Respironics ComfortLite Nasal Interface

Is anybody here using this mask?? Need feedback. Looking to switch. Thanks


CPAPNEA

I just turned one in after a 3 day trial. I hated it.

Your mileage may, of course, vary. I found the headgear uncomfortable when lying in any position but on my back, and I found that in order to prevent leaks, I had to have the thing cranked pretty firmly against my nose, which caused me pain after a while.

I also got some sinus pain, but that might have been because I was switching from a full face mask, so I might just need more time to get used to the constant pressure in my sinuses.

There are others who like this mask, so don't take this as gospel, but you asked for opinions, and there's mine.

Liam, who is surprised he has an opinion, he's normally so shy and slow to form opinions.

I use the Comfort-Lite and I like it. It is, however, a bit cumbersome and can shift somewhat if you roll around alot. It has some flaws -I think that Respironics may have rushed it into the market and did not take the time to make it sturdy enough. I've had to return mine to the provider for replacement parts.

Having said all that, it is not a bad choice and I do sleep comfortably through the night with it. I've got an Activa that I sometimes use but it chews a hole in the bridge of my nose, no matter how well it is adjusted.

I'm thinking I'll buy a Swift or Breeze next. Also, I'm waiting to see the new "Infinity" that is coming.

This interface needs some tweeking in order to make it comfortable. I unhooked the hose connection from the top of the headgear, let it dangle freely. (I hang my hose from behind me over my headboard) Therefore the swivel didn't bother me at all. If you toss and turn.......forget this mask....no way ...no how !
(at least for me) having said that ! I still liked it. The Direct seal nasal pillows were great. They felt much better to me than the Nostril Destroyer (NasalAire) My advice would be to somehow try it out before you buy it ! if that's possible.

Rich

I got this unit last nite. It's the first time I've beed able to sleep thru the night . It did take a little tweeking, and I had to come up with some imaginative ways to lay on my side, but I found it quite comfortable. That being said, it was only one night. I'll have to see how I feel after a week.

Anyway it seems that everyone has different experiances with these gadgets. Just gotta keep trying untill you find the combination thats right for you.

This mask is definately not for restless sleepers, ones who toss and turn all night long. My DMES told me that once I started getting some REM sleep, I wouldn't be so restless. I'm not sure if I believe that.

hhunt wrote:This mask is definately not for restless sleepers, ones who toss and turn all night long. My DMES told me that once I started getting some REM sleep, I wouldn't be so restless. I'm not sure if I believe that.

I agree wholeheartedly. And the DME's comment is bogus. If you're like me, you can't GET to sleep, because the tossing and turning keeps moving the mask and you have to keep waking up to readjust it.

So yeah, *IF* I get to sleep and get into REM, I'll calm down (my wife tells me I do), but that DME comment is kind of like telling someone in a plane whose wings have been sheared off in mid flight "Don't worry, once you're safely on the ground, you'll be fine". Great. Tell me how to GET safely on the ground, oh purveyor of useless comments.

Liam the grouch, I've got the garbage can to prove it.

I called the DMES yesterday at about 2:30 after trying to take a nap and the mask wasn't working then. I decided to give it another try last night and same thing. She has still not called back and its friday.

I'm going to lose it if I don't get some relief pretty soon............

hhunt wrote:I'm going to lose it if I don't get some relief pretty soon............

I so feel for you. Last night around midnight, I ripped my mask off of my head (Activa nasal that I was trying for the first time), flung it across the bed, angrily stabbed at the "off" button on my CPAP, and went into another room and cried for a while. (Yeah, I know, I've just ruined everyone's view of me as this stoic, macho guy. Sorry.)

I then was so frustrated and upset, I'm right now operating on zero sleep. None.

I'm so tempted to toss in the whole towel at this point. I'm just trying to decide if I want to toss another $1000 at the problem and buy myself an APAP machine before giving up entirely, or whether I think the odds of that helping are low enough that I should not throw good money after bad.

I truly hope you have better luck than I'm having!

Liam, sleepy and sadly not particularly funny this morning.

I know after reading some of The Promise of Sleep book the other night, I set it down and cried a little. Just thinking about how serious this disease is and what could happen if I'm not treated. Being frustrated with masks doesn't help the situation any.

Then all of the health complaints I've had over the past years, I must be driving my husband nuts. His mother is a hypercondriac (sp?). He must think he married someone just like his mother.

I'm so sick of complaining, but if I'm not comfortable, what is the point.

I have a few options let for masks. Mind you, my nose is smaller near the bridge. Kind of a ski jump nose. I'm thinking maybe about the Aclaim 2, Mirage Activa, Aura Nasal Cpap, Profile Light Gel mask and maybe Swift or something similar to the Mirage Ultra that would seal better.

We have got to hang in there. I tried last night but turned my machine off and gasped/snored until morning.

It doesn't help when you have a DMES that I know is frustrated and won't call me back as of yet. She better not let me hang or I'll be calling her tonight at home around 2 a.m.

Liam,

Before you start breaking things, what was up last night that you got so frustrated? Just couldn't fall asleep? Equipment problems? Ran out of jokes?
I know you are probably in no condition right now to comment, but when you get you wits about you and can get atleast a little rest, let us know what you're up against.

wading thru the muck! wrote:Before you start breaking things, what was up last night that you got so frustrated? Just couldn't fall asleep? Equipment problems? Ran out of jokes?
I know you are probably in no condition right now to comment, but when you get you wits about you and can get atleast a little rest, let us know what you're up against.

Out of jokes? Bite your TONGUE, man. When I'm as tired as I am right now (and down a pint to boot (gave blood today)), the jokes aren't GOOD, but when they stop, it's because I'm depressed, not tired.

The problem is that I can't seem to sleep. My lungs seem to get tired of breathing the CPAP after a while, even with the CFLEX, my nose starts to stuff up, and I find more and more often I'm having to close my nose and gasp a breath through my mouth, or I feel like I'm not getting enough oxygen.

It's just that I've been at this for a while now, and I was hoping by this point to at least be back to sleeping WITH the machine as well as I slept WITHOUT it. After a few hours of tossing and turning, trying to readjust the mask for the umteenth time when another leak springs up, etc ,etc, I just get frustrated. Combine that with being already overtired from not sleeping well since I got the damn machine. Combine THAT with dysthymia (persistent, moderate grade depression) that's been getting worse with the lack of sleep, and I just... snap.

You know how it is, the middle of the night is never a good time to be reasonable. Like when I have the flu, and my lungs start hurting. If it happens in the daytime, I go "Man, that sucks". If it happens at night, I can't get my mind off of "Well, what if it's not my lungs? What if it's my heart? Am I going to wake up tomorrow?". Night sucks.

But the thing is, although the pressure is a FACTOR, I've yet to find a mask that I could sleep in even if the pressure were left at a minimum, and not noticable. How do I ever expect to solve this apnea problem and start, I don't know, waking up feeling rested once in a while, when the treatment is worse than the disease?

I want to believe an Auto-pap will be the solution to all of my problems. But two weeks ago, I wanted to believe a CPAP would solve my problems. Last week I wanted to believe a different mask would solve them.

I'm starting to lose hope that this is a problem that can be solved, and it's hard to keep putting energy (to say nothing of money) into something that's starting to feel more and more like catching bigfoot: elusive and probably impossible to accomplish in reality.

Liam, who figures he just blew his shot at "Miss Cheerful" in the CPAPTALK Beauty Contest.

Liam,

Since you seem to be overwelmed, how 'bout we start with the masks.

1. Which have you tried?
2. What are the problems with them?
3. How could it suit you better?
4. Is the stuffy nose from a cold or a chronic situation?
5. Are you using heated humidity and do you have a heated hose?

Sorry about the "ran out of jokes" comment. It was meant to be rhetorical.

wading thru the muck! wrote:Since you seem to be overwelmed, how 'bout we start with the masks.

Which have you tried?

OK... I've actually tried using:

ResMed Ultra Mirage Full Face
Comfort Lite Nasal Pillow
ResMed Activa Nasal Mask

I have also tried on, but decided against while still in the office:

Respironics' Full Face mask (I forget the name. Comfort Gel, maybe?)
NasalAire II Nasal Pillows

... I know there are more, but at the moment they're not coming to me.

wading thru the muck! wrote:What are the problems with them?

OK, let's see. The ones I didn't take home either leaked too much while trying them on, or just weren't comfortable (or both).

The Comfort Lite hurt my head when I was lying on my side, tends to leak when I move around, and in order to get a good enough seal, I had to have the thing pushing my nose like it was trying to shove my nose bone into my brain. Most uncomfortable. Plus, even with H/H set pretty high, my sinuses felt like I had been breathing refridgerated air all night, and I had sinus headaches. After a while, my nasal passages would close up, and I wouldn't be able to get enough air through my nose, so I'd start having to mouth breathe, which pretty much eliminates any benefit from a nasal pillows arrangement.

The Activa nasal mask is relatively comfortable, but it likes to leak a bit, and where they've put the ventilation holes it's almost impossible not to have it blowing on SOME part of your body, which is quite cold. Not so much of a problem with the chilly sinuses, but still after a while I felt like I couldn't get enough air through my nasal passages and had to start mouth breathing, once again removing any use they were having. Oh, and the mouth breathing then leads to leaking out the mouth, which dries the throat quite badly.

The Ultra Mirage is the best of the bunch so far, in so far as when I feel the need to mouth breathe, I can do it without losing the benefit. However, I can't mouth breathe humidified air, or I feel like I'm smothering, so I have to keep the H/H turned off (I can do pass-over humidification, but no heat at all). Again, as I toss and turn, the straps pull it ever so slightly this way and that, and I'm constantly awakening from near slumber to readjust things so I'm not hissing and leaking. In order to prevent this, I end up cranking the straps down tighter than is comfortable, and now I can pretty much not leak, but it hurts. Plus it leaves a sore on the bridge of my nose that no amount of fiddling with the settings on the forehead cushion bar seems to help.

I had somewhat high hopes for the Swift that I bought, but now having had nasal/sinus problems with both nose-only systems I've tried, I'm not sure anything that doesn't cover my mouth is gonna cut it.

The problem (according to my DME) is that the vast majority of apnea patients are a bit heavier than I am, in terms of having more well padded faces. As a result, both the mask and the face contour to each other to form a good seal. I've got a fairly bony face/nose, there's not a lot of extra padding to help fill in the gaps, so any little change in the way the mask sits leaves me hissing and blowing cold air.

wading thru the muck! wrote:How could it suit you better?

I don't know. I think maybe if someone made a machine that I could stick my head inside, with a rotation seal around my neck so I could roll over, and then would pressurize all of the air around my head, that might do it. I suppose if someone could figure out how to make a full face mask that was better at contouring to my face, that might help.

But I'm starting to get a sense for what these things can and can't do, and about the only thing I can think of that MIGHT help would be that "mouth only" mask. If I could have a mouth only mask that perhaps consisted of a mouthpiece (sort of like a dental mouth guard) and relied on my lips to seal around the outside, maybe that would help. Or maybe I'd just find that I'm accustomed to switching back and forth between mouth and nose breathing, and doing either one exclusively doesn't suit me.

wading thru the muck! wrote:Is the stuffy nose from a cold or a chronic situation?

Allergies, I think. Dust, mostly, which is hard to avoid. Combined with having a fairly slim nose, so my nasal passages aren't as large as they perhaps could be.

wading thru the muck! wrote:Are you using heated humidity and do you have a heated hose?

I can't use heated humidity for anything which involves mouth breathing, or I feel like I'm smothering. For nasal ones, I kind of have to (although after a while I still feel like I'm smothering), and I've tried everything from none to pass-over to a setting of 3 out of 5 on the heater. I do not have a heated hose, so I don't want to go much over 3, or I'll get rain out.

wading thru the muck! wrote:Sorry about the "ran out of jokes" comment. It was meant to be rhetorical.

I know. My response was also meant to be light hearted. I'm just apparently frustrated enough that my attempts at humor sound forced.

The thing is, before all of this started, I got "good" sleep probably 2-3 nights per week, and woke up feeling tired the rest (sometimes from insomnia, sometimes having slept all night but just not restful sleep). Now I've gone to no good rest at all since starting on the machine, which does NOT feel like a step forward.

At this point, I think my best (only?) hope is that AUTO CPAP with the swift as a mask might do away with some of my issues. But do I really want to go spend the money to buy an autopap on the (in my best estimation) 25-30% chance that it'll solve most or all of the problems?

And on top of that, if I decide to spend the money and give 'er a try, do I go with the PB 420e (because of the switches that apparently allow me to tweak it a little bit better for my particular brand of apnic events), or do I go with the Remstar Auto, give up the tweaking, but get to keep CFLEX?

And I'm never any good at making decisions when I'm sleep deprived, so right now the "which one to buy" feels daunting, I can't even wrap my brain around "is it worth the money to give it a try?"

Liam, who was a lot more fun yesterday.

Liam1965 wrote:I had somewhat high hopes for the Swift that I bought, but now having had nasal/sinus problems with both nose-only systems I've tried, I'm not sure anything that doesn't cover my mouth is gonna cut it.

Correction, the Swift that I ORDERED. I haven't received it yet, so the "had" high hopes was reflecting the current state of my diminished hopes, not anything negative about the Swift, which I've only seen on web pages thus far.


Liam, who isn't feeling particularly SWIFT right now.