Mask selection - much amusement

[ScottH]

I guess there's such a thing as being too prepared. I went in for my 2-week follow up this afternoon, and the subject of "how comfortable is your mask?" came up... Now I did my titration study with the Swift, but went home with the OptiLife and have been (mostly) happy with it so far.

But...

I have been poring over all the threads about all the different mask types. So I went in with lots of questions. The therapist said "well, we'll just try all the ones you are interested in".

Tried the ComfortLite. No comfort here.
Tried the Breeze. OK, but leaked a bit.
Tried the Mirage. Promising, but not as comfortable as the OptiLife.
Tried the Hybrid. Interesting, but leaked around my beard every time I turned my head and as I'd never tried a full-face style before I found the air pressure into my mouth was--startling.
Tried the Swift again, just to make sure that what I thought about it before still held--no good for a toss-and-turn side sleeper like me.
Tried a few others that I didn't ask about.

I went home with the OptiLife. Looks like I rolled the dice right first time...

[bdp522]

Good for you! I also loved the first mask I tried(hybrid). The mask is the hardest part of this, so if you got one you are comfortable with, you are way ahead in the game! Keep up the good work!

Brenda

[wog]

I had an almost identical experience. Went home with Optilife as 1st choice. But had some chafing and irritation on the inside of my nares. Went back for the 2 week follow up with my list of options and questions. Went home with the Optilife, deciding to keep fiddling with it to make it work.

That was the best thing to do. It took me a week or so of tweaking, but I'm finally 100% compliant with little to no irritation. I'm even starting to reach that point where I can't imagine sleeping without it. I'm so relieved as I was dreading going back on CPAP.

Wog

[Moby]

That is very good news. Judging by the threads here, finding a comfortable mask can be a marathon battle.

I love my Swift, but I plan to get a different sort as backup in case I can't use it for some reason. Also if the Swift was discontinued I want to know which other mask I can get.

Great to hear another new hosehead's experience.

Good luck!

Di

[Nodoze]

Well......They put a full face on me during the sleep study (The nurse didn't want me to die on her shift!) and after having had a scuba diving incident some years ago, it didn't take long for me to start feeling claustrophobic. I started my search the next morning for a better choice. I don't know if anyone else uses it , (I'm new to the fourm) but I chose the CPAP Pro mask. I used it as my first mask, and so far (4 months or so) so good. I am 100 % compliant, and it's working for me. The nurse told me that I was a bit of a mouth breather and therefore I was a little worried about using a nasal interface, but the CPAP Pro uses a mouth guard to hold the nasal tubes in place instead of straps, and as soon as you put somthing in your mouth, your brain tells you to keep your mouth shut. I have no mouth leakage at all.
Anyway if your're still looking for a truly different mask, you might want to give it a try. It's available at http://www.cpappro.com

Good luck

[twillson]

Tried the ComfortLite. No comfort here.
Tried the Breeze. OK, but leaked a bit.
Tried the Mirage. Promising, but not as comfortable as the OptiLife.
Tried the Hybrid. Interesting, but leaked around my beard every time I turned my head and as I'd never tried a full-face style before I found the air pressure into my mouth was--startling.
Tried the Swift again, just to make sure that what I thought about it before still held--no good for a toss-and-turn side sleeper like me.
Tried a few others that I didn't ask about.

I went home with the OptiLife. Looks like I rolled the dice right first time...

I am glad you were given the option to try all of these. The only problem is that you wouldn't have had enough time to really mess with all of the possible settings and adjustments or to see how things really work overnight.

That being said, I am glad you like your Optilife. If I were you, I would figure out how your insurance will require you to wait to get a second mask, and then get something different in case you have a bad night with your optilife. I would also suggest getting the size larger pillows than you are using just in case. I started with a medium and not I can only use the large without getting sores. I thing this has to do with both the softening of the pillows and the adjustment that my nose has made to wearing them.