Facial swelling?

Hello, long time lurker here. I have been using CPAP consistently since early December and am one of those lucky people who adapted well and like it. I credit much of my success to the excellent information and generous contributors here. I have several questions I would welcome any insight on but will post them individually. The first is this -- I sometimes wake in the morning with my right eye puffy -- once almost swollen shut. The tissue beneath (top of my cheek) will be swollen. I wonder if it is my mask strap combined with an awkward sleeping position? Has anyone else experienced this? The first time I went to my pretty much useless PCP, she just shrugged, so I haven't gone back. It is not painful, and dissipates in 1-2 hours after getting up. It may have nothing to do with the mask, but that is all I can think of. Thanks!

I get it sometimes. I think it is a combination of sleeping position and strap placement during the sleeping position thing. Usually it happens more to the side of the face that might be "down" and against the bed pillow more. It's a fluid retention thing and usually goes away once we are up because the fluid drains out of that puffy area. Sometimes that strap seems to slide upwards just a little and gets a bit closer to the eye area and constricts the vessels in they area right below the eye and the upper cheek area.

If you aren't using some strap covers you might try adding them to see if it helps dissipate the pressure caused by the straps and thus lessen the chance of the fluids pooling.

If it's too annoying and strap covers don't help...there's always the Tap Pap nasal pillow that doesn't have headgear at all...so no straps at all. But it does have a mouth guard which comes with its own baggage.

I have the Padacheek strap covers for my P10. It helps with the little dents from the straps and seems to lessen the fluid retention/pooling issues. It's almost always just my left eye and cheek because that is the side I sleep on for the bulk of the night.
She calls them "side strap covers".
You could probably make your own if you are handy but I gave up being handy like that a long time ago so I just pay for someone else to do the work.
http://www.padacheek.com/PACAirFitSeries.html

Thank you so much for confirming this for me. It is a little disconcerting to wake with your face bloated. It doesn't happen very often--maybe once a month--so for now I will just keep an eye on it. But the straps do look like a great option if it becomes annoying.