New Mask, Courtesy of Insurance and DME!!

Well, I called my insurance provider on Thursday, like I said in one of my posts. They said "Sure, you're due a new mask, no charge." You could have knocked me over with a feather! So, I figured "Nope, can't be this easy." I called my local DME. They said on Thursday that they'd call insurance provider and get back to me. Nope. No call on Thursday. But, on Friday morning, they called and said "Yep. You're covered 100%."

Well, when I recovered from that, I asked to talk to R/T about fitting and they said "Sorry, she's in Roswell and won't be back till this afternoon. We'll have her call you after 4PM." Yeah, right. Well, about 4:30 PM, the phone rings and lo and behold, it's the R/T. And yep, she's got a free mask for me....covered by insurance! So I head over there, look at an Activa, a Breeze, a few more and then she brings out a DreamFit. WOWZERS!! I figure since I've got a PB 420e, I may as well get a PB mask, right? For an UltraMirage FF mask kinda guy, this thing looks like heaven!! It's small, it's light, I can wear glasses behind it, it straps to top of head and around bottom of face....well, ya'll get the picture. So I say "I'll take this one! And I'll probably need a chin strap since I think I'm a mouth breather." The R/T goes in the back, comes out, hands the clerk a chin strap, the clerk types it in and hands me the whole shebang. NO CHARGE! Well, being the sharp, savvy, knowledgeable cpaper I am, I asked "By the way, how much are you charging my insurance company for this thing?" I figured they'd hem and haw around, but nope. The clerk looked it up and said "About $115." And all at no charge to me! WOO HOO! Needless to say, I head outta there as fast as possible before they change their minds! I head to the grocery store, then to the auto mechanic (to check my dead a/c....a whole 'nother story we do NOT need to go into here!) and then head home.

I sit down, open up the bag (nope, no fitting, no instructions from the R/T, nuffin at the DME...but I'm a smart guy, right?) and look at the instructions. It has this nice picture and instructions in about 187 languages.....even in English! I start putting the mask together and it goes great.....until I start to hook up the headbands. Sheesh! But, I persevere and it goes together. YAAYYY! Then I take it into the bedroom and hook it to my PB 420e, lay down, put on the mask....actually, it's called an "interface" ...and turn on my APAP. It comes up to pressure and I'm thinking "This is great! No problem with the nose, no problem with leaks (after adjusting the headband) and no problem laying on back or either side. So I can probably even talk with this thing on." BIG Mistake!!!!! I opened my mouth to say something. Well, if I'd had been chewing gum, it would now reside on the ceiling!!! And that's at a pressure of 9 cm! ROFL! So I figured that talking while hooked up was a BAD IDEA!! Anyway, I got my mouth closed and it was downright amazing....with mouth closed, it didn't feel like there was ANY pressure coming from my APAP. With my UltraMirage FF mask, there was always the sensation of blowing at the tip of my nose and I knew it was on cuz of the soft whooshing sound. With the DreamFit, no sound! The exhaust blows upward and is darn near silent! I'm gonna remember what everyone has said about tongue position and mouth staying closed and try it without tape. This is the only other mask I've tried in my 8 months as a hosehead. My FF mask has worked great. My AHI is consistently around 1.2 - 3.5 with it. Thanks to the folks here, I was able to get the Silverlining software included with my APAP ("Yes, Doc, it's absolutely necessary to get the software! It's an indespensible compliance tool!") I'll see what the results are tomorrow, but I have a history of giving things about a month before really doing any downloading and comparison. I'll keep ya'll informed if anyone's interested.

OK. It's now about time to head to bed. I'll post tomorrow the results of tonight. I've got some Flonase and some saline spray for my nose and will use that before masking up. Wish me luck!!

This therapy WORKS!!! Hope the DreamFit works!

Crap! It guested me....this is TXKajun that wrote the above post. Drat! Darn it! Grrrrrr!

Let us know how you like that dreamfit. It sounds like a pretty good mask, but I haven't seen many user reports yet.

Cool, Kajun! I'm glad you brought up the Dreamfit. That's been the next "experimental" mask I've been thinking about trying.

The Breeze nasal pillows always worked beautifully for me but the "Dreamseal" attachment was too leaky. The Dreamfit looked interesting. Especially since it looks like it might lend itself to major de-construction, if necessary! LOL!!

Will look forward to hearing your further impressions of it, as you get more nights in using it. Thanks for the report!