Remedy for red marks from mask?

[kderevan]

Thanks, Dave!

[SarcasticDave94]

Thanks, Dave!

You're welcome. You could post up the info on your home brewed cushions if you'd like to share.

[Sheepish]

I feel a little sheepish

You called?  

My solution, which continues to work for me, is linked to in my signature below.

Keep us posted on what works for you.

[Dormeo]

Typing while tired! I meant not enchilada shape. Yeesh. Or not cannoli shape, if that makes more sense.

[FormerFed]

Me, too!  It is a permanent mark for me, sorry to say, but I accidently found a way to stop it from worsening.  I use a Dreamware mask - the air tube connects to the mask at the top of my heaad and the air is delivered down and across my cheeks through tubes to a mask that sits under my nose.  A REALLY comfortable mask, however, one of the drawbacks is that I'm a side sleeper and the pressure between the air tubing and my cheekbones left marks on my skin.  These never quite faded during the day and acquired the look of a mild line-shaped lupus rash.  I bought the pads sold for masks, and they helped some but it kept getting worse so I tried making thicker pads that would still be soft, and I was still at trial & error with material and keeping it in place when my sister introduced "My Pillow" brand pillows to our house.  Which had nothing to do with CPAP - she did it because we needed new pillows at our house and she thought the advertising was interesting.  If you're not familiar with these, they're promoted as being made so that they don't flatten out overnight and they're more flexible than a foam pillow.  They seem to be stuffed with foam that is torn up in bits, and you can put them into whatever shape you want.  I'm sure there's a lot of proprietary science that goes way beyond that description, but whatever they did, my experience is that mine really does stay in the shape I want it.  What I learned that I did not expect was that if I fashioned a divit in the pillow where my mask goes across my cheek, the pillow could not press my face against tubing, and the pillow would stay in that configuration all night.  I can form the "My Pillow" pillow to be however I want it to be to support my head/neck, but by also making a slightly hollowed out space in the pillow underneath where my face would be against a regular pillow, I get a CPAP-pillow-type void in the "My Pillow" that is perfect to solve the particular problem I have with my particular style mask and bone structure and sleeping position.  This stays "as is" all night, and I no longer have pressure marks happening from the tubing against my cheekbones all night, and the marks on my cheeks haven't worsened.

[Hydrangea]

ForemerFed - That's awesome! I, too, use the My Pillow.

I sometimes use the buckwheat pillow instead. The buckwheat pillow I got on amazon is marketed as being good for CPAP; it has torn up memory foam (like the My Pillow) as well as a lot of buckwheat. It's not as soft as the My Pillow, but it stays the right shape better.

Both are great solutions! Although I admit, I hadn't thought about them for avoiding the red marks. I use them because I can mold them to not block the exhale vents on my mask.