.) When I woke up, I just peeled the adhesive back from the pointy-ish corners and it came right off, easy.
The only problem I had other than the insurance thing was managing it when I got up during the night. I peeled the vent-piece/hose off and that was fine, but it was hard to snap back on in the dark. I think this will get easier with practice, and if I can rig up the P10 hose hack elsewhere on this thread, it will be better.
Looking forward to another good night --
It's always something. Roseanne RoseannaDanna
I was a victim of a series of circumstances, as are we all. Malachi Constant