Abby, The moisturizer thing is a real bummer, but you might find that the part of your face covered by the mask doesn't need moisturizer as much as before, since it'll be in relatively humid air (assuming you're using a humidifier). I've heard that some ladies moisturize early in the evening (the th...

DreamDiver, I have to agree with you on both counts: Alaska Fish Fertilizer is great stuff, and reusing boxes is a good thing. That being said, retrieving my medical equipment from an Alaska Fish Fertilizer box was a little unnerving. I found myself sniffing the box just to check out whether it had ...

Hi there, Noob. There's plenty of people here who have overcome a lot of problems and gone through much trial and error and tweaking of equipment to succeed at cpap therapy, so you've definitely come to the right place. Like Julie said, finding the mask or nasal pillow that works for you is a huge p...

LOL. No Playboy. And Jules is right -- fish fertilizer is popular out our way.
Actually, the box did appear to have been previously unused so maybe the DME did get a discount on boxes. But with what they charge, you'd think they could afford blank shipping cartons.

I recently ordered a mask from my DME for the first time in 2 or 3 years (I had been using cpap.com instead). Yesterday, a package arrived for me in a box printed on all sides with the name and logo of Alaska Fish Fertilizer. Strange, I thought... I didn't order any fertilizer... turns out this was ...

DME Daddy, if I may add one more comment -- comfort issues loom large in making cpap a workable therapy. My experience has been that my DME did not adress comfort issues and did not seem approachable with comfort-related questions. I know that they didn't carry comfort-related products (like fleece ...

One other thing I might add (or ask) - are you sure your insurance coverage requires a "severe" AHI index in order to pay for CPAP?
I think it is not uncommon for insurance companies to pay for CPAP if you have a "mild" number with other documented symptoms.

I thought that the scale of mild to moderate to severe sleep apnea is calibrated in terms of the AHI figure, i.e., if you fall into "severe" that means your AHI is over a certain number. Maybe I'm wrong. There are conditions like UARS (upper airway resistance syndrome) that can disrupt sleep but may...

Bytor, The 'nomask" thing mentioned a few posts up is pretty much universally regarded as a bad idea. I'd recommend you pass on that one. I'm a bit confused as to why there'd be a problem with air flow with nasal pillows. I thought any size nasal pillow ought to provide the same air pressure as any ...

The suggestion to have your PCP request the study sounds like a good one. I'm thinking that even if your request correctly pointed out exactly what you wanted, that whoever is bundling up the report to send it out probably never got a patient request for the full report before, so assumed that you w...

What a cute baby!

Congratulations on your 1,000th post. You are doing good things for people trying to find their way with this therapy-- as are so many on this forum.

My GP has a 1 page questionairre she has patients fill out when they come in for a check-up. It asks about the usual stuff you should be telling your dr. at a check-up (what meds have you been taking, do you smoke, etc. ) It aslo asks "do you snore". I checked the "yes" box and based on that she ref...

You've already gotten some good advice on how to stop the squeaks. Now, about that whistle: If the whistle is coming from the exhaust area, it could be due to rain out or condensation collecting in that area. I find if water droplets form at the perforations that form the outlet, I get whistling. If...

I guess I should say that- to those of us who are bothered by that smell - it IS that bad. I didn't mean any disrespect for any ComfortGel fans or ComfortGel smell-tolerators. But if its burning your eyes, I can't see how you can be expected to spend 8 hours breathing thru it without some adverse im...