First Night With the Swift FX for Her...and An Introduction

[wyosleepyhead]

I have been lurking about here since the day after my sleep study, nearly two weeks ago on the 13th. I would like to say thank you to all of you as reading through your posts have helped me immensely! I look forward to paying it forward with information I learn along the way, and learning more as I go.

I am 29 years old and a bit overweight. I have snored my whole life since childhood. I have spent the last 2 years co-sleeping with my son as we were breastfeeding and that solution worked best for our family. I stopped breastfeeding in November and returned to the bed with my husband. My husband told me one day that he sat up at night counting the intervals between my breaths (12-30 seconds). He said it looked like I was trying to take a breath but couldn't. That scared the crap out of me.

I had been exhausted but I had also taken a new position in the last 2 years that I am working long hours (60-70 hours a week) for - that's all I thought it was. I was dozing off while driving on riding in the car. When my husband told me about my breathing I put two and two together and scheduled a sleep study. It was a split study and the tech told me I needed 80 events in 2 hours for him to come in with the CPAP. I thought that sounded like a lot but sure enough, the tech came in with mask and CPAP. I asked my doctor the next morning how severe my sleep apnea was and he said "Severe is 40 events per hour...you had 114 per hour." Also as I went to sleep, my O2 sats slowly dropped and got down in the 50% range...and then stayed there. Lovely. My husband thinks all I need is to lose weight and then I can ditch the machine, but my doctor says it is anatomical. Time will tell.

The mask they used for the study was a Wisp so that is what I got a prescription for, but my doctor didn't note the size and my DME sent me home with a Sm/M mask. That night about an hour in I sat straight up in bed panicking, feeling like my nose was being pinched shut. That was one miserable night! The next day I called the DME and got the Large size mask and it was better. I couldn't turn on my side or the seal would break so I woke up every morning with a sore back. Also turning on my side made the pinched nostril sensation worse. Also in my sleep, I remove the mask every night. Night before last I woke up with the mask on my forehead.

I really tried to "love" the Wisp as I hate to be problematic, but yesterday I noticed I was starting to get a sore on the bridge of my nose. I called my DME and they said I can't have that so they would have to get me another mask. The tech at my sleep study mentioned nasal pillows but said I probably wouldn't like them, so that is another reason I had been hesitating on calling because I knew that was my only option. However I have read and read reviews/posts about nasal pillows on here, so I requested them from my DME.

I woke up this morning feeling AWESOME after my first night with the Swift FX for her, which are the pillows they set me up with. I have felt "better" since starting therapy but nothing dramatic - at least the dozing had stopped. But this morning I felt truly amazing! I went back and forth between the small and medium size for a while last night, but settled on the small because the medium felt like it would irritate the inside of my nostril after a while. Because of fit tips I have read on here, I knew to avoid the "piggy" look, but I got a little confused because in order to stop the leaks on the small I had to cinch it all pretty well - and when you turn the machine on it flanges out your nostrils with the air pressure so I wasn't sure if it was too tight. I woke up this morning with red marks across my cheeks from the headgear but it faded pretty quickly and my nose isn't sore at all so everything must be good.

I highly reccomend this mask! I don't know if it will be "the" mask for me as I am a natural mouth breather (I really am interested in trying the Mirage Liberty, especially now that I like the pillows), and I won't really know until my follow up with my doctor to find out if I am getting leaks out of my mouth (using a chin strap but don't know if it's working). My advice to any other newbies is if you are uncomfortable or having issues removing your mask at night, speak up and get something different! The nasal mask made me feel very claustrophobic, and I think I knew this on an unconscious level. Your body knows what it needs.

I felt a little like I needed more pressure...and I woke up sometime in the night and had to check and make sure I hadn't turned my machine off! I just think I was weirded out by the fact that the pillows felt so effortless for me and natural compared to the nasal mask...you can really feel the pressure all around your nose in that. I really want to get better and I would do the therapy no matter what, but no sense in being so uncomfortable.

Thank you all for your awesome advice! I hope this post can be of some help to someone else as well.

[star444]

That is awesome that you felt so great after using the pillows! I haven't tried pillows (yet). I like my current mask.

I, too, started out with a Wisp nasal mask and, like you, felt like my nose was being pinched closed just a bit. I would start mouth breathing then wake up. I tried a chin strap but I still managed to mouth-breathe. I'm now using the SleepWeaver Anew full-face cloth mask and I like it.

I've only been using xPAP therapy since November and I have found this forum to be very, very helpful.

Welcome!

[sleeplessinaz]

Welcome to the forum of hose heads! I love the Aloha mask if you wanted to take a look at another great nasal pillow mask. I use that and I go back and forth between that one and the Wisp. Just got started in the Wisp and I like it so far - just the headgear is massive. Most of us have tried 7 to 10 masks before finding a favorite so don't give up!

Carrie

[wyosleepyhead]

Thank you!! Those sleep weaver masks look interesting, but I am afraid that it would make me more claustrophobic than the Wisp!

7-10 masks seems like a lot! I hope I can find "the" mask soon.

I have been keeping an eye on the AHI on my machine, and my average has been 7ish...I just noticed last night's jumped to 9.6! Is it normal for that to go up when switching masks and what exactly does that mean? I don't see the doc for another 4 weeks...

[RogerSC]

I had the reverse experience, got a mask that I can work with the first time out, and have been trying new ones as they come out to see if I can improve my cpap experience. No luck so far, but the Swift FX does work for me, so I've stayed with it. I think that my favorite mask would be none, but that's not an option, so the Swift FX is it until something comes along that is better for me. I do always get return insurance on trial masks, for a lot of the new ones it's free, and haven't kept a trial mask yet. Don't see any reason to have a mask around that I'm not going to use, do have spare parts plus a spare Swift FX in case something goes wrong, but no spares other than that.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

For the marks on the cheeks assuming you are using the little thin side straps covers...they are a bit thin
If you otherwise are happy with the mask you can make or buy some slightly thicker fleece side strap covers.
If you are handy...easy to make with a bit of scrap fleece.
If not handy..like me..Padacheek makes some awesome nice covers.
http://www.padacheek.com/PAC_SwiftFX.html
I would get indentations often when I was laying my cheek on the rather firm surface of my buckwheat pillow.
Padacheek covers prevented the indentations or marks on my cheeks....and they just feel goo.

[Kitatonic]

Although, I've tried other masks, the Swift FX still is so comfortable after over two years. I use the Pad-a-Check padded strap & barrel cozy. Instead of a chin strap or PapCap, I use a soft cervical pillow to prop my jaw closed. After a few weeks on the pillow, my nares became irritated; so if not for this forum, I would not have used dab of Lansinoh (lanolin, no petroleum on the silicone).