16 month update: What I've learned

metallikat36 · Post by **metallikat36** » Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:34 pm

What I've learned (in my opinion anyway):

1. Patriarchal doctors can prevent you from rightly taking control of your own therapy. The failure of doctors to help patients think for themselves I think is responsible for a considerable amount of CPAP failures. Even if I had given complete autonomy to my doctor, he would have never found my optimal parameters even in 10 years time.

2. Learn to manage your own therapy by using SleepyHead and looking at flow rate and leak rate graphs daily until you've optimized your therapy. Try as many masks as you want, as quickly as you want. Try different pressure settings according to your own analysis.

3. The only mask that does not contribute to resistance in the sinuses (including nasal pillows) is the FitLife Total Face Mask. It's the only one I will use.

4. The only way I could get the FitLife to seal well without causing any more permanent grooves in the skin is to use a gel mask liner from CPAPseal.

5. The gel mask liner touches the corners of the lips at night, which I think helps pool some saliva there, which probably is why I recently developed angular chelitis, which I am treating effectively with daily alcohol swabs and coconut oil, and covering with a bandaid before I put the mask on at night. (Mouth taping can apparently also cause angular chelitis.)

6. If the FitLife leaks from the top edge, even with the gel mask liner, grab the top head strap and pull it back so that it is more towards the back of the head. Problem solved.

7. Easy Breathe waveform, and maximum trigger and cycle sensitivity settings have been crucial for me.

8. The total face mask covers a lot of face, which means it can get hot and stuffy under there. I address this by turning off tube temperature completely, and finding the highest humidity setting that won't cause rainout. On my AirCurve, that turns out to be setting 3.

9. Using 2 BreatheRight nasal strips on my nose also helps.

palerider · Post by **palerider** » Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:24 pm

metallikat36 wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:34 pm
What I've learned (in my opinion anyway):

1. Patriarchal doctors can prevent you from rightly taking control of your own therapy. The failure of doctors to help patients think for themselves I think is responsible for a considerable amount of CPAP failures. Even if I had given complete autonomy to my doctor, he would have never found my optimal parameters even in 10 years time.

2. Learn to manage your own therapy by using SleepyHead and looking at flow rate and leak rate graphs daily until you've optimized your therapy. Try as many masks as you want, as quickly as you want. Try different pressure settings according to your own analysis.

3. The only mask that does not contribute to resistance in the sinuses (including nasal pillows) is the FitLife Total Face Mask. It's the only one I will use.

4. The only way I could get the FitLife to seal well without causing any more permanent grooves in the skin is to use a gel mask liner from CPAPseal.

5. The gel mask liner touches the corners of the lips at night, which I think helps pool some saliva there, which probably is why I recently developed angular chelitis, which I am treating effectively with daily alcohol swabs and coconut oil, and covering with a bandaid before I put the mask on at night. (Mouth taping can apparently also cause angular chelitis.)

6. If the FitLife leaks from the top edge, even with the gel mask liner, grab the top head strap and pull it back so that it is more towards the back of the head. Problem solved.

7. Easy Breathe waveform, and maximum trigger and cycle sensitivity settings have been crucial for me.

8. The total face mask covers a lot of face, which means it can get hot and stuffy under there. I address this by turning off tube temperature completely, and finding the highest humidity setting that won't cause rainout. On my AirCurve, that turns out to be setting 3.

9. Using 2 BreatheRight nasal strips on my nose also helps.

No, they can't.
Yes
Completely untrue.
The larger the mask, the harder it is to get it to seal.
yeah, ok, whatever works.
Alternatively, use a better mask.
If you say so
I bet it does
Not needed if using a pillow mask.

Sheriff Buford · Post by **Sheriff Buford** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:47 am

I used the fitlife Total mask for maybe 8 years. I was always having trouble finding a full face mask that didn't leak/agitate around the upper part of the nose.... until I stumbled on the Resmed F20. The fitlife is usually the mask of last resort. When they came out with the xtra large, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It eventually became frustrating, because the I had to wait 8 10 weeks to get the Extra large. There are several people here that use the total mask. Congrats on taking charge of your therapy!

Sheriff

ChicagoGranny · Post by **ChicagoGranny** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:44 am

metallikat36 wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:34 pm
Patriarchal doctors can prevent you from rightly taking control of your own therapy.

From the experience of currently using two female sleep docs, I can assure you that matriarchal doctors attempt to do the same.

palerider · Post by **palerider** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:04 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:44 am

metallikat36 wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:34 pm
Patriarchal doctors can prevent you from rightly taking control of your own therapy.
From the experience of currently using two female sleep docs, I can assure you that matriarchal doctors attempt to do the same.

Yes, they can *attempt* but they cannot *prevent*... Unless, perhaps, you live with them

babydinosnoreless · Post by **babydinosnoreless** » Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:32 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:44 am

metallikat36 wrote: ↑
Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:34 pm
Patriarchal doctors can prevent you from rightly taking control of your own therapy.
From the experience of currently using two female sleep docs, I can assure you that matriarchal doctors attempt to do the same.

16 month update: What I've learned

16 month update: What I've learned

Re: 16 month update: What I've learned

Re: 16 month update: What I've learned

Re: 16 month update: What I've learned

Re: 16 month update: What I've learned

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