Yesterday my Airfit P10 nasal pillow mask arrived. I used it last night. It sealed great, was comfortable, and I could sleep on my side.
But as far as settings, I had to change everything... I didn't expect the changes to be so big or noticeable.
First thing was during the "mask fit" test. I couldn't breathe back against it. I had been running 10-15 with the ffm. At first I thought there was no exhaust vent on the mask, that's how hard it was. I reduced the settings a couple of times before going to bed, and one more time in the middle of the night when I woke up feeling like my chest was fatigued. I landed on 7-10. Woke up a couple of times feeling like it was too much pressure, and it was only blowing 9 at the time. So I may need to lower the max some more. Lowering it a little more it will be cpap vs apap. 7-9 or even 7-8. But if that works, it's fine with me.
Changed EPR from 2 to 3. Couldn't tell any difference. With the ffm the EPR effect was very pronounced. With the pillow I couldn't pick up on it at all. It was equally difficult to breathe out either way. (using the large size pillows by the way)
Humidity and temp - with the ffm it felt like a cool, slightly damp morning. With the nasal pillow I felt like I was in a sauna - it was hot and sticky. Dropped humidity from 6 to 4, and dropped temp from 82 to 72. That seemed to be okay. Not as cool as the ffm, but adequate.
Performance: No OA's at all. Only 1 HA.
But my AHI went up from 8 the night before on the ffm, to 13 last night on the pillow mask. 120 CA's. My chest feels "tired" this morning.
Used the "ace bandage" chinstrap method the first few hours. That worked great - no mouth leaks at all. But I woke up about 1:30 with a little pain/tension in my jaw. It wasn't that tight, I could easily talk with it on. But because of the jaw pain starting up already, I took it off - thinking I didn't need it anyway since I had zero mouth leaks up to that point.
I bet I woke up 40 times after that, with air blowing out of my mouth. It was like OA in reverse... Instead of waking up gasping, I was waking up from a blowhole going off. Sleepyhead showed a ton of leaks after I took off the chinstrap, even more than the ones I remember waking up from. So it's going back on tonight. And a ruby is in the mail.
I think the nasal pillow is going to work much better overall. Just have to finish getting it dialed in, and getting used to it.
I pre-emptively put on some Lansinoh right from the start. Followed the included directions to the letter. Although it was "titilatting" to apply, I didn't see how that was going to help one bit. :grin: (no seriously I applied it appropriately, and I think it helped a lot, I had one spot that felt like it definitely would have been sore without it)