I'm just wearing these masks wrong, right?

The past week or so I've been using the Mirage FX. It's been alright... won't say great, but I'm sleeping with it all night, which was more than I could say for the Swift FX. But now I'm hitting a new problem... literally.



See the elbow that attaches the hose to the mask? That little lip sticks out into the inside of the mask just a little bit, and I'm waking up in the night with that thing digging into the underside of my nose. I know my nose is bigger than most, but the red mark I'm waking up with is about midway between the tip of my nose any my face... that would hit any normal nose.

This is now my 3rd mask (EasyLife, Swift FX), and while I'm not discouraged by any means, I'm sure there's something I'm missing here. If I loosen the straps, I get leaks. If I tighten the straps, I get dug into. It also seems like I'm fighting very small leaks at the top of the mask constantly (also happened with the EasyLife).

I mean, do I need to be loosening all of the straps at the same time? It seems like when we size it at the DME, it's so loose, but at home I'm wearing it really tight.

I'm confuzzled, folks.

UPDATE: After a second opinion ("Hey, honey, come look at this!"), it's been determined that my nose isn't hitting the lip on the elbow, but it is hitting the bottom of the mask, and that's what's causing the sore on the underside of my nose.

I guess the same question still stands, however. I'm wearing the mask incorrectly, right? Or is that another callous I need to build up?

Howdy, Culby I'm new to this as well, but before I got into it, I decided to start with the SOFT mask, Sleepweaver Advanced Nasal by Circadiance. It's made of cloth, believe it or not.
It may be premature for you to jump ship on the Mirage -I think that's a nasal mask, isn't it? But if you decide to try another mask, I recommend my softy. It wasn't available in our town, so I ordered it online for $99 , including shipping. Well worth it, enough so that my 'other half' has gone to one herself, in pink of course. Best wishes for sounder sleep!
earl aka n0hardmask

Tell us why easylife didn't work? I tried it, was ok but not perfect. Did you make sure the inside mask was properly sealed before using?
Re fx, that's a nasal pillow, again tell us what problems you had.
Now you're back to nasal mask?

I'd stick to one form of mask, either nasal mask or nasal pillow to try to find one that works well with you. Going from pillow to nasal mask to pillow, makes it hard to get a good feel for what might work?

Culby wrote:UPDATE: After a second opinion ("Hey, honey, come look at this!"), it's been determined that my nose isn't hitting the lip on the elbow, but it is hitting the bottom of the mask, and that's what's causing the sore on the underside of my nose.

I guess the same question still stands, however. I'm wearing the mask incorrectly, right? Or is that another callous I need to build up?

Culby, I have the same problem with the Activa and the SoftGel. I cut a thin slice of foam tape and run it from the tip of my nose to the top of my lip, between the nostils. I also cut a piece to protect the bridge of my nose. Those were the two places that I get sore from any nasal mask that I have tried.

Maybe you need the next size up???

dtsm wrote:Tell us why easylife didn't work? I tried it, was ok but not perfect. Did you make sure the inside mask was properly sealed before using?
Re fx, that's a nasal pillow, again tell us what problems you had.
Now you're back to nasal mask?

I'd stick to one form of mask, either nasal mask or nasal pillow to try to find one that works well with you. Going from pillow to nasal mask to pillow, makes it hard to get a good feel for what might work?

Well, it's been an ongoing thing (and there's a few threads around chronicling the shennanigans). When I first got my mask/machine (the morning after my titration), they gave me the EasyLife. I thought it worked really well, but after a week or so, I started bleeding from the bridge of my nose. Made an appointment with the DME, and while the person I spoke to did point out that I had put my headgear on upside down (durrrr), she also figured that we may want to try nasal pillows instead while we wait for the sore to heal. So I was handed a Swift FX. It drove me mad. Looking back at the data on onkor, the leaks weren't that bad, but it felt like I was. The medium pillows felt too small, the large pillows felt too big. I'd wake up in the morning with the mask on my bedside table.

Back to the DME, this time they give me the Mirage FX. We tried a few more nasal masks, but the soft plastic on the Mirage led us to go that way, and it seemed do well in the office, now I'm having these issues. It seems like I'm tightening it too much, but any looser and it starts to leak.

Janknitz wrote:Maybe you need the next size up???

There is no size up: the Mirage FX just has a Regular and a Wide. I'm on the wide.

There's a lot of mystery, trial and error, and black arts involved in fitting. Try everything. Try loosening the top or bottom straps, pulling the headgear up or down, tighter, looser, etc.

One thing I find that helps is to put the mask on, then try to relax your face muscles or flex your face muscles in such a way that the mask doesn't fit. Then adjust to make it fit. I find I put the mask on and then try to tense up into the mask to make it fit. If I adjust it like that, I get leaks when I fall asleep and relax.

And yes, sometimes you need a different mask. Or a different size.