Claustrophibia with nasal pillows

I kind of panicked due to feeling like I was suffocating when I tried nasal pillows at my titration study and couldn't get them yanked off fast enough. The tech said it was because I had to exhale against the pressure. She said the more room in the mask the more area for exhalations to disperse. The mask I was and am most comfortable with is my F&P Eson. The Eson look-a-like the the DME gave me at first (Eson wasn't available) also caused a lot of anxiety due to having to exhale with force (pretty much same size/shape/etc. as Eson ). I adjusted the C-Flex but it didn't help enough with that mask.

So, I'm wondering if you eventually get used to this suffocation feeling with the nasal pillows? I like the low profile of the nasal pillows and would like to one day try them. It seems like people either love or hate nasal pillows.

Edited to add I have "mild" sleep apnea. My pressure is 7.

To me, using pillows with that fairly low pressure might definitely be a problem... but then I wonder if they'd stay put if you raised the pressure - and it's kind of counterproductive to change the pressure to suit the mask... usually done the other way around. Are you that crazy about pillows that you need to stay with them?

Are you by chance using the ramp feature? If so, is it starting out at 4 cm?

The stifling suffocating feeling is fairly common with any mask at lower pressures. Normally a pressure 7 wouldn't be as likely to cause that suffocation feeling.
What CFlex setting(s) have you tried? What happens with each setting? Too fast or too slow breathing rate...trouble exhaling against the pressure or just the stifling feeling?

I am a new user of a CPAP machine (5 weeks now). I started with a nasal mask, and hated it. I got myself a nasal pillow mask, and at first, I found the same thing as you, I felt I couldn't take a deep enough breath. At first I reduced the ramp time to 5 minutes, and then turned it off altogether, and now have no problem with the mask, I really love it. I'm getting less leaks, and a lower AHI, since beginning to use it. I have been using that for about two weeks now, and I'm sleeping more soundly and longer than before.

My EPR is set at 3, and I have no trouble exhaling, either.

I suggest you try something similar before you give up on the nasal pillow mask.

Thanks y'all. Actually I'm not using pillows right now. I tried and rejected them at my titration study, which was several weeks ago. I've never actually slept in pillows. I yanked them off at the titration due to feeling like I couldn't exhale properly and was going to "suffocate" due to "too much" air.

Sorry, I wasn't clear about that!

I like my current mask, which isn't a pillow type. I was only thinking of eventually trying something new and wondered about my sensitivity to "suffocating on too much air" with the pillows.

But I suppose if my current mask is working why mess with a good thing, huh?

PartlyCloudy wrote:But I suppose if my current mask is working why mess with a good thing, huh?

There's a virus going around the forum and the main symptom is mask envy. You may or may not succumb to it.
Mask envy is when a new mask (or a mask that you keep looking at and wondering about) is released and all of us who have the mask envy virus just have to try the new mask if it looks interesting to them. Another symptom is a real curiosity as to how it might work or be better in some manner than what a person is using now

That's why I experiment with so many nasal pillow masks....I just like to try new stuff so that I learn about the new stuff and not necessarily because I am looking for a replacement for my current mask.
I always learn something when I try something new...sometimes all I learn is that I hate it but I learned something.
Couple of days ago I tried the FitLife full face mask...commonly referred to as "the mask of last resort" because people put it totally on the bottom of the want list because of what it is....it covers eyes too.
I got it to seal for about 5 seconds and things went to hell right after that and I never could get it to seal again.
I quit. It was way more trouble than I wanted to have to deal with.

So you may catch the mask envy virus and want to try something else or you may not. It hurts nothing to try though.
I tried the Swift Nano cushion...I thought for sure I would hate it but it's really a nice mask and I kept it....comes with free return insurance. I actually used it for over a week with various contraptions including the Bella Loops. Worked well.
The Wisp is similarly made and I had to remove it after 90 minutes and never wanted to try it again.

So if a mask looks interesting and you want to try it...try it.

There's a virus going around the forum and the main symptom is mask envy. You may or may not succumb to it.

I think I may have this virus. In fact, I think I caught it before my titration. I spent some time looking at masks and got it into my head that since I don't mouth breathe the nasal pillows were for me. I catch myself being disappointed that I can't use them even though my current mask is working perfectly.

Also, despite many improvements I'm still not bursting with energy so I realized just a few minutes ago I'm thinking I need a new mask when the reality is I need more patience.

I've never used anything but full face masks. Primarily because I never could visualize myself using anything else. I assumed I would STILL be a mouth-breather, so I figured I needed to cover my mouth. I couldn't imagine that I could actually sleep with "things" shoved up my nostrils, either. I would be more claustrophobic with trying to keep my mouth sealed with tape or whatever. For me, the gentle over-all pressure inside the full face mask is my comfort zone.

To each his/her own.


Den

.

PartlyCloudy wrote:Also, despite many improvements I'm still not bursting with energy so I realized just a few minutes ago I'm thinking I need a new mask when the reality is I need more patience.

I never did get that "burst of energy" that some people talk about. You know where they wake up and feel good enough to go run a marathon. I also was a bit disappointed but then I realized that I was never a morning person anyway and I was sort of expecting the machine to make me into something that I never was in the first place.
I have other issues that affect sleep quality so while I don't feel like running a marathon...at least I don't feel like I just ran the marathon.

PartlyCloudy wrote:I think I may have this virus. In fact, I think I caught it before my titration.

I know I caught it before the titration. I researched the masks (and decided it had to be a nasal pillow mask due to headgear issues and my neck with other masks) and decided on the ResMed Swift LT nasal pillow mask..(no Swift FX or other new models back 5 years ago) and I did well with the Swift LT but I still tried probably 6 masks in the 3rd and 4th months of therapy just to try them...and always went back to the LT. Back then we had the cpap auction where we could pick up a gently used mask for experimentation for next to nothing so my experiments weren't hugely costly.
There's still a couple of nasal pillow masks that I haven't tried (the Respironics GoLife is one and the Breeze is another) but for the most part I have tried pretty much all the others. I have no interest in trying a full face mask and only minimal interest in a couple of the Nasal cushion masks...tried the Nano and the Wisp. The Wisp didn't work out but the Nano did.
So I guess I don't have a horrible case of the virus since I at least don't want to try the full face masks when they come out.
Sometimes I get a donated full face mask and I might slip it on just to see what it is like but quickly abandon any thought of trying to sleep with it for various reasons.

It took me a few months before I tried nasal pillows--I couldn't bear the Swift LT I tried on at first; later, I loved (and still do) my Swift FX.
The least invasive nasal pillow I've tried is the Nuance--gel rings with a very short cone! This might be one to try;
but you might want to wait until you are not as sensitive to the air pressure.
It will happen--I hardly notice it anymore; in fact I find it quite pleasant.

I am very claustrophobic and found the swift fx to work well for me. I also have the wisp, which I liked initially, but now not as much. I have the Resmed s9 elite with Epr and a setting of 2 on the Epr and 6.0 for pressure. I have the opposite problem where I have to open my mouth to make sure it is still working. I don't feel any strong pressure exhaling and breathing has been very easy. I have only been on a cpap for 10 days but am already falling asleep very quickly with the mask on. I have been recording 7-8.15 hours of sleep which previously never happened.