Need some help/advice - here's my symptoms and machine settings

[Crimson Nape]

Like Dave said above, The top straps need to be on the loose side. As a general rule-of-thumb, I recommend from a thumb's width up to 2 fingers gap between the vertical plastic support and your nasal bridge. The Vitera (actually, all the F&P masks) like to ride lower than the Resmeds. Are you using a hose holder?

[bbillingsley1985]

I had it set what I thought felt good and not too tight but when I ran the check mask test on the resmed machine, once it started blowing really strong air it said it failed and it did leak out a bit on what felt like the highest pressure setting.....so I kept tightening until it said it passed so that might of messed me up.  I really wish the thing just had an undocumented turn it on test to play around with the things but since it all gets reported it makes me hesitant to do that until I sleep.

Maybe I do have both too tight.

As far as the red marks I don't believe I'm allergic since there are no red marks anywhere else.  Betting I'm getting it too tight.  Will definitely stick with the mask several nights and keep tweaking it until the leaks are reasonable.  Probably hard to make sense of anything on the chart with the leaks that bad.  Thanks

[SarcasticDave94]

Just my opinion, but I'd skip the PAP mask fit info and stick with the OSCAR leaks chart.

You can test the seal by moving your hand around the mask perimeter or hold a tissue in your hand to note any air movement. Just go loose on the straps on these F&P masks, that RollFit will inflate/expand the cushion every inhale and take up the slack.

[Sleeprider]

From the first post in this thread, my thought has been, why is this guy not using a Resmed Airfit P10 nasal pillows mask? Quit punishing yourself. Use nasal therapy. It opens the nasal passages making it easier to breathe, it is lighter, more comfortable and easier to seal to prevent leaks. Even if you have to buy it yourself, get one and try it!

[bbillingsley1985]

I ask myself should I even be trying CPAP therapy at all lol.  Hell I dunno. The original thought was I thought I might breathe through my mouth some so why not go face mask to cover it all. Then the reality of it is the entire experience is much worse than I thought it would be. But I started this whole mess because I can't sleep so I need to try to see it through. I'm not even 100% sure it's sleep apnea because I've never snored. But my Dr gave me the take home test, I suffered through a night with all it's stuff and it came up as 10.6 AHI or mild sleep apnea.  Thought I owed it to myself to at least try it but I'm scared I'll continue to have these problems even with the CPAP. Approximately 2 weeks in and my sleeping has definitely not improved 1 bit.

Friend of mine did a dreamwisp which is a nasal mask and he said he was a changed man 1 night in.  That obviously didn't happen with me.  It might have been a mistake going with a full face. I just don't know. Doctors aren't helpful so it kind of falls on me to try to trial and error this which is why I'm reaching out in the first place with this board.

The company I'm using will swap out again if I want them to. They will continue to swap for 30 days. Best thing I can think now is try to go all in on this full face at least for a few days and get the leaks under control. If this mask fails me then my next option is definitely the nose mask, I'll be done with full face other than the F30i. I still have it and I was starting to get used to it, but there's no way I'm paying $70 a month for a new cushion.

Then I checked my insurance statement today and they say with over $1000 billed to them they paid or discounted it all except ~$150 and show I only owe that much to the company....yet I paid them $540 (my bill is on a previous attachment).  Talked to Local office, of course they don't handle billing so I have to call their 1800 number. 1 hour wait on their customer service billing today before I hung up.

Just frustrating all around.

[SarcasticDave94]

Be proactive on that bill and be sure the DME isn't over billing or charging you and your insurance for the same thing. No surprise, the DME's can be a bit shady in their billing tactics.

[bbillingsley1985]

Night 2 of using the Vitera complete.  Comfort wise, it felt fine all night.  The straps were definitely too tight the first night.  I significantly loosened both the top and bottom straps and while laying down for a while did not notice any leaks.  In fact the entire night I didn't notice any leaks.  However, as you can see in the chart, looks like there still were significant leaks, so that would need to still be tweaked.  The small peaks is probably where I had to pull the mask out to scratch my face.  Even worse, the red spot on my nose has gotten worse and I had the top about as loose as I could get it.  It didn't feel like it was resting on the nose hard at all.  No marks on my face anywhere....just the nose.

As far as quality of sleep.....no improvement....about the same as it was before I even started using the cpap.  A good 10+ times waking up and same pattern as always....can probably sleep good for 3 hours or so, then toss and turn the rest of the night.  2 nights of trying the vitera vs about 5 of using the F30i, I still by far like the F30i as far as comfort, no red marks, and I had the leaks in a really nice place with it.  I figure I'll keep tweaking the Vitera and give it 2 more nights to see if I can stop the leaks, but more importantly the red marks is the biggest issue for now.

[Dormeo]

Can you use some moleskin on the red mark to give it a chance to heal up?

I'm thinking about your sleep pattern. Do you drink alcoholic beverages? If yes, how many and when?

[bbillingsley1985]

I also know they sell the nose pad things you can put on but hate to mess with all of that.  I will say the spot still hadn't fully healed from when I used the F20 which was approximately 2 weeks ago or 10ish days from the time I tried the Vitera.

As far as alcohol, no I never drink alcohol, though I have had people tell me to try drinking wine before bed but I've never developed a taste for beer or wine. 
I would say I maybe drink 2-3 times a year and when I do its the hard stuff like whiskey tequila etc.  Never been a smoker, drug user, etc either.  My doctor one time wanted to prescribe I think it was called Trazadone to help knock me out but I just really really hate having to try to rely on any kind of pills to help me sleep so I've resisted so far.  Only thing I've tried prior to cpap was Tylenol PM"s and one night I ponded 4 of them and it still had zero effect on me.

[bbillingsley1985]

Update for this morning.  Night 3 of the Vitera, but I did switch to the large mask (had both a medium and large that they gave me since I was right in the middle).  The large mask worked a lot better for me.  Because I now had the room to sit it higher on the nose, there was no mark on the nose which is a plus and felt pretty good.  Didn't notice leaks but once again the chart showed significant leaks this morning.  Will continue to tweak it.

As far as sleep quality, still not any better.  One negative on this mask is because I feel like I don't get enough air compared to the F30i it forces me to breathe through my mouth most of the night instead of my nose....that's taking some getting used to because I'm not a mouth breather 95% of the time.  I'd prefer to breathe through my nose and the F30i makes that easy.  Gonna give the vitera 2 more nights and try to get the air leaks under control and see if that helps.  If not, it's back to the F30i and I'll probably trade this in and try something like an N30i.  A previous poster suggested why not try just a nose mask and the fact that I do breathe through my nose most of the time....if these face masks aren't working out maybe I give that a try.  The only question is make insurance swap it out or spend about 50 bucks on amazon to piece the N30i together.

I'm discovering that if I have adequate air pressure, I'll breath through my nose most of the night.  But again just trialing and erroring, not really sure what I should be doing lol.