ACTIVA - H E L P

Sleepless on LI · Post by **Sleepless on LI** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 3:53 am

Good morning, all. I have used the Activa nasal mask for three nights. Last night, for some weird reason, it would not work right. The mask would lay on my face and not "puff" up. I did clean it yesterday and no problem disassembling and reassembling it (I'm good at things like that and do all the wiring, etc. in my house). It was like it was laying on my face, rather than getting the air to make it do its job. I took it apart again in the middle of the night and couldn't fix the problem. I even watched the video at 4:30 AM and was doing everything as per their instructions. I even checked for holes, but nothing.
Does anyone have any idea what is going wrong or have you experienced anything like this? Before I make a trip this morning into my DME 30 miles west from my home and then go to work another 42 miles east from my home later this afternoon, pretty tired, I might add, from fididdling with this thing all night, I was hoping someone might have the answer. Thanks for any suggestions.

Niteair · Post by **Niteair** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:23 am

Good Morning
Make sure that the right angle swivel connector is properly snapped in place, turn th connector to make sure it rotates freely. I had this problem once and thought for sure it was locked in place, with the exhaust so close to the connector, it wasn't real obvious that I had a large enough leak to cause the problem. Hope this helps.....have a great day.

Sleepless on LI · Post by **Sleepless on LI** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:59 am

I am not sure what you mean when you say right angle swivel connector, but I'll look it up. It was very disappointing after having such a great night the night before. Thanks for your suggestion. I'm going to go see what I can do about what you just mentioned. It's appreciated.

rock and roll · Post by **rock and roll** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:27 am

Sleepless in LI,

I wonder if somehow the turq. hard plastic snap in frame is not seated in the diaphram correctly and therefore the diaphram does not inflate. You might check this as it is hard to seat just right sometimes and I have a few times pulled it askew in tghe night. Hope you get it right soon.

Newsgrouper · Post by **Newsgrouper** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:29 am

Sleepless:
Are you able to avoid the maouth breathing/leaking problem you spoke of earlier? I would love to again use my Activa but cannot overcome the mouth leak problem.

Sleepless on LI · Post by **Sleepless on LI** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:41 am

R&R,
Wow, you are a fast one (can always rely on you!). I did check that piece many times. They do talk about the diaphragm having three slots in it for the three green tabs, although I only see two. But there is really only one way for it to fit. I can't imagine it going any other way. I have it situated just under the lip and it seems to be correct. I did loosen the straps even more on the headgear which seemed to help a little bit. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong, if anything. That seemed to help a bit. Oh, well. Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out. Let me know about your battery backup.

Newsgrouper, I did overcome the mouthbreathing by the suggestion, I believe, of Janelle. She suggested (I think it was she) that you place your tongue behind your lower front teeth and make an arch with your tongue towards the roof of your mouth, which seems to just happen naturally when you do that. If you open your mouth with your tongue in that position, you'll see you won't be able to breathe through your mouth that way. But after a couple of nights, it seemed that I just was getting used to not breathing through the mouth anyway. Last night was a winning night (sarcasm) due to the poor inflation of the mask, so I won't count that. Hopefully tonight will be a better night by which to gauge it. But give that a try. It really works. You can try it right now without the mask on. You'll see that it really does work. This site is great for information you never would have dreamed up yourself.

rock and roll · Post by **rock and roll** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:47 am

Sleepless in LI,

You are clolse but go deeper into the piece. Not where it snaps on but the diaphram itself, the piece that snaps onto the main frame that has the pegs that snap in, in and of itself fits very snugly into the diaphram in a grove. If this gets pulled and unseated, the seal is broke. I have had that happen.

Sleepless on LI · Post by **Sleepless on LI** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:04 am

Are you talking about the rubbery thing as opposed to the hard plastic because that was what I was talking about. I was talking about the soft pliable rubber piece that has the little groove in it where you place the plastic green piece that you use to snap into the hard clear plastic that holds that rubbery piece the will eventually be placed over your nose that inflates. Am I missing something here? Work with me, R&R. You know so much, I'm afraid I'm not following you and you might have the answer I need.
I did check the rubbery, inflatable piece that has the green bracket with the three tabs on it many times to make sure the bracket was in the little lip correctly and snapped into the clear plastic slots correctly. Is it something other than that I should be looking more deeply into?

rock and roll · Post by **rock and roll** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 12:44 pm

No it sounds like you are talking about the piece I am talking about. The only other thing that I can think of to cause your problems is a major leak somewhere that is letting the pressure out. Then only way I can think to test this is to submerge the mask with the air on in water. Just don't let water back up into the machine.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:57 pm

If I submerge the mask under water, then that would mean getting the hose that attaches to the mask that brings the air to it under water, too, and I didn't think you could do that because there is some sort of filter in it that you're not supposed to get wet, no? I am so confused over this. I tried to snap those turquoise tabs really hard into the slots to make sure they are secure and I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed for a better night tonight. If not, I'll have to bring it in to the DME on Monday as I have to be in NYC tomorrow all day so I won't even have a chance to do it tomorrow and they aren't open on the weekend. I guess I may not be getting any sleep at all this weekend. And it felt so good the other morning...(sigh)

MaskedMan · Post by **MaskedMan** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:06 pm

Also make sure your cat doesn't like clawing or biting your hoses or masks and getting little punctures all over the place! Sorry, perhaps not as helpful to you as the other comments, but I speak from experience!

rock and roll · Post by **rock and roll** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:33 pm

OK now Lori you have me stumped. I know of no filter in the Activa you can't get wet. I am sitting here with mine in my hand and I have taken it apart and cleaned it like multiple times and I have no idea. As long as water does not go into the hose towards the machine I can't think anything can happen IMHO, I have tested mine this way.

Janelle · Post by **Janelle** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:34 pm

The thing with the tongue....I showed it to my ENT the other day. She had to try it and agreed it would work!

Oh, and she didn't even mention surgery. She said my soft palate and uvula look wonderful, no irritation or redness and they appear to be normal size now--after 6 months of CPAP. She also said my nasal congestion was greatly reduced and then I told her I hadn't used the steroid spray for several weeks and seldom did need to use it. She was truly amazed.

Newsgrouper · Post by **Newsgrouper** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:45 pm

I have tried keeping my tongue in the described position and it works while I'm awake. When I fall asleep my tongue moves out of position and the leaks begin again. How do you keep your tonge in any position while asleep?

Sleepless on LI · Post by **Sleepless on LI** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 7:54 pm

Janelle, is this good news or bad news? I know it's good in that it's healthy news, but does this mean that you can stop the CPAP and you won't have OSA anymore or it doesn't affect it one way or the other? And I guess surgery is not an option, which is good and bad. And God bless you for the suggestion with the mouth breathing. Works great for me, but now we have to work on Newsgrouper...

Newsgrouper, I don't know what to say except after a couple of nights, it just seemed to work. I don't know why, but I wasn't waking up to open mouth syndrome, or what I will now call OMS (hey, everything else associated with OSA is an acronym, why not???). Have you given this more than a night's try? If not, give it at least a couple of nights. Maybe you can train yourself. Or maybe you have a stubborn mouth and need more than a couple of nights. Can we explain why our bodies do what they do or anything else associated with this crazy disorder? I certainly can't. I thought you were having success with the F&P ff mask, no? What happened? I was considering that one, too, at your suggestion. Did something happen to make you change your feelings about it? I'd be interested to hear about it.

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