Swift LT for her to Mirage Liberty?

[YawnGirl]

I have tried the Hybrid. Didn't quite fit for my jaw even with something like 9 combinations of mask/pillows. I liked the Swift LT, but got too much dryness and am not a fan of the extra added hassle of a humidifier. They can stay in my storage drawer forever!
Then I tried the Liberty. It didn't fit, wouldn't seal around the nostrils, but I knew the concept was exactly what I needed. Kept trying different strap adjustments and pillows. Then it dawned on me!!! There is no velcro adjustment for the strap the goes over the top of the head. That was a pretty dumb design flaw, I thought, because when I pulled the strap tighter, it sealed the pillows perfectly. What to do, I thought? OH, duh! I just got out a safety pin and tightened the strap with that. And it has worked nearly perfectly for me ever since.
The RTs at Kaiser said none of the other patients liked the Liberty and so it was just lying around in the clinic. It was a small and now that I see the measurement guides, I realize I should have gotten the large. Although it fits, it is a bit tight around my lips and barely fits around my mouth. Nothing I can't deal with, but I think a large would have been better for me. I use the large pillow in the small mask. Am ordering a new large next month.
Check out the measurement guide and choose between the large or the small. It comes with all 3 size pillows.

I am hoping to use the liberty as a back up mask and the swift lt as my regular mask. I ordered a PapCap today to help with my open mouth problem. I'm still in my "evaluation" period for my mask so I can try the liberty without commitment. I will keep your strap adjustment in mind when I get the mask. Thanks for you input. You probably saved me a lot of frustration!

[pagebypage]

Maybe I have an older model, but there is no velcro on the strap that goes across the top of my head. Is there one on yours?
My headgear has connections to the mask in four locations. There is velcro on each of these, but these kind of connect into a circle where it goes behind the neck one way and over the top of the head the other way. If I adjust the upper velcro, all it does is pull the cushion against my upper lip without bringing the pillows up into position towards my nostrils. Likewise the lower velcro tightens against the lower lip. By putting the safety pin at the highest point of the headgear and pulling it tight, the pillows come up against my nostrils; otherwise there is a big gap between the pillows and my nose no matter how else the velcro is adjusted.
For this mask to be designed for me it needs a 5th velcro at the top of the headgear.
If you have a better idea for making this work for me, I am open to it.

[pagebypage]

Maybe to clarify even more...
If you look at the headgear from the back, you can see that it is kind of shaped like an O, with the top of the O going over the head and the bottom going around the neck.
Now, look at it from the side. Here you see the upper and lower velcro straps. No problem with the lower strap that controls the tightness of the cushion below the lower lip.
Looking at the upper strap, you can see a kind of hollow triangle. The long side of the triangle goes along the aforementioned O, the hypotenuse going up toward the top of the O, and the short side going straight horizontally toward the middle of the O.
The problem with this velcro strap is that it attempts to control 2 areas of the mask, the cushion above the upper lip and the pillows against the nose.
If I connect the strap horizontally along the short side, I can easily control the tightness of the upper part of the cushion, but I am left with a big gap at the nose/pillows point. This is what the strap looks designed to do.
If I connect this strap along the hypotenuse, voila, the pillows pull up to my nose, but now I have it too tight against my upper lip (it makes my lip numb) with no way to loosen it and still have the pillows in the right position. Also the area around the short side of the triangle is now kind of bunched up. This has the strap kind of twisted up, and does not look like what it was designed to do.
So I connect the strap horizontally to tighten the upper lip, and use a safety pin to tighten across the top of the O.
I hope this clarifies the problem I have, and, again, I welcome any ideas you may have to make this work better for me, as it would be easier to make readjustments with velcro than with a safety pin in the middle of the night.

[chester11]

I use the Mirage Liberty mask and I'm very happy with it. But then what works for one person does not work for another. What really helped me was viewing the "Fitting and Cleaning" video on Resmed's website. http://www.resmed.com/us/products/mirag ... s&sec=true Once I got the fit right, the mask was very comfortable with very few leaks. Hope this helps.

[pagebypage]

Chester11, nice video, but I didn't see anything there that I didn't already know.
Despite the flaw fit for my personal need, this has been the best mask for me. I guess I will have to continue with the safety pin. Will order a new one soon, but the large size this time and see if that works without the safety pin.
Thank you for the link.