Newbie help please

Hello, very new to this process, I've had my machine for 3 weeks now. My question: I always thought I was a mouth breather so when I picked my mask, I was given the Amara View. I tried it for 3 weeks, the first night was fantastic and went downhill after that, I always had to find the sweet spot to make it quiet and finally just couldn't deal with the air escape into the eyes (I have Sjogrens, dry eye and mouth), I went back to the cpap store that is handling my account and got the DreamWear nasal mask as I just wan't sure that I was a mouth breather. The DreamWear is like getting out of jail, mask wise, I want it to work so bad but my problem is, I can't fall asleep with it, I lay there awake for hours, when I do get to sleep, my numbers the next morning are great on the ResMed app, close to 100. So what should I do, do I stick it out or do I go back and get a full face mask, I would get the Air Touch F20 if I did. I would appreciate all opinions. I am very limited in the time I can change this mask with insurance. Thanks.

mimi wrote:Hello, very new to this process, I've had my machine for 3 weeks now. My question: I always thought I was a mouth breather so when I picked my mask, I was given the Amara View. I tried it for 3 weeks, the first night was fantastic and went downhill after that, I always had to find the sweet spot to make it quiet and finally just couldn't deal with the air escape into the eyes (I have Sjogrens, dry eye and mouth), I went back to the cpap store that is handling my account and got the DreamWear nasal mask as I just wan't sure that I was a mouth breather. The DreamWear is like getting out of jail, mask wise, I want it to work so bad but my problem is, I can't fall asleep with it, I lay there awake for hours, when I do get to sleep, my numbers the next morning are great on the ResMed app, close to 100. So what should I do, do I stick it out or do I go back and get a full face mask, I would get the Air Touch F20 if I did. I would appreciate all opinions. I am very limited in the time I can change this mask with insurance. Thanks.

What criteria are you using to select a mask.......ones you've selected or are you relying on what the DME has available?
Spend some time going over everything that is available from all sources before making a selection.
Make sure you have the correct mask.
Make sure the size is correct.
Make sure the adjustments are correct.
And, make sure your head isn't sinking into your bed pillow and pushing your mask out of alignment. Too many times, the bed pillow is the problem.

https://www.cpap.com/cpap-masks.php

And.......get SleepyHead software to monitor your therapy. The ones the manufacturers offer are not that good.

https://sleepyhead.jedimark.net/


Den

.

How come you can't fall asleep with the DreamWear?
Is it mask comfort or fit or noise or just the brain won't quiet down?

I think it's the change of breathing through my nose with the mask on, I feel like my lungs are expanded more than daytime breathing. I just don't know whether to stick it out or just throw in the towel and get the full face mask. It's just that the DreamWear is almost like having nothing on at all, I hate to go back to a full face mask but I'm running out of time with the insurance to change masks.

First of all it's not the insurance giving you the time to exchange masks. It's the DME own in house policy where they set up a time frame and blame insurance.
Your insurance only pays for the first mask..period....until whatever mask replacement schedule time frame has gone by which is usually at least 3 months.
DMEs swap masks out and insurance won't pay for any of those swapped out masks but the mask manufacturer will pay them back so that they don't lose money. All the big name mask manufacturers have a 30 day mask return thing where the DME fills out some paperwork and they get credit or a replacement mask so that they don't lose money letting people swap out masks.
AND it's a 30 day per mask and not 30 days after starting therapy...but DMEs will often just say 30 days and make up their own in house rules because they don't want to do a lot of paperwork.

You are probably stuck with whatever time frame they told you but bear in mind it is NOT your insurance doing it. It's the DME and their own in house policy and they could do more if they wanted to.

So let's figure out how to get you so the mask you want to work will let you fall asleep.
What are your pressure settings? And are you using the ramp feature?
Have you tried just using it while reading or watching TV and not being under the gun to fall asleep?
The breathing that you mentioned keeping you awake...what is it about the breathing that is the problem? Noise? The Darth Vadar effect? Suffocated feeling like not enough air moving?

To try to help fix problems we need as much specific information about the problem as possible.