New Swift FX Bella Mask.....

[ems]

With using the Bella Loops along with my buckwheat pillow...I am getting some marks on my cheeks as well. For me it is from the firmness of the buckwheat pillow. I will get a similar line if a crease is in the pillowcase and I lay on it.

Thanks, Pugsy. I was just about to post about some red marks on my cheek ... the side that is on the bed pillow. And, for the past several weeks, I've been using a buckwheat pillow also. It's helped my neck problems a great deal! But, this morning, woke with the red marks/indentation on my cheek and couldn't figure out what I had done. Now I know it's the buckwheat pillow. I think I'll try making that side looser. I also tried using the XS pillow. Thought the whole setup was great... until I saw my cheek.

[ems]

Why are people dropping down a pillow size while using Bella? Is the angle so different than with the headgear? I'm actually hoping for a slightly more upward angle than I have with the headgear. I feel like if I manually tilt them up it lessens the hurt on my one sensitive nostril, but of course it won't stay that way.

I tried going down a size last nite - from the S to the XS. I do find the angle different with the Bella Loops - actually, better. Except, don't ask me to explain the difference, because I can't. I can't figure it out... Pugsy where are you???

[ems]

I wonder if you could try a little bit of moleskin. It has sticky on one side, and soft on the other. You could trim it to size and stick it on. (Moleskin is usually found in the foot care area of stores.)

I have moleskin and tried doing it ... it's rather hard... not soft and flexible. Do you have a certain kind I don't know about?

[Pugsy]

The angle for the Bella Loops is a tiny bit different. Ever so tiny though. For me....the bottom of the barrel of the nasal pillow seems to be a tiny bit farther away from the area above my upper lip. I think it is because the tension from the upper loops pulls the pillow up and away just a bit. I am talking very minor difference in angle though. Plus I think the amount of difference might depend more on tension of that upper loop section than anything else.

[ems]

The angle for the Bella Loops is a tiny bit different. Ever so tiny though. For me....the bottom of the barrel of the nasal pillow seems to be a tiny bit farther away from the area above my upper lip. I think it is because the tension from the upper loops pulls the pillow up and away just a bit. I am talking very minor difference in angle though. Plus I think the amount of difference might depend more on tension of that upper loop section than anything else.

I'm wondering if it's b/c with the standard headgear the pillow has that notch on one side and it has to go in that way. With the Bella Loops, it doesn't matter which way it goes in and you can just do what's the most comfortable for you, i.e. - putting it the way it fits best!

[Pap365]

Has anyone worn the ear loops with a chin strap or the pap cap?

[jbn3boys]

I wonder if you could try a little bit of moleskin. It has sticky on one side, and soft on the other. You could trim it to size and stick it on. (Moleskin is usually found in the foot care area of stores.)

I have moleskin and tried doing it ... it's rather hard... not soft and flexible. Do you have a certain kind I don't know about?

I don't really know. I just remembered that moleskin had been recommended for some other mask-comfort issue, and wondered if it would work here, too. I thought it was thin and flexible, but I guess I'm not sure. I bought some to keep in my "emergency kit" when I first started cpap, and have never opened it.

As for me and my trial of the Bella loops, I was going to start last night, but have would up with a killer cold. I actually had to revert back to a full face mask, which I hate, in order to get any sleep. I'm hoping this will be short lived, as I really do NOT like the full face mask. (I need to go find "fixes" for it on the forum, just so I can stand to wear it another night.) By the time I get to try the Bella loops again, everyone else will be old pros at it!

jbn

[SleepingUgly]

Has anyone worn the ear loops with a chin strap or the pap cap?

OMG, I never thought of that. I should post this in the "You know you're exhausted thread..."

[Paula J]

Have used my new Bella Loops for the past 2 nights. My AHI is a little higher with them. I normally use a nasal mask. The Bella Loops did leave marks on my face that took a while to go away.......so I had an extra Pad-a-cheek strap cover, I cut it in half and it fits very well on the Loop straps. No marks this morning. Thought this might help someone. It is very comfortable to wear. I'm going to keep trying it and see if my AHI will come back down (I hope)!

[Pugsy]

Well....last night was ugly on paper... report below. I removed the barrel cozy to see if it would help with the leaks...which it did. Unsure if this would have just been an ugly night anyway. Sometimes crap happens and we just don't know why. Woke up with minor headache (which could also be from my neck as it has been giving me fits lately with the cold damp weather) and I can see some clusters on my report.
Last night probably would have been a good night to have had the machine set in Auto Mode. It is obvious I needed more pressure. I suspect if I had been using APAP...this would have been one of those nights that I saw 16 or 18 cm maximum pressure. Since using the BiPap in straight bilevel mode this type of night has been rare. Rare enough that I don't want to give up the comfort that the 4 cm pressure support that straight bilevel gives me and go to auto mode. I will update my BiPap experiment thread to show this report.

I seriously doubt it is related to the Bella Loops or the fact that I removed the barrel cozy last night to see if the leaks would be better (which they are) but I also adjusted the straps so who knows what the real reason for the improved leaks might have been.

I actually feel quite decent today. No better or worse than 2 nights ago when I had only 1 event in each category. Unless this report repeats itself many times....I won't be doing anything but shrugging my shoulders because this isn't a typical report and I will toss it into the "fluke" bin until if/when I see more like them on a consistent basis.

[ems]

My experiment last nite... went back to the S pillows from the XS. Used barrel cozy on the fleece side (usually use the other side), and made Bella Loops one notch tighter on the side I usually sleep on. I don't think I woke up once! Well, I did b/c I was cold and turned the elec blanket on. No marks on my face either. Now I can say it... I love the Bella Loops!

[NateS]

Well, last night I decided to try The Loops which I had gotten over the 'net about the same time as everyone else here but I had put them aside and was reluctant to try them. Until last night because by then I was over my bout of headaches from too low a pressure setting and was ready to experiment. I had had an exceptionally low leak/low AHI the night before, so I figured how bad could things get.

I am amazed! I found that, at least for me and at least for my first night, The Loops actually did a better job of keeping the nasal pillows in place than my prior setup with the standard swift headgear and the stabilizer strap. For some reason I had this preconceived notion that, lacking anything over the top of my head and in back, I was going to have to fight to keep the pillows in place. I had this idea in my head that my ears were parallel to my nose and no higher - so how was this thing going to work? Gravity was going to keep pulling the nasal pillow pad downward and nothing was going to keep them up. In fact, as soon as I wrapped the loops around my ears, without trying to make any adjustments, I had a duh! moment and realized that the tops of my ears are higher on my head than the bottom of my nose!

All I did was slip on the flimsy little ResMed chin restraint the DME recently gave me (which has helped a lot in bringing my leaks down due to another wrong assumption of mine that I'm not a mouth breather when I sleep) and then slipped on The Loops. In addition, I turned on Audible Leak Reporting on my S9 and decided to ignore any tiny hisses which I have been baffled by the last few nights, concluding that they were bounce-offs from the exhale vent and not leaks.

I had the most restful night I've had since going on xPAP in late December! And it was so much more comfortable! My leaks were mostly below the red line, and my AHI was only 2.01. Almost as good as the best night I had previously had with all those straps wrapped around my head!

My S9 gave an audible Leak Signal only twice, waking me out of what seemed to me like sound sleep. The first time a tiny jiggle of the nasal piece fixed it, and the second time I ever so slightly tightened the top part of the ear straps a little past their out-of-the-package setting and the warning sound went away, and I fell right back to sleep.

Another concern that was dispelled was side sleeping. I generally sleep on my back but a couple times a night I have to turn over onto my right or left side for a little while to give my back a break. With the standard headgear on the Swift FX, I had to be very careful not to dislodge the nasal pad by pressing the side of my face against the pillow and I usually had to press the nasal pad back against the bottom of my nose and adjust it side to side. Not so last night with The Loops - I just flattened the side of my head and ear down against my pillow and the nasal pillows stayed in place.

I'm sold!

[portiemom]

Well, just when I thought I was getting great results with my Loops, UGH.... my first red unhappy face showed up! I fought the pillows all night long, and on top of that, my darn SD card says NO DATA. Ughrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[NateS]

Well, just when I thought I was getting great results with my Loops, UGH.... my first red unhappy face showed up! I fought the pillows all night long, and on top of that, my darn SD card says NO DATA. Ughrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I have had an experience where SleepyHead reported "NO DATA" but ResScan reported all the data. I had gone to bed even later than usual on the "night" in question and had slept past noon. I understood the explanation from jedimark to be that SleepyHead has problems with sleep sessions that start after midnight and then run past noon.

Could that be what happened to you?

If so, have you tried reading your sd card in ResScan to look for last night's data?

Regards,

Nate

[portiemom]

I went to bed at 11:15 and turned off the machine at 6:00am after a lousey nites sleep. Where would I get rescan from?