Resp Therapist no help with issues

[Trillium Lady]

Hi there. I was diagnosed Aug. 2016. Got the full mask because I am a mouth breather. Did well initially for about 3 months. Then got what I thought was a sinus infection and couldn't tolerate the mask. Ended up getting a referral to an Ears/Nose/throat doc to see if there were issues with my sinuses. )There are not apparently but I have felt like I had sinus pain for 34 years. Apparently it is from my fibromyalgia.

I've been trying every night to wear it. I am a stomach sleeper trying to retrain my body to sleep on my side. I can fall asleep with it on initially. After up to an hour, I will turn over and then the mask gets moved by the pillow (my $100+ CPAP pillow) and air blows into my eye. More importantly, I can't stand to have the mask on my face.

I know how important it is to wear it so I went to the place I purchased it and the Respiratory Therapist said he didn't know how to help. What? He's been in this business for 15 years and he can't help? What am I supposed to do with that??? Needless to say I am very frustrated. I am an RN and see patients all the time come in that are non-compliant. No wonder!

Any ideas to help me with this? I'm stumped because I used to be able to tolerate it.

I use a full face mask and a Resmed machine with heated humidified air.

[TASmart]

You need to let us know what is the specific mask model and size you are wearing, pressures, what machine, hoses, the entire story.

When you say that you cannot tolerate the mask what do you mean? Discomfort, swollen air passages, pressure, leaks ????

Give all the details your can.

Also is the RT you saw one from the DME?

[raisedfist]

I use a very thin bamboo pillow and I sleep on my stomach or side with part of my head draping off the edge of the pillow. Because it's a thin and malleable material there is an incredibly low chance of it moving my mask at all.

How do you know that you're a mouth breather? Have you tried a nasal mask at the prescribed pressures?

[chunkyfrog]

With fibro, it is especially important that you use your cpap, whatever that takes.
Have you tried a mask liner, like ones from Pad a Cheek?
If your FF mask has a "foot" on your forehead, that alone could be causing your sinus pain.
Perhaps a different mask would work better than the one you have.
Most people with apnea start out as mouth breathers, but opening air passages
often reduces or even eliminates mouth breathing--therapists apparently do not know this. [Or ignore it]
They often push full face masks, regardless of need or sensitivity, just to make more money.
(((My opinion of this cannot be published.)))

[bwexler]

You may want to look at the Circadiance Sleepweaver masks.
The Anew is the full face version. I have been using the Elan for a couple of years. You also need the featherweight tube they offer so the heated tube does not pull and distort the mask.

Also look at the Tap Pap which has no head gear at all.

[chunkyfrog]

As he says, the Sleepweaver cloth masks are SOFT, and might just be the ticket for not aggravating your fibro.

[Guest]

I know how important it is to wear it so I went to the place I purchased it and the Respiratory Therapist said he didn't know how to help. What? He's been in this business for 15 years and he can't help? What am I supposed to do with that??? Needless to say I am very frustrated. I am an RN and see patients all the time come in that are non-compliant.

I have to think there are people in your professional circle who know of qualified RT's, I would not continue to feed that place my money.

And I would spend some time here reading and learning more about taking charge of my own healthcare - you can see just the kind of people who work in the sleep business.

[chunkyfrog]

Fibromyalgia and OSA tend to snowball on each other, so it might be useful to google both terms together.
I see a great many entries on the internet. You might see something new that we may have missed.
I remember that we have had forum members with fibro, but do not know if they are here this minute.
You could edit the title of this thread to include fibro in order to call it to their attention.

[Janknitz]

As TASmart said, we CAN help you but we need more specifics.

Can you tell us what is bothering you most about the mask?

What machine are you using and what are the settings?

Most full face masks are big and clunky and do tend to get pushed around when you turn in bed. There's a lot of surface area that must stay in contact with your face--that's why nasal masks and nasal pillow masks are easier if you can get mouth breathing under control. And there are ways to do that, if you can give us more specifics--e.g. do you have allergies or sinus issues that prevent you from breathing through your nose, does your jaw drop when you relax, etc?

For starters, go to my blog and see Taming the Mirage Quattro--those tips will work with ANY air cushion full face mask. But my experience is that a FF mask is always going to be a problem. I learned over time how to snuggle my face in the pillow after turning to get the mask sealed again--it takes some practice. Now I'm back on a very comfortable nasal mask and very happy about it.

[Hornnumb2]

I always thought I was a mouth breather too but since using a nasal mask and trying my tongue to stay in top of my mouth its work great.

[palerider]

the Respiratory Therapist said he didn't know how to help. What? He's been in this business for 15 years and he can't help? What am I supposed to do with that???

in all fairness, a respiratory therapist's training is likely more to do with lung function... many of them know nothing practical about cpap.

I had one, while I was in the hospital that *insisted* on "helping me". ... I said "ok, could you check to see that I have enough water in the humidifier?"

her: "SURE!!!" (bounces over to the machine, looks at my s9 for a minute... "where does the water go?"

me: "get out".