djam's therapy thread

[zonker]

consider the gif stolen!!

Sheriff! We've got an admitted thief over here! Do your duty!

yikes! does that mean i have to drive THIS?

smokey.jpeg

[zonker]

Looks like you're well on your way! w00t!

consider the gif stolen!!

also, good work, djams!!!

Thanks guys. We'll see if I'm able to stick the landing like that!

ya know, i didn't really LOOK at that closely the first time. i would never ever have had the guts to try that.

[djams]

Looks like you're well on your way! w00t!

consider the gif stolen!!

also, good work, djams!!!

Thanks guys. We'll see if I'm able to stick the landing like that!

ya know, i didn't really LOOK at that closely the first time. i would never ever have had the guts to try that.

Oh, there was a time when I certainly would have tried something like this. Now it just looks like a broken ankle waiting to happen.

[djams]

A bit of a revelation last night. The leakage in this chart from last night is not mouth leak.

I shaved the "soul patch" area of my beard, so I'd have more surface area for the SomniFit tape. I also plugged up the "breathing hole" in the tape. The tape was still firmly and completely in place this morning. None of this woke me up, but I'm going to work on it.

It appears that mouth breathing wakes me up, mask leak may not with the pillow mask.

[Pugsy]

It's funny how we can sleep through some fairly big mask movement leaks and have the tiniest of otherwise mouth leak noise wake us up.

My lips were taped for this one and I slept through all this.

[djams]

It's funny how we can sleep through some fairly big mask movement leaks and have the tiniest of otherwise mouth leak noise wake us up.

I resemble that remark!

[Pugsy]

What probably bugs me more than anything else is the vent bounce back onto my face somewhere. For some reason just a little air blowing on my face from the vent hitting the bed covers or my arm is the only thing that might wake me up.
One of the reason I like the P10 so much....no bounce back at all no matter how close my arm or bed covers might be to the vent holes.
I can sleep through massive mask movement leaks and probably massive mouth breathing leaks...but vent bounce back annoys the hell out of me.

[djams]

Oh, I agree. The venting on the Swift FX is annoying. But for me this is during the getting to sleep phase, it hasn't awakened me to my knowledge.

I'm reading, laying on my back, pillow on my chest, holding the paperwhite on pillow. Perfect setup for bounce back. I can lean it back to lessen this, but after a bit, my fingers are freezing! First world problems...

My P10 will be here tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it.

[palerider]

What probably bugs me more than anything else is the vent bounce back onto my face somewhere. For some reason just a little air blowing on my face from the vent hitting the bed covers or my arm is the only thing that might wake me up.

maybe it's a conditioned reflex... that tiny bit of air movement before the slobbery dog tongue hits you... giving you time to flinch aside

[djams]

I can't believe how well I'm sleeping with this pillow mask. I woke up at 3am this morning, wide awake ready to go. No chance of falling back to sleep. 6 hours of sleep. I fell asleep nearly immediately.

The somnifit tape stayed secure again. I'm thinking my leaks may be due to the hose tugging on the mask. I've been banished to the guest bedroom during this entire pillow mask experiment as my wife has a head cold with persistent cough. Whoever isn't sick sleeps in the guest room around here. Anyways, this means I've lost my hose management system, which is a wall mounted bedside swing-arm lamp that I drape my hose over. If the leaks *are* being caused by hose tug, it'll resolve itself when my wife gets better. I haven't heard a single cough since I've been up, so it may be soon. Sleeping in the guest room has made it very obvious that the pillow top mattress on our bed is worn out and needs to be replaced. On this mattress, I haven't had any hip pain after extended periods of side sleeping. Which I'm sure is allowing me to stay on my side longer, as well as reducing restlessness. We'll never buy a pillow top mattress again. Can't flip 'em! Wore out too quickly too.

The 0 AHI streak has been ended by this post-arousal CA. No biggie - I obviously am sleeping very well. Can't believe the difference this mask is making. I'll gladly tape my mouth forever if I have to.

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[Pugsy]

I am a woman and I get to say it..."I told you so".. I told you so...I told you so.
And I am not above saying it...obviously.

Here's the deal folks...not everyone will like a nasal interface mask and not everyone will be able to use it successfully and I don't really give a rats behind what mask someone uses as long as they are totally happy with any mask anyone uses. I don't care.
No, I don't particularly want to use one myself so I don't because I don't want to and I don't have to. But I really don't care what someone else uses.

My job isn't to decide on what mask a person should use...my job is to help a person use whatever mask they decide they want to try and use.

If someone has the slightest interest in at least trying a different kind of mask for whatever reason they might have...then my job is to help them try one and do what I can to make it a successful experiment.
Just wanting to try something is a good enough reason to try something in my book.
Sometimes it's a good idea...sometimes not so good of an idea but we always learn something...even if all we learn is what a friggin bad idea it was. I have had more than my share of those bad ideas myself but I always learn something about my own wants and needs when I try something different.

There are pros and cons with every single mask out there....not a single mask out there is the "perfect" mask for even one person...much less an entire population of users because we all have different preferences, wants and needs that factor into how successful we are with any mask. There's always going to be some little something about a mask that each of us will sort of wish was maybe just a wee bit different to make it "more perfect". What we have to do is try different masks and figure out which mask ticks off the most "pro" boxes with minimal "con" boxes being checked off. The only way to know and learn....try other stuff. That's how we learn what our own personal preferences, wants and needs end up being.

So just being curious and being interested in something is a good enough reason to try something if we can.
I know that masks are expensive and that is a serious limitation for some people....but even then there are ways to try something else and not have to rob a bank. We have the donations stuff...and we have people selling their own mask failure experiments at greatly discounted prices....we can usually find a way to get a mask to someone wanting to try something else even if they can't afford a direct purchase out of pocket and they are afraid to burn an insurance paid for mask on something they may not like.

The donations stash I have...most all of those masks are gently used...some more than gently but they really aren't designed to be a forever mask but instead something to give them an idea if they are even going to remotely like the mask or the size and then they can decide if they want to spend money on a brand new one.

[Pugsy]

Djams...what I find most interesting with this experiment is you really haven't had the really big and really fast spikes in pressure like you normally will sometimes see and fairly regularly see.

There's something about the full face mask that is affecting the airway patency causing those spikes. I suspect it probably has something to do with what the lower straps on a full face mask does to the overall position of the jaw...pulls it back ever so slightly and thus narrows the airway ever so slightly. I can't prove it...I have no studies to back up my theory but it's a logical assumption.
Something is causing the change though and airway position or jaw position is about the only thing I can think of that is the variable.

Another prediction....you are going to be even more happy with the P10...it's lighter...less tugging on the pillow by the hose...no vent noise.
Do be prepared to use the Lansinoh....I had some nostril soreness initially and my nostrils had been using pillow masks for years and years without any soreness. Not horrible soreness...more like I ran my nose into someone's fist soreness...gentle minor bruised feeling.
But even I had some soreness. Be careful with positioning of those 2 straps because that's how you adjust the tension...it's real easy to get piggy nose with the P10 if you aren't careful. I put the bottom strap way down at the base of my skull and use the top strap for main adjustments. Play with them...slight movements can make a big difference in the overall tension.

[zonker]

catfistbump.gif

good lord, man! i am so jealous of your ability to quickly improve both your numbers and your sleep.

pugsy? can we make djams the post boy for the forum?

[Pugsy]

pugsy? can we make djams the post boy for the forum?

Well...he's definitely going to be the one I refer people to who say "I was told I was a mouth breather and couldn't use a nasal mask".

Before him it was perrybucsdad that I would refer people to...and I just about had to twist his arm off to get him to at least try a nasal mask.

[zonker]

pugsy? can we make djams the post boy for the forum?

Well...he's definitely going to be the one I refer people to who say "I was told I was a mouth breather and couldn't use a nasal mask".

Before him it was perrybucsdad that I would refer people to...and I just about had to twist his arm off to get him to at least try a nasal mask.

there are a great many lies that are told to us by those sleep doctors. being told if you are a mouth breather and can only use a ffm may not be THE worst, but it's certainly up there.