Hello Guest, Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.

or Create an Account


New Posts   Today's Posts

Battle of the headbands
#1
Battle of the headbands
Things started out smoothly enough but when bedtime arrived - things did not go as expected. Mind you, it had nothing to do with the new Airsense 10 that finally arrived yesterday and everything to do with me fighting well into the night with the (useless) chin strap I'd recently purchased to help me stop breathing through my mouth as I slept.  As I fell asleep the elastic bands of the chin strap soon engaged in an all out war with my nose pillow headgear.  I'd half manage to get the nose pillow headgear properly set only to have it pull the chin strap out of place.  By three o'clock in the morning I finally threw in the towel.  I removed the chin strap entirely and wore only the nasal pillows for the remainder of the night.

The result was that this morning's sleepyhead readings show 44% over redline leakage.  Pretty obvious to me that very little of what got measured other than the extreme leakage can be trusted.  What a waste.

So... this morning I'm back online looking for a chinstrap that might get the job done.  Anything's likely to be better than the fifteen dollar waste of money, useless, chin jockstrap, that's currently laying in a pile next to me.  I've also read about mouth taping in here (shudder!) but that option remains way way down at the bottom of my list somewhere after not using the CPAP ever again.  Any recommendations for best chin strap options would be appreciated.

Which brings up other concern(s).  I did recently see a sleep Dr. and had plans to go get sleep tested in his clinic soon after but have since reconsidered based on what I've learned about how to read my CPAP results both here and by checking my sleepyhead history.  While the Dr was interviewing me and I him he happened to mention that there were several options for face masks - both full and partial.  I then asked him if I was to get a partial face mask (nose pillows - nose cover) if breathing through my mouth would be an issue?  He said: NO.  Then he went on to tell me that the CPAP would maintain adequate pressure to do the job regardless of if my mouth was open or not  I've since come to seriously doubt that.  Particularly given the heavily skewed, redline leakage contaminated results following last nights strap wars.

My two questions regarding that meeting?  

First, even though I have now reviewed several years of my own sleepyhead data and familiarized myself with how to interpret the results with the conclusion that I have mild apnea issues at worst - is it the opinion of the resident experts here that I should go ahead with the sleep test anyway?  I don't really want to for a couple of reasons - first that it's an inconvenience and might not tell me anything critical that I don't already know and second that it will cost me some hundreds of dollars of co-pay that I would prefer to keep in my wallet.  As a general rule I strive to avoid wasting both my time and my money.

Second, when I interview with new Dr's I like to feel them out with all kinds of questions.  This particular Dr didn't strike me as being the sharpest knife in the drawer.  For one thing, he didn't seem to be current on the wide ranging sleep research that's been going on.  Second - in retrospect, his opinion about mouth breathing not being an issue insofar as impeding the CPAP doesn't seem well founded.  I also got the feeling that he had become complacent in his job which is never a good thing to see in a Dr. 

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Post Reply Post Reply
#2
RE: Battle of the headbands
Do you need to do the sleep study as a condition of keeping the new Air sense 10? If not I'd skip the study. It sounds like you could get any advise you need from here at no cost.

Try a Soft Cervical Collar instead of a chin strap. It seem to work a lot better for many.
Download SleepyHead
Organize your Sleepyhead Charts
Posting Charts
Beginner's Guide to SleepyHead
Mask Primer
5
Advisory Members serve as an "Advisory Committee" to help shape Apnea Board's rules & policies.

Membership in the Advisory Members group does not imply medical expertise or qualification for advising Sleep Apnea patients concerning their treatment.



Post Reply Post Reply
#3
RE: Battle of the headbands
(11-01-2017, 11:41 AM)Walla Walla Wrote: Do you need to do the sleep study as a condition of keeping the new Air sense 10? If not I'd skip the study. It sounds like you could get any advise you need from here at no cost.

Try a Soft Cervical Collar instead of a chin strap. It seem to work a lot better for many.

No, I own it free and clear.  I went several decades without health insurance by choice.  Have always paid out of pocket for my health needs and saved tens of thousands in the process.  I have Medicare now but even though I know they'd probably foot a significant portion of the expense of the sleep study and CPAP, in this case I'd prefer to retain my independence.  Skipping the sleep study in lieu of continuing my own sleepyhead tracking combined with the abundant expertise to be found here would be my preference.  The co-pay I save on foregoing the sleep study and follow up Dr visits helps cover a good bit of the cost of the Air Sense.  Not to mention that I can't shake the feeling that this particular Dr. wouldn't be a good choice.

I'll look into the Cervical Collars.  Thanks.
Post Reply Post Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  i just had a massive battle in s9 autoset last night kaywai 7 928 02-22-2021, 12:13 PM
Last Post: kaywai
  CPAP Battle - Chart Attached mattw2019 28 3,563 02-25-2020, 03:15 PM
Last Post: mattw2019
  Bit of a battle with the chinstrap, P10 itch Bassline 9 1,996 07-05-2019, 03:02 AM
Last Post: Hydrangea
  Mask Battle Apnearon 4 1,074 06-20-2019, 08:05 AM
Last Post: Apnearon
  I'm loosing the battle DannyG 7 1,961 07-10-2017, 09:39 PM
Last Post: Sleeprider
  New to forum and losing battle with CPAP sleepkaos 22 4,196 05-13-2016, 09:50 PM
Last Post: DesertMax
  [Equipment] Battle of the Masks is over sleeplurker 12 4,133 04-02-2015, 07:47 AM
Last Post: k_ogre


New Posts   Today's Posts


About Apnea Board

Apnea Board is an educational web site designed to empower Sleep Apnea patients.