Got my Breeze the other night

Ok, I have played traitor to my original clan (the FF Mask Clan) and am now attempting to weezle my way into the Clan of the Nasal Pillow. I know, I'm evil but, hey, as long as I end up comfortable, I can deal with that.


Observations after 2 days.

Day 1: this thing (the nasal interface) just dont fit unaltered. It seems to be made for folk with either flat or slightly rounded heads. Pointy headed folk like me were left out of the fit and wear testing, obviously.

I correct this oversight by making a very tightly rolled pad of old tee shirt (love them old tee shirts, it's my personal fav replacement for bailing wire) about 3 fingers in thickness and tieing that just at the forward most strap attachement branch thing. This keeps the nasal part of the interface from mushing my upper lip. It now fits comfy.

I get a good solid unleaky seal from the start. That was encouraging. It's also very nice to be able to put the interface on and mess around with fitting it without having to disconnect the hose from the machine. That auto start feature "blows" in my opinion.

I quickly learned that I can not whistle without needing to inhale while wearing the breeze. I had hoped so. That would be kinda fun on those nights when I cant get to sleep.

I also learned that I can open my mouth while on the Breeze and not get leaks unless I consciously depress the back of my tongue.

I also learned that if I do a quick shallow oral inhale while wearing my Breeze my soft palet will seal against the back of my throat and completely block all nasal air pressure. I am currently running at 15.5. I can do this at will, not just occasionally. I can do this and then carry on a conversation, drink fluids, chew and swallow food and will get no interferance from the blocked nasal air flow unless and until I push the back of my tongue up hard against my soft palet and "cluck" or do that "scratch your itchy throat with your tongue" thing that's common to allergy sufferers, in my family at least.

Is that normal? to be able to seal off nasal air pressure like that?

Anyhoo, the first night I wore the interface with the airflow on for about 2 hours prior to sleep and was comfortable. As soon as I tried going to sleep I felt as if I was smothering tho. I woke up a couple hours later with sinus's so dry they hurt and were swollen. End of sleep attempts for that night.

Last night, I upped my humidifier to "3". I fell asleep just fine. I slept until I finally was introduced to real "rain out" for the first time. Now I know why y'all find it so annoying. I also get a heavy deluge that nearly drowned me. I got about 3 hours sleep but wasnt dried out at all. I also used the chin strap last night (didnt use it the night before).

I am going at it tonight with the assumption that I dried out so badly the first night due to mouth leak. I'll run the humidifier but at "1" instead of "3" and will wear the chin strap. Here's to hoping I get it dialed in. I have already had tachycardia issues today. I dont wanna go unsleeped too many more days and I really dont wanna put that ff mask back on, yet. That'd be admitting defeat and surrender tends to give me indigestion.


Observation and Question:

Observed - with my FF Mask (flexifit 431) with an appearant good seal, the water in my humidifier resevior will be adgitated and want to hope by the drops up into the hose if I fill it to the "fill mark". It also tends to run dry in approx 4 hours use on setting "1".

With my Breeze and an appearant good seal, the water does not hop and jump around and on heat setting "3" for approx 3 hours the water level hardly dipped at all from where I had it filled. There was, however alot of water in the hose and alot more condensation on the roof of the humidifier tank.

Question: Is that possible? or did I just not observe what I had thought I had previously?

I wish you luck in your venture. I was given the swift nasal pillows one month ago, with my ResMed cpap and humidifier. the DME gave me the smallest size pillows and they still were almost too big. I guess my nares are very small and slitted. The first week my nares were extremely sore and I experienced that rainout also. After two weeks of sleeping with the pillows I woke up on several occasions with my mouth wide open, (even though I never considered myself a "mouth breather") I mean I don't fall asleep breathing thru my mouth.

Long and short of it I had to order a FF mask two weeks ago and now I've been sleeping thru the night and not ripping the mask off.

The one thing I do miss about the pillows is the ability to sleep on my stomach and bury my head in the pillow. before this CPAP thing I was soley a stomach sleeper.

Good Luck with everything, look forward to hearing about your progress. Your posts are extremely funny.

Suzy

Wow you gave up on the FF mask, wonder why lol.
I am still waiting for my replacement mask for the Ultra Mirage FF to a Hans Rudolph. My dad just started using his machine after like 5 years and he is on the breeze and I guess according to my mom he loves it. Me I am still having CPAP woes. May the force be with you Hope you can make this more comfy so you can sleep like a baby.

God bless

That was a great story about your experiences, damac! A fun read! Especially funny since most of us can relate to what you described soooo well!

I slept until I finally was introduced to real "rain out" for the first time. Now I know why y'all find it so annoying.

Get yourself the Aussie heated cpap tube, and you'll find out why so many of us find it to be indispensible!

http://www.sleepzone.com.au

LINKS to Aussie heated hose discussions - to prevent rainout

about the heated hose thing.

How long do those hold up and how do you clean em? Can you flush soap and water down em like normal hoses?

Will a aussie heated hose hold up for a full year of use? I cant really afford spending that kind of cash out of pocket on a regular or semi-regular basis.

I think I'll try an escelation in my anti-rainout campaign. I'll try insulation first.

but I do gotta admit, I do visit the aussie heated hose site and think greedy thoughts at it. I do want one... so, even if the insulation escalation works, I'll probably end up getting a heated hose as soon as my budget will allow.

damac, the one I have...I've been using every night since October 2004. I recently bought another one, just as a backup, but my 15 month old heated hose is still working like a charm.

You could slosh soapy water inside it, or a vinegar/water solution...or whatever you prefer. The makers advise not to get the outside cover wet. It's easy enough to be sure any cleaning water stays inside - just lift one end, then the other, kinda' like gentle juggling.

Mike Moran had a cool suggestion - put some cleaning solution in, then use a hose connector to connect both ends to each other to make a closed circle of the hose for thorough sloshing.

I rarely (means almost never!) clean my heated hose. What's going through it is vapor from distilled water -- which also keeps the heated humidifier clean, too.

Damac, I have discovered long ago if I placed my tongue against either my upper or lower incisors, I created a seal in my mouth and can also talk, chew, etc. without leaks. Perhaps this is what you are doing, although on a more subconscious level. I used to be a mouth breather or my mouth just dropped open and I'd have to wear a chin strap, but after a month of that haven't since, and because of the "seal" I automatically create now, and maybe the "training" of the chin strap, my mouth seldom falls open during the night.