Still sorting it all out

Well, on my second week of cpap and still haven't settled in with the mask. I started out with just the partial mask but shortly after going to sleep my tongue would fall out of place, my cheeks would puff up like a squirrel chucking his mouth full of nuts, and I would awake exhausting all the air out my mouth. Must have went some time that way one night as when I awoke there wasn't a moist spot to be found in my mouth and throat. I thought of the poor fell crawling across the desert whispering "WATER, WATER". Chin strap was very little help as it came off every night at some point. I received my full face mask last Friday and the first night had lots of air leakage, spending most of the night trying to suck that puppy down tight enough to close the gaps. Decided that maybe I needed a smaller size so now am heading into my third night with a medium and it works a lot better. Managed to get through most of the night last night with just a few short wake ups. Not sure why but wake up and lips are numb so have to excercise those dudes until I get feeling back then drift off to sleep again. Still not getting a full nights sleep and even though I'm generally a pessimist I am thinking I might have this baby whipped by the weekend.

papasmurf in Wyoming

Hi papasmurf,

You may want to try your nasal mask with rested gal's method of preventing mouth leaks. I've included a quote of her suggestion to me in an earlier post.

An Ace covering the lips is what I use, along with a second Ace cut to a length to go over the top of my head, the ends sewn to the sides of the "mouth Ace" to keep the mouth Ace from slipping down. Looks like the simplest horse halter imaginable. If that's not enough, and if you can find a nice thin comfy piece of silicone about 4" x 2 or 3", slap that across the front of your mouth under the mouth Ace for even more support as a dam against the lips. I bought a square of Retouch Scar reduction silicone on Ebay and cut a big rectangle off it to use for extra "damming" under the mouth ace. Very comfortable. The "Retouch" can be rinsed off in the morning and used again and again.

Against higher pressures, taping the lips shut is the surest solution. It would be a good idea to fold one end of the tape onto itself for a "pull off tab". It's been a long time since I've used tape, but...been there, done that. Not fun to remove in the morning

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