newbie with questions

I have been using my new CPAP for about 10 days, fairly successfully. I have the ResMed mask with nasal pillows. It's pretty comfortable, but when I turn over, it shifts and I wake up to readjust it. Is this natural? If I tighten it, it pulls my nose up when I sleep on my side. It tends to leave marks on my cheeks, so I've ordered the cheek strap covers, maybe that will help.

This is all so new to me, I was amazed to learn I had sleep apnea. I'm not sure I'm feeling the benefits of the CPAP yet, but I sure hope to. How long did it take you all before you felt the benefits?

mspppants, Asheville, NC

It might be helpful if you registered and filled in equipment information. Here is a detailed post I recently wrote that will tell you how to do so, and gives you some links with suggestions:

birdshell wrote:It would be easier to help you with your mask if you filled in your registration information with your machine, mask, etc. It helps most to have it in written form, as the pictures don't always give enough detail. (For example, almost every ResMed looks the same from the outside, but the features can vary.) To register your equipment, just go to the "User Control Panel" to the left in the light blue bar above. Click the word link, then choose the "Profile" tab, then the menu on the left hand side of the page has a choice for equipment. Choose that, and we are better able to help you with suggestions.

Secondly, Our Wisdom, with the Yellow Lightbulb above it, has some of the best postings from the forum. Help for New or Struggling Users might at least hold some hope for you. Besides offering hope, the link to Rested Gal's links contain one on various mask fixes in her LINKS to Lab Rat Trophy awards .

The search feature is also very useful. However, when I was new, I may not have chosen the right words for a search. So, may I suggest checking out the "Chatting Live" chat room link. It is at the top of the page in the dark blue narrow banner line to the far right, by the white conversation balloon. If you rest your cursor there, you will even be able to see who is in the chat room before joining it. We may be chatting about off-topic things, but we simply are filling time until there is some question. Please feel free to interrupt!

Other that the above resources, there isn't too much to suggest at this point--until we know more about your equipment. We will gladly help you with any problems you encounter. Further, I would like to say that in my nearly 3 years of coming to this forum, I have noticed that the single most important factor in making CPAP work is: THE DOGGED DETERMINATION AND DESIRE TO SUCCEED!!!

Karen,
Who is VERY glad that she did not give up

nas wrote:I have been using my new CPAP for about 10 days, fairly successfully. I have the ResMed mask with nasal pillows. It's pretty comfortable, but when I turn over, it shifts and I wake up to readjust it. Is this natural? If I tighten it, it pulls my nose up when I sleep on my side. It tends to leave marks on my cheeks, so I've ordered the cheek strap covers, maybe that will help.

This is all so new to me, I was amazed to learn I had sleep apnea. I'm not sure I'm feeling the benefits of the CPAP yet, but I sure hope to. How long did it take you all before you felt the benefits?

mspppants, Asheville, NC

Well, I've never tried a ResMed nasal pillow mask....though I have tried others, and turning over at night and having mask leaks is a problem that I've experienced. And, to some extent I think it'll always happen...though it has been less of a problem since I've gone to the ComfortLite II. I can see that my leak number will go up during the night and the correct itself later. Other times, I'll be awake to readjust.

But, not having mask parts on the sides helps a lot when my head is on a side. Now its the hose that seems to cause the most trouble...though the mask does make it hard to sleep with nose onto/into pillow.....

I guess I first started having changes about 2 weeks in....other changes took longer...that total change, I'm still waiting for that. ... I've been at it 3 months. OTOH, it was a little longer than than 2 weeks before I realized that there had been changes.

The Dreamer.

nas wrote:I have been using my new CPAP for about 10 days, fairly successfully. I have the ResMed mask with nasal pillows. It's pretty comfortable, but when I turn over, it shifts and I wake up to readjust it. Is this natural? If I tighten it, it pulls my nose up when I sleep on my side. It tends to leave marks on my cheeks, so I've ordered the cheek strap covers, maybe that will help.

This is all so new to me, I was amazed to learn I had sleep apnea. I'm not sure I'm feeling the benefits of the CPAP yet, but I sure hope to. How long did it take you all before you felt the benefits?

mspppants, Asheville, NC

Getting the hang of sleeping with a mask takes time for some of us - and waking up with a need to readjust the mask is natural -- mostly in the beginning. Don't tighten it till it pulls your nose up - whichever the mask, that won't help. I used two tweaks to stabilize my mask - I rarely wake up to readjust it now - however, achieving that is easier for me at my low pressure than for those whose pressure is high.
The first tweak was routing the hose from above my head - it goes through a hair scrunchy and a shoelace ties the scrunchy to a picture hook stuck in the wall about a foot or so above my head.
The second was using a leg from tights (Rested Gal's suggestion; it was Birdshell who recommended microfiber tights -- and they're great) to gently stabilize the mask more than the headgear makes possible. That did mean getting used to the touch of the tights on my face - but I managed, and it was worth it.

Registering to the forum is not obligatory - but if you register the way Birdshell recommended, we will see the info about your equipment on each of your posts automatically -- and that will make helping you easier.

Learning this new way of sleeping was new to all of us - and it took time for many to find the right combination for them.

Welcome to the forum, and good luck!
O.
Comment: tights... hmmm.... well... Rested Gal actually first suggested pantyhose, and you will find many reference to RG pantyhose straps on the forum. But I really like RG, and since she once said she wished she had said "tights" in the first place- that's what I did. We're a pretty boisterous bunch sometimes, as you'll discover if you hang around.

Hello & Welcome, nas, from another North Carolinian! Glad you found this forum—SO much useful info and everyone here is so willing to help!

I'm a full face mask user, so I dont' know much about your ResMed nasal pillow mask. But, I'm sure someone who does will chime in here.

"You are getting sleepy . . ."