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library lady wrote:You mentioned the headgear straps, to which no one has yet responded. The straps do tend to stretch out over time and it's a good idea to replace it periodically. .

How often would you say? I just purchased a new mask headgear since I had a job and I know I needed a new mask and I know Medi-cal will take their sweet time with this. It seems that those straps don't last but 3 months. Isn't this kinda fast for them to loosen up? 3 months? Doesn't Medi-cal understand? Does anyone in the insurance industry have sleep apnea?? Makes me feel like they don't have it or they just don't care. I don't know what I'm going to do come March if I don't find a job by then. My plan is to get a new headgear once every 3 months, with me purchasing one in Jan/June each year and April/Sep I can have my insurance get the other two. I may have to try a new headgear since the one I have now (WISP) is really causing my ears to hurt and they don't go under my ears like it shows on the model. It always goes on top of my ear lobes and it hurts my ears. Ever since I changed my pressure from 8 to 11 my ears feels like someone is pressing on them toward my brains. I'm hoping it is something that is easily fixed.

I don't use much humidifier water around here, pretty humid already, I'm guessing. So if I fill the tank about 2/3 up to the lowest mark on the built-in scale, the tank never runs dry overnight, and there's not a lot to dump in the morning. I'm guessing that sort of thing is personal, I read postings from people that just top their tank off every day, and hardly ever empty the tank. Around here, if I leave water around, even the distilled water that I use, stuff grows in it before too long.

The way I look at it, I'm breathing through this thing 1/3 of my life (if all goes well *smile*), so I try to keep bad stuff out of it. I'm not obsessive about it, just make sure that the tank dries out every day, and that I casually clean the skin oils off the nasal pillows. The rest I get to when I can *smile*.

I didn't mention this before, since my posting was long enough, but I also take .3mg (that's 3/10 of a mg., not 3 or 5 or 10mg) of melatonin every night. This helps me get to sleep easier, and seems to help me get back to sleep, being the light sleeper that I am *smile*. This doesn't work for everyone, but helps me.

I also use f.lux on my computer monitor (that I spend time using just before I go to get ready to go to bed) and that feels more relaxing to my eyes. It removes a large amount of blue light, which is also supposed to help before bed time. I think that it does, but don't want to remove it to re-test my sleep without it *smile*. Not available for my iPad, but I usually use that before I go to my desktop, so that isn't so much of an issue. I could most likely get a real blue light filter for my iPad, but like I said, it isn't the last computer screen that I see at night anyways.

footballgirl13, rather than using bar soap why not try some soap used for hand washing dishes. It is designed to remove oils and to rinse clean without leaving a residue.

footballgirl13 wrote:I also can't stand how the mask has an opening and if my hand is anywhere NEAR my nose - I can feel the air on my hand and I don't like air on my hand. Why does this CPAP thing have to be such a pain in the rear??????????????????????????

Don't know if you've heard it before, but your aversion to getting the vent stream blowing on your hand reminded me about the ResMed AirFit P10, that has nice and quiet, diffuse venting. So if your hand is near your mask, you don't get much air blowing on it. And the venting is quiet, so us light sleepers don't have a problem with vent noise. The Swift FX that I'm using at the moment has a noisy and direct vent stream that's kind of annoying, but I like the adjustable headgear. You might try the AirFit P10 (since you're able to use a nasal mask already), and see what you think of it. Cpap.com has it with free return insurance, so you can return it in 30-days if you don't like it. And it might be nice to have another mask that you feel good about.

Another good thing about the P10 is that you can get new headgear (the cloth covered rubber band thingie *smile*) for just $25 when it wears out, you don't have to buy a whole new mask. So, once you have a P10, you can buy the pieces that wear for much less than a new mask and just keep renewing those when you need to. Might be worth a look.

footballgirl13 wrote:But the website does not list my specific machine since my machine is so freaking OLD. I don't think I have that PR System One "60" thing. I don't see anything that says "60" on it. I see "P150". I may need to call PR and ask them what year this machine was made and inform that I got it in 2011.

Does you machine look anything like this?



If so, you currently have the correct machine listed in your profile.

The Wisp has a large size headgear available online that might help solve your headgear stretching problem. You can tighten it how you want without stretching the material since there will be extra room.

If you like the general way the Wisp cushion itself fits but just don't care for the Wisp headgear then you might take a look at the Swift FX Nano cushion. The cushion is very similar but the headgear is different and the Nano headgear is mainly silicone and won't ever stretch.

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... dgear.html

A bonus if a person has the Swift FX Nano...you can use the nasal pillows with the Nano headgear. Should you get the Nano and wish to try the nasal pillow (you just had a bad experience with an ill fitting pillow) I have some you can just have. I think I have one in each size. Would be happy to send them to you...brand new still sealed in package.

BTW I don't dump my water daily....too lazy. I don't even dump it once a week but probably wouldn't be a bad idea to dump it weekly and give the water chamber a good cleaning once a week.

Pugsy wrote:BTW I don't dump my water daily....too lazy. I don't even dump it once a week but probably wouldn't be a bad idea to dump it weekly and give the water chamber a good cleaning once a week.

Ditto...