new user and strange issues

[Guest]

I am new here! Hi! I have lurked and read a lot about apnea through this site. thanks! I'm a skinny 35 year old guy who is otherwise healthy.

I self-diagnosed myself with an app designed to record you talking in your sleep (when I was in the other room, because my wife was not sleeping well and we thought it was because I was talking in my sleep too much). I heard apnea pretty easily and brought the app to the doctor, and now have a great experience sleeping. It's amazing the difference it has made. The doc found "moderate" apnea through his far more official, and dramatically more annoying test. I am trying to walk through how best to handle my mask, and struggling through some issues that I have not really found answers to.

I have a Panasonic Dreamstation CPAP, set on auto, ramping from 8.5 to 20. Typically I sleep around 6 hours.

I started with a wisp mask, and it was perfect at first. It was comfortable and the straps were fine. After day #3 I couldn't pretend not to see the red on the bridge of my nose, and I started breaking out in whiteheads, like 20 at a time on the bridge of my nose, nothing anywhere else the mask touched. I washed carefully before bed, washed the mask like crazy (dish soap) and rinsed and tried again but it was no good. My wife eventually sewed up a pretty good gasket from flannel cotton material, but it added leaks and was annoying to use. Plus the bridge of my nose still wasn't totally happy. No whiteheads anymore, but redness was normal.

I caved and wanted to try a nasal pillow style after a few months, since only the bridge was reacting anyway. I got a Brevida and it was quite comfortable once I trimmed my nose hairs (gross, I know, but they are a thing). Here's the weird part. I sleep great, AHI is hovering between 2-4, but when I pull it out in the morning I feel like someone punched me in the nose, but just in the tiny outer edges of the septum. Nowhere else. The rest of my nose feels fine, no whiteheads, and no redness. The soreness lasts a few hours, and is totally worth the sleep benefits, but I still believe I am getting something wrong.

I started to look at other pillows, since the website I bought them from has a generous exchange policy, but I am not sure I need to be shooting in the dark since the problem is so strange.

I know silicone allergy is ridiculously rare. I also know that there are lots of other delicate parts of my skin touching silicone during the night, and that the non-silicone options are pretty limited.

If anyone has insight, I would really appreciate it.

[Pugsy]

Usually nasal/nostril tenderness where you are describing will go away after a period of time. I couldn't quite understand just how long you have been dealing with the tenderness.
Sounds like you may have the mask just a bit too tight.

Go to some place like WalMart and in the baby aisle look for a product called Lansinoh lanolin ointment/cream.
Get yourself a small tube...apply generously during the day and sparingly at night before masking up (too much and it can melt and your nasal pillows will end up in your ear ...been there done that myself).

It will help the soreness go away faster...it's safe for both you and your mask.
Review mask fitting tips/videos to make sure that you aren't cranking that sucker down too tight...and also make sure that you don't maybe need a different size nasal pillow.

The Brevida is ultra soft and if you are getting tenderness from it...either too tight or wrong size would be my first thought.
With too tight being number one on the list. People tend to crank these suckers down thinking tighter is better for sealing and it really isn't.

[Soothest Sleep]

+1 on Pugsy's thoughts about too tight a fit.

I use the Wisp mask as well and love it. I find the red mark on the bridge of the nose goes away quite quickly, and Lansinoh does help. Just a dab is sufficient; it's rich stuff, both in emollient action and price, lol! A tube could easily last you at least a couple of years. Although my skin is subject to whiteheads (usually from trapped perspiration; my skin is dry rather than oily), they haven't shown up in the mask zone, even when I had the mask set a little too tightly. It took some tweaking of the headgear straps, but finally I got things to where I could feel the mask gently inflate and hold as the air came in. (Think of the action of a hovercraft cushion as it rises before entering the water.) In the early days of use, last year, I hadn't understood about the inflation.

Remember that it is important to fit your mask while lying in your sleeping position. Turn on the machine so you can feel the air pressure and ensure you get that little pop of inflation.

. . .and yes, it's easy to go too far the other way, resulting in too loose a mask with resulting leakage. Make very small, gradual adjustments and test at each change. Work on it well before bedtime, to avoid frustration right before sleep.

Jean

[Guest]

Weird that it's not letting me post on my username, I guess I am in some form of unapproved state.

I used the wisp for four months. Even with the gasket, and even leaving the straps very loose, my nose redness never really went away.

I have been using the Brevida for just a few nights. The soreness is in one very specific area, the outside of my septum. It's the med/large mask, and if anything, it appears to be a little big for my face, which would tend to push away from the septum, so I don't think it's an issue of fit.

I have four kids, so I know the lanolin product well. I may try it if I can find some around.

[MaxINTJ]

Go to some place like WalMart and in the baby aisle look for a product called Lansinoh lanolin ointment/cream.Get yourself a small tube...apply generously during the day and sparingly at night before masking up (too much and it can melt and your nasal pillows will end up in your ear ...been there done that myself).

How on earth can nasal pillows migrate to your ear?

I'm glad I don't need to use the stuff (yet anyway).

To the OP, have you considered the Nuance or the Dreamwear? From a brief look the Brevida it looked more intrusive than either of those other 2. I have a Dreamwear and the pillows only contact the bottom of my nose and upper lip. It seems to seal very well at my 12-17 pressure and the top mount hose is very convenient for the way I sleep.

I wore the Nuance for my titration and it seemed very similar to the Dreamwear except for the hose mounted at the front.

Also some people here seem to like the Swift nasal mask.

[chunkyfrog]

I used Lansinoh once to seal around a full face cushion (it needed something sticky).
When I awoke, there was a ring of the softest skin on my face where the Lansinoh had soaked in.
Luckily, that lanolin is purified.
A friend of my dad's said that shearing sheep made his hands and boots so very soft--but STINKY!

[Pugsy]

How on earth can nasal pillows migrate to your ear?

I used too much Lansinoh...it melted from body heat and the nasal pillows slid right out of nose and I woke up with one of them in my ear.

[MaxINTJ]

How on earth can nasal pillows migrate to your ear?

I used too much Lansinoh...it melted from body heat and the nasal pillows slid right out of nose and I woke up with one of them in my ear.

ROFLMAO!

You didn't notice anything like maybe a leak? Or the heavy breathing in your ear? Something?

[Pugsy]

ROFLMAO!

You didn't notice anything like maybe a leak? Or the heavy breathing in your ear? Something?

I can sleep through some pretty big leaks and I had the machine set for auto off so once the pillows got out of my nose and in big leak the machine probably shut off. I don't remember if there was air blowing in my ear or not...don't think it was though.
This was years ago when I was fairly new to therapy and thought if a little Lansinoh worked well then a lot would work even better.

[Cpapian]

Too funny

[Guest]

I have thought about trying the Swift, the Nuance and the P10, but have basically stopped for lack of real understanding.

Also, the Nuance gets pretty iffy reviews, the P10 seems to have an unlikable strap, and the Swift looks pretty much the same as what I have.

[nicholasjh1]

I have leak issues with my resmed nasal pillows unless I use moleskin on them, completely eliminates the issues.

[Pugsy]

I have thought about trying the Swift, the Nuance and the P10, but have basically stopped for lack of real understanding.

Also, the Nuance gets pretty iffy reviews, the P10 seems to have an unlikable strap, and the Swift looks pretty much the same as what I have.

With time and experience and learning your own personal preferences and needs you will get a better handle on what you think will work successfully for you.
Each mask has it's own set of pros and cons and there's nothing out there that is perfect for everyone.
What we have to do is figure out which mask meets the most of our preferences and needs and has more pros than cons for each of us.

Something I might consider a pro might be a con in someone else's eyes. It's all because of our own personal preferences and needs and they can vary widely. One of my main very important preferences is "less on my face and head"....it's number one for me but when you get "less on the face and head" as in minimal mask stuff...you give up a bit in stability. For me it's worth it to get the "less on my face" preference satisfied.

The P10 and the reviews about the straps...they are minimal and adjustment isn't as easily seen since the "adjustment" is just the difference between the top and the back strap. No it isn't like the other masks with velcro or silicone with little hooks for strap adjustment. It's a one piece strap that is tiny and weighs nothing. Yeah, the back strap will sometimes ride up the back of my head but it doesn't happen often and in most cases doesn't wake me up and rarely causes the nasal pillows to dislodge.
So yeah...maybe not as stable as one of the masks with more headgear but I don't want more headgear on my face and head. I want less.

I did try the Brevida...it's a nice little mask but the back strap won't adjust and it's a bit too large for my small head.
I adjusted it as much as I could on the sides but the back strap slides up and causes me to wake often and that is a deal breaker for me ...the causing me to wake often. Anything that disturbs my sleep is a no-no in my book.
Now I might be able to shorten that back strap but I also found the ballooning of the pillow slightly annoying...not a deal breaker but a bit annoying. I am really happy with the P10 so I don't have a lot of motivation to go doing surgery on the Brevida. I might do it later but right now the Brevida has gone out to a family friend to try to see if he likes it.

As for soreness on the end of the nose...remember this area is pretty much virgin territory. Never wore anything touching it much less anything with a bit of pressure.
So minor tenderness for a short while is to be expected. Anything more than minor tenderness means there's something wrong with fit, size or it's just not a good fit for the face.
If it is minor tenderness only...should fade with time but shouldn't last more than a couple of months and if it does then there's something wrong.

Try any new mask that interests you. Just wanting to try something is a good enough reason.
Take a hard look at your own preferences and needs and see if what you want to try stands a good chance of meeting those needs.
You can read the reviews but remember....one man's trash is another man's treasure and all masks come with a big YMMV sticker.
There are masks being used and people just love them and I won't even let them touch my face...just because someone else loves them doesn't mean I will and just because someone else hates something doesn't mean I will.

I have tried pretty much all the nasal pillow masks available over the past 8 years. All have pros and cons...some more cons than pros and some more pros than cons. With each experiment I learned more about my own personal preferences and needs and as the new masks get released I have a decent idea how the mask might meet my own needs.
This comes with time and experience. Hard for a newbie to do for sure especially with the costs of masks.
I funded my experiments with buying used masks from forum members or getting a donation or using cpap.com mask return insurance.

[Guest]

Well I gave up on the Brevida for now. It just won't stay put. Eventually my nose stopped that feeling, perhaps through ointments or perhaps through use, but I can't get the thing to reliably seal. The AHI looks ok but I don't feel rested, and a small change in my nose/mouth makes it leak a ton even though it isn't showing up under the mask fit metrics.

I went back to the wisp with the flannel gasket on the bridge of my nose last night, AHI like 1.2 and I feel rested - - - - but my nose is red again. Ugh.

[A MESS]

ROFL --Slipped off chair. Interesting-- nasal pillows slipped to ear. Funny. You cant make this stuff up. Good thing we have a sense of humor or we may never get through this. So now I have this to look forward to?