Nasal Pillow Question

[klockemy]

I am currently sporting a Mirage Liberty. I have used it for a week and a half with no issues. I was originally using the medium nasal pillows with it, but noticed they leaked when I moved, so I changed to the Large pillows and it seems to be working fine.....until now. The past two nights, I am awakened by them leaking, but when I try to reseat them, they are wet and slippery and will not seal. I don't have congestion or any drainage. I was wondering if anyone had a solution for this one? Am I raining out in my nose?!

Thanks
Kevin

[DBoone]

What setting are you using on the humidifier? I occasionally have the "wet" feeling too but its not every night and it doesn't really bother me. I keep my HH at 2 unless my sinuses are feeling especially dry.

[klockemy]

M-Series Integrated Heated Humidifier set on 1. The first few nights, I didn't have any issues. Now the pillows are so wet they won't seal.

Does the 1ft connector hose from the main line to the mask need to be covered too?

[DBoone]

Depends on where you are as well as humidity and temperature in your bedroom. I never cover my hose at all.

[JoyD.]

klockemy asked:
Does the 1ft connector hose from the main line to the mask need to be covered too?

Kevin,

My experience says yes, but others may have a different opinion. I have all my "mask-hoses" covered with fleece and it did take care of the condensation in the nasal pillows. [. . .except for the Headrest which has a unique nasal pillow attached to a silicone piece that is difficult to cover; for that, Gerald uses pieces of string inside the silicone piece and another member uses a sock to cover it. I just remove any little droplets with a Q-tip, if needed, if I get up during the night to pee. The Headrest is still my favorite mask.]

I keep my HH at cold passover in the summer in my air conditioned home, kept at 73-75 degrees F. -- In the Winter I keep my HH at 1, occasionally 2, and my heat is turned down to 65. (I just bought an Aussie HH for Winters to eliminate any rainout at that time of year). At any season, I believe that covering the mask-hose helps a lot.

Joy

[ozij]

I often have to cover the connecting hose as well as the main one.

Something I wasn''t too happy to discover: daily cleaning of the pillows does make a difference. I used to use baby wipes for the mask and my nose, I used to be somewhat lax about it.

Now I wash the nasal pillows daily with Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, and wash the area of my nose with that soap just before I go to sleep - every night bar none. The seal is much better.

[JoyD.]

.
Yes, ditto to what Ozij said regarding washing the pillows nightly with a mild liquid soap (I use Ivory liquid and warm-hot water).

[klockemy]

I make sure to remove the nasal pillows from the mouth cushion and wash both thouroughly every day in warm water and ivory dish shop, rinse, then left to air dry out of the sun. (I know, I follow the instructions religiously). I currently have a 6ft hose cover currently on the main hose, but the extension that connects to the faceplace is uncovered. I guess I will, try covering that. Seeing as I am new to nasal pillows, I need at least a little humidification until my nose toughens up enough for just passover. That is the only thing I hate about ResMed cushions/pillows, they get a little wet/oily and they break seal and get all slippery.

Thanks for the advice so far. Does the size of the pillows matter in rainout? I am using the large pillows and my nose barely accomodates them, the medium fits a little better but is more prone to leaks.

Kevin

[sepool]

I often have to cover the connecting hose as well as the main one.

Something I wasn''t too happy to discover: daily cleaning of the pillows does make a difference. I used to use baby wipes for the mask and my nose, I used to be somewhat lax about it.

Now I wash the nasal pillows daily with Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, and wash the area of my nose with that soap just before I go to sleep - every night bar none. The seal is much better.

I used to use Johnsons Baby shampoo, but now I use Dr. Bronner's unscented formula, with a lot better results, too. It even brought back some pillows that I thought were unusable.

[klockemy]

I like using the ivory b/c it makes the cushions and pillows of ResMed products a little 'tacky' for when I put them on.

[Muse-Inc]

My pillows only get wet when my allergies have been triggered or if my humidifier is set too high. In Winter, I leave it at about the 3/4 indicator and now, in Summer, I have to keep turning it lower and lower. If the humidity is high, I set it to the 1/8 indicator. if they're wet, I pull my mask off (one-handed procedure on mine), flick my finger against the pillow (or both) to flick out water and break up droplets, re-position mask, and go back to sleep. When I first got it, I had to set it to a high setting to avoid dry nose-throat-mouth. After a few weeks, I started getting rainout from my warm breath and had to start adjusting the setting.

[timbalionguy]

The nasal pillows on my hybrid mask are often wet from washing when I put on my mask. No problems so far, the pillows seat remarkably well. I did find in test-fitting them that the best size (large in my case) was the size where the opening in the pillow most nearly filled my nares. The only real problem with the nasal pillows has been getting the angle right. If they are off-angle a little bit, I get some very minor irritation from them. But three weeks in so far with nasal pillows. No irritation that results in soreness, etc. and no other problems worth doing anything about.

I have found as well, that after a few weeks I was able to turn my HH way down. It is currently set at 'passover'. We are having the coolest, wettest June we have had in Reno for several decades. I wonder if that has anything to do with the low HH setting.

[klockemy]

Well, I didn't have enough material to cover the 6ft hose plus the 1ft hose for the mask (I have a 6ft respironics fleece hose cover). But I figured, since my fan is blowing on it, that it probably needed to be covered. So I moved the cover so that the mask hose was covered and the first foot of the hose out of the machine was uncovered. Also, I noticed the wifey turned the thermostat down, so I fixed that. Last night, nice and dry with no leaks that I can recall. I have read up on rainout, but NEVER thought you could rainout inside your nose....

[ozij]

Both cpap.com and padacheeks.com sell short hose covers, should you find that necessary.

O.

[klockemy]

Both cpap.com and padacheeks.com sell short hose covers, should you find that necessary.

O.

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info, O. I will give them a look.

Kevin