New Mirage II

Hey everyone, my DME was kind enough to drop by yesterday after I complained about leaks and discomfort with my flexi fit 405. I told him I was interested in trying a nasal interface set up as opposed to a mask. My mask was making me crazy with the leaking, the pressure on my upper lip and other various annoyances.

He brought over a Swift II and an Opti life, I elected to try the Swift and see how it works out. The nice thing about it is its very light and non intrusive over most of my face. For the most part I don't really notice the straps..my issues with it are as follows, and I was hoping to get some ideas on how to deal with it.

The first is after using the medium pillows i was getting some discomfort in one nostril...taking a nice careful look at my nose I may have a very slightly deviated septum (there is more tissue on the one side). Is there a gel or lubricant tha tI can use to ease the discomfort, or is it possible that despite having a respectably sized snout I may be better off using the small sized pillows.

Next is the air flow through my nose seemed to be a bit irritating, like having a small vortex lodged in my nostrils, I never used my humidifier before (in fact I just took it off of my machine yesterday) but I'm thinking I might give it a go tonight. Should that help, are there other solutions.

My final issue one the one that I think was bother me the most is the hose. Between the hose that came iwth my machine plus the hose thats part of the mask I'm just not sure what to do with it all, and the weight of it definitely tugs at my mask. I tried hooking it to the straps on my left side (i sleep onmy right), and I also tried folding the hose over itself so not as long and hanging all over the place. Is there any other ways to get that hose out of the way? Or should I try a Hose Huggie or something..

As always folks, I appriciate any help offered. I'm really looking forward to having a good nights sleep on day...its been awhile since I've spent some decent time in dream land.

HookEar Matt

Hiya HookEarMatt! (what's a hook ear???)

For hose management check out this thread under our collective wisdom (yellow light bulb) : cpaptalk-articles/CPAP-hose-aerophagia.html and do a search for "Hose management" -- tons of good tips on how to get the !#@!$%!#% out of the way.

as for the rest, I reallllllly gotta go to bed now so hopefully others will chime in...

Hi Echo,

Hook ear is one of the various nick names that I went by in college. In one of my groups there was three guys with the name Matt..so the group gave us nicknames (like many nicknames, this one came after a night of general debauchery). I was HookEar because of my somewhat distinctive earrings, a 6 gauged curved hook in each ear, that I still wear to this day (much to the annoyance of my boss).

Anyrate, I skimmed through the help section you guided me to and I cam across a a hose stand...I figured that might work so I dug up an old reptile light stand in my basement, fitted it under my CPAP machine and strung up my hose so that it hangs about two feet over my side of the bed but I used a metal ring to slip the hose through so that it has enough room to slide back and forth if i toss and turn at night. I'll tell you, my fiance was a little preturbed at the whole rig and was worried that I might pull the stand down in my sleep and hence knock over my machine(it;s the counter weight to the stand). It was pretty sturdy and there was enough play with the hose that I didn't have any problems with it the whole night. Even better after fiddling witht he nasal interface I got it just loose enough that it was in my nose but not pushing against it and the weight of the hose was negligble. I actually managed to get through the whole night with my Swift II on, somethign which i was only rarely able to do with my Flexi fit. I also used the humidifier which helped the dryness tot he point where i was realtivly comfortable. I think I'll give it another few nights like this before I start addressing my mouth breathing issues.

I do have to admit, I feel a lot better today then I did yesterday...even though getting my carcass out of bed was really difficult this morning.

Thanks for the help.
Matt