First time poster, long-ish time lurker
So I'll try to put in a chunk of background to paint an accurate picture of my conundrum.
I've used a CPAP for roughly 3 years now. I started with a nose pillow, which I liked quite a lot, but as the strap would stretch out, they would "dislodge" frequently. Aside from that obviously meaning I wasn't getting the full benefits of using a CPAP, it also was infuriating for my wife since the sudden wooshing sounds would always wake her up.
So I eventually switched to a full face mask, which I think was around September/October of last year. While it took some getting used to, I never had any major issues with it. Around December, I ordered my first replacement mask since the first one had started to make "fart" noises overnight when air would escape from the mask. I've been using that mask since.
About a week ago, I woke up with redness on my face perfectly consistent with the shape of the face mask. The next day, it looked like the skin was flaking in that area, so I started applying moisturizing lotion on it, thinking perhaps that the skin was drying out. A couple days later, it occurred to me that didn't make much sense - my seal isn't terrible (imo - but according to the myair website it seems to consistently be around 30L/min) and I have my humidity set to 5 (I had a nasty cold mid-March so I dialed it up from 4 and then decided to leave it there). So I changed tactic after reading a few threads here. I started washing the mask daily with warm soapy water and letting air dry (normal routine is simply wiping it down with a damp cloth each morning). I washed my face every night before bed. I also applied some hydrocortisone a couple times over the affected areas on my face which I think helped (since the spots where I have the irritation almost feel like a sunburn it seemed like a reasonable thing to try).
Yesterday was the first day I didn't wash my mask and just wiped it down. This was probably after 4 days of consecutive washing. I still washed my face before bed however. The redness was completely gone but there's still some flaky skin left to fall off. This morning I awoke to fresh red areas; not nearly as much as the prior incident though.
My intent is to give the medical supply place a ring, though I have a suspicion their answer will be to replace the mask. And maybe that's all there is to it. However, it feels odd to me that I more or less suddenly developed a sensitivity to the mask. I feel like if my skin wasn't going to be happy with the mask I should have discovered this a lot sooner than months after starting to use it.
Curious to hear what folks think might be going on here. I think I've added all pertinent details, but happy to expand on things I may have missed.
