Did I find CPAP Heaven?

Well, I finally picked up the new Respironics M series portable unit last night. I complained to the respiratory therapist about how much I had to fuss with both a full face mask or nasal mask and asked what the best one would be. He had me try some new nasal mask that had a bellows which allowed for a superior seal. Indeed it was, however I also tried a ResMed Mirage Swift. I gotta tell you this headgear unit was love at first fit. It was so comfortable and maintained a perfect seal no matter how I moved about. No marks in my face, lightweight and most of all comfortable indeed. The M series portable Respironics was a bit quieter than my previous CPAP, not just lighter weight but sweet to load the new high tech humidifier water container. I noticed only one somewhat annoying thing. The outgoing breath required significant effort. This unit is supposed to have CFlex so I'm going to look into the provider setup menu to see if there is another setting I could try. Otherwise this is a great step forward. NO fussing with the fit for a leak free experience. I was surprised I liked the Swift so much as I was resistant toward the under nose idea. However due to it's great fit and seal I am very comfortable with it so far. I'll keep you updated. BTW...dragging this CPAP around through airports as I did today was a breeze. Smaller and lighter to carry.... a real blessing....

If on your menu you do not have the ability to set up C-Flex level 1,2, or 3 then it has been disabled in the provider menu. It sounds like you know already how to access it. If you do not then unplug it and hold down the two << >> until it beeps and it will show an unlock icon in the LCD. then just scroll thru the menus and set C-Flex to on. I am using it on three. I like the C-Flex and the M Plus myself as a good started machine.

The feeling you are describing is like the REMstar plus unit i tested with when i tried to get an Mirage FF Mask. I could feel myself fighting the outgoing breath(it did not have C-Flex). I am now at 10.5 since I needed a little more then my initial pressure of nine that I had with the Swift.

Just an FYI I played with the auto off feature and it takes two full minutes before it will turn off. Also with the Mirage FF MAsk it kept sutting off on me because it had a little harder time sensing my breathing with the FF Mask.

Hope this helps a little

I entered the provider menu and strangely enough there is NO setting I could locate for the CFlex. This was disturbing I must admit. I fully expected to find the 1 2 or 3 setting with CFlex mentioned in the menu, but alas I don't see one. I KNOW this machine has it, and frankly after having used it for a 2nd night now find that any backpressure has indeed been lessened. I'm not sure how just that it is no longer an issue. The one thing however, about this mask that puzzles me, is that when I'm using it I expected it to actually OPEN up my nasal passages. But instead it seems to be either working against more restriction in the nasal cavity or causing more swelling of the tissues so as to make it seemingly more difficult to breath. I have been learning to just ignore this and get to sleep. I also noticed when I sort of get close to awakening in the morning it is no longer feeling blocked up. Weird! I rather hope I can get it to give me a less restricted feeling when trying to fall asleep at some point.

Just a guess, but on my remstar (not m series) there are different modes and if the provider picked straight cpap then the option for cflex doesn't appear. I can't be absolutely sure but it might be CPAP and CFLE, if you see a CPAP then try the one of the other buttons that act like arrows and see if CPAP changes to CFLE if it does, then the next prompt should be for 1, 2 or 3

[quote="Anonymous"]The one thing however, about this mask that puzzles me, is that when I'm using it I expected it to actually OPEN up my nasal passages. But instead it seems to be either working against more restriction in the nasal cavity or causing more swelling of the tissues so as to make it seemingly more difficult to breath. I have been learning to just ignore this and get to sleep. I also noticed when I sort of get close to awakening in the morning it is no longer feeling blocked up. Weird! I rather hope I can get it to give me a less restricted feeling when trying to fall asleep at some point.

I realy liked the Swift at 10cm. At 15cm and its a jet engine on your face.