Help with moving to nasal mask from F40

[ejbpesca]

I have ordered a fit pack for another mask without a prescription.  It takes shopping around sometimes to find what is available.

[Deborah K.]

Actually, if you obtain a mask from an online DME and you don't like it, you can call them before 30 days is past, and they will send you another of your choice for free and a return envelope with prepaid postage to return the one you don't want. At least that's what Aeroflow does. I imagine you can do the same with a local DME by returning it in person.

[charlie*M]

I thought I'd follow up on the thread I started!  

In short, moving from the F40 to the P10 mask has been a tremendous improvement for me.  30 day running average AHI has gone down from 1.49 to 0.31, but the biggest difference for me is the quality of sleep.  With the F40 mask, I was often roused by leaks (farting sounds), but with the P10 I have virtually no leakage. "Percent time above leak threshold" is 0.00% last 30 days with the P10, while with the F40 30 day averages ranged from 2.5% to 9.5% (!) I did find the medium P10 pillow to be a little 'restrictive' when breathing, especially when falling asleep, even though it was a good fit.  The large size pillow solved that problem nicely, no 'restrictive' feeling at all.  (Actually I found the same thing with the F40 cushion sizing, so maybe I'm overly sensitive to that feeling).

I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to train myself to keep my mouth shut, no taping or chin straps needed!  I've been on CPAP for just over a year, and when I started I'm sure I needed a full face mask.  But I've adapted to CPAP, and eventually found I did very little mouth breathing with the F40, so a nasal mask really became a possibility.

So if you are on the fence about trying a nasal mask, give it a try, you might be surprised too.

[super7pilot]

Yep! The P10 works. I do change it up a bit with the N20 nasal mask. The N20 leaks more with the foam air touch cushion. And leaks less with the airfit non-foam cushion.

[Pokey49]

You might check out the Respironics Nuance Gel pillow mask. It has nice soft pillows that I find less irritating to my nose than the P 10. Also get yourself some pure lanolin to put on your schnoz as to start the pillows will irritate your nostrils. Lanolin will help prevent that.