Swift LT Pillows

[Racurl]

Well.........Now I have a full night with the "massively altered" small pillows under my belt. They worked fairly well. I had no problem with exhalation with the enlarged holes. The one thing that I noticed is that the air upon inhalation just seemed to rush at me. I end up with a "Darth Vader on Steroids" sort of sound! I am guessing that larger holes that I made have changed the way that air is supposed to get through. The smaller holes, I am sure, limit the amount of air that can come rushing at you. This may be a naive statement, but I would think that the people that design these things have certain specifications in mind when they make them. By cutting them up and changing the hole-size, I am sure that this changes their intended design specifications.

I am coming to the realization that I am just going to have to get used to the machine and keep experimenting with different pillows until I find that sweet spot. I am still reluctant to mess with the mask itself (especially since I only have the one mask at this time) due to the one comment made that "it increased the noise a bit". I not want to do ANYTHING that will increase the noise that is generated! And, the "medium" pillows do work, they merely leak a bit more.....I can work with the head strap adjustment and pilllow alignment to try to help out with this. As I mentioned before, if you have found something that works for you, that is what counts.

I want to thank everyone for their input with this issue. I am very happy to have found this forum and have already used many of the tips and ideas that I have found here.

Happy New Year to All!

[Dennisla]

Hi,

I've been using the Swift LT for over six months now and have that same exhale problem with the provided pillows.
This is how I have come up with enlarging the holes without damage and have had good success.
The first one did not come out as good. But you get better with practice.

First find a object that you can use to slide the pillow onto with a snug fit. Here I used a finepoint sharpie marker.
Place the pillow on the marker and try to only extend the outer pillow so that cutting will not cut into the inner pillow during this step. Using an exacto knife carefully trim a around the pillow removing a small amount of material in one continuous cut.
See image:


Next carefully Invert the pillow and place it back on the marker. Adjust it so only the inner pillow material is extended for cutting. This is quite tricky to do. It takes some patients, so don't be in a rush here. Using an exacto knife carefully trim a around the pillow removing a small amount of material in one continuous cut.
See image:


Hope this helps some..



The result should look like this(almost as good as the original but you can breath much better) :


Good Luck!
-Dennis

[silver123]

Dennis - great description and pictures!

I have a pair of microsurgical scissors from my lab rat days that I use to trim the pillows. I do the same basic procedure without the insert your use to cut a continous slice off the outer and inner pillows, which I invert to be able to trim them.

I think if you need to trim the pillows and you don't have the kind of extremely small, precise scissors I have ...that Dennis' technique using an insert and an xacto knife would be your best bet.

silver

[Racurl]

Now there is a guy that knows what he is doing! I would be very reluctant to post pictures of the mess that I made of my pillows!

Once I get a few spares kicking around the house, I will try your method and try to make nice, clean cuts. Which size did you make your adjustments to? I have only tried to mess with the "small" pillows because the mediums do not seem to present the same problem of difficulty upon exhalation. As I mentioned, the work that I did definitely help for the exhalation, but the increased noise and the rush of air on inhalation was sort of offputting.

Did you encounter the increased noise and an elevated "rush" of air on inhalation?

[allinknots]

Dennis, excellent idea and fantastic pictures! Bravo!!

I bought a new pair of size small pillows off of cpapauction.com. I was hoping that now that I'm used to my mask alteration, perhaps I wouldn't need to open the pillow holes more. But I still felt enough air wasn't making it in, so I experimented once again.

This time, I decided that I wanted the hole to be larger without being shorter. I decided to stretch out the holes. I accomplished this by using a fat ink-pen, the type that has a rubber finger grip on it. It was difficult to get it through the holes of the nares, but it worked! I ended up with slightly larger holes in the nares, but they seemed to fit just fine. I used them last night and did not have any trouble with air hissing through them, and I didn't wake up even once to adjust them! Woo hoo!

All in Knots

[Dennisla]

Which size did you make your adjustments to?

Did you encounter the increased noise and an elevated "rush" of air on inhalation?

The pictures I posted above is of small pillows.
When I started I began using medium sized for the best fit and air flow. But I was actually enlarging them as well for more airflow. I was looking for something between medium and large for airflow but not for nare size.
I found that due the the shape of the small you can get more airflow by making the outer pillow equal to or slightly larger than the medium holes. And making the inner holes slightly larger than the outer.
So far I have not encounter the increased noise or an elevated "rush" of air.

--Dennis

[sleeplessinaz]

Dennis,
Thanks for the pictures and the ideas. I have not had this problem and I was wondering if by altering these pillows like this if you have changed the way they perform for you then? in other words--have you compromised the pressure levels at all?

Carrie

[Dennisla]

Dennis,
Thanks for the pictures and the ideas. I have not had this problem and I was wondering if by altering these pillows like this if you have changed the way they perform for you then? in other words--have you compromised the pressure levels at all?

Carrie

Hi Carrie,
Well No, I do not believe I have compromised the function of the gear in any way.
Since I have not changed the actual pressure or changed the venting as some have suggested.
As long as there is no leak or change in venting then the pressure will remain the same throughout the system.
This modification (I believe) only allows for a more comfortable fit to me the end user. Something that Resmed should be looking at fixing.

--Dennis

[allinknots]

Even though I'm not advising that anyone tinker with their venting ports like I did, it has worked wonders for me and hasn't caused me to need to change pressure, etc. I think last night was my best night ever on cpap. I slept through the night, did not need to adjust the mask at all, easily inhaled and exhaled. I feel so well-rested today. Machine data: Pressure was 10.4 (same prior to my ventilation tinkering), my AHI was a whopping 1.9, my AI was .9. Fantastic, no?? My reward for my succesful lab ratting? I'm planning to get up an hour early tomorrow morning to exercise! (Atonement for some holiday cookie indulgence.)

All in Knots

[mrsb2001]

I'm really glad to have found this thread.

I've used my Swift LT with small pillows since December and they worked fairly well.

I have an apap and my pressure is a minimum of 5 so at times it seemed I was not getting a lot of air as I first laid down to sleep, but I have dealt with it.

This past Friday and Saturday night I awakened in the middle of the night gasping for breath (just liked I used to do before I started cpap --- and it's pretty darn frightening).

I wondered if after a period of time (like 5 months) the pillows might start to wear out/get mushy and start to collapse inside my nose causing this inability to get air. Has anyone experienced a problem with older nasal pillows? I do have a new set of replacement pillows, but I wasn't sure this was the problem. The respiratory therapist set me up with the small pillows and I never thought of choosing a larger size. Might that help?

Any ideas?

[JGaspar]

Denis,
Hi!
Excellent idea and pictures!
I saw your trimming art with the pillow swift LT!
I would like to know if you trimmed the pillow mask FX too?
Thank you very much.
JGaspar
PS: Sorry about my English!

[Dennisla]

Denis,
Hi!
Excellent idea and pictures!
I saw your trimming art with the pillow swift LT!
I would like to know if you trimmed the pillow mask FX too?
Thank you very much.
JGaspar
PS: Sorry about my English!

HI, Don't worry about your English, it is fine. If it weren't for spell check no one would know what I was talking about. LOL!!
Well about the FX, I have an FX mask, but I have not tried trimming the FX pillow yet. I still mostly use my LT.
For some reason i never really took to the FX, I'm sure it must be quite similar though.
Maybe you could try / experiment on a old pillow just to get the knack of it .
First trying on used is how I did my LT pillows.
Best Regards
Dennis