Fun with cpaps
Aug. 31st, 2017 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobel...well, "fun".
Brief background; I bugged my doctor into letting me take a sleep test, amd bugged him into getting me a cpap even though my sleep apnea was only "mild". There are several types of masks. Broadly speaking, there are nasal "pillows" which kind of sit under or sometimes in the nose; a triangle pyramid-ish thing over the nose; triangle thing over nose and mouth, which to me kind of look like fighter pilot masks (::briefly derails, thinking about Tom Hardy in Dunkirk::), and full face masks. For safety reasons I can't do anything over the mouth -- I can't take the mask off myself, and so vomiting would be ... bad -- so the latter two are out. And I use my iPad at night, for insomnia and for music and for anti-brainweasel activity, but I can't raise my arms, which means masks with high profiles are a problem. Which restricts me to nasal pillows.
I've been using a mask that is tricky for people to put on me -- there is a small length of wide tubing that goes up a bit into the nostril, and it likes to fold back on itself or sit at weird angles. It's something that would be trivial to correct if I could reach it, but hard for people without access to my sensory system to do, and if usually takes multiple tries; but for the most part it's been good.
Also relevant: For health reasons, you're supposed to replace cpap components -- mask, tubing, the water chamber that humidified the air, filters, etc -- regularly. Insurance pays for the replacements, some items every 3 months and some every 6.
The mask I use has been discontinued.
(fuckers.)
So, I had to go in to get fitted for a new mask. I mean, I could just have not ever replaced the mask part, but I don't want to breathe too much gross bacteria, and it does get cleaned regularly but still, if it's important enough that insurance pays for replacements...
So I went in, and they had two types of nasal pillow masks available. Option A had adjustable straps, gel pads on the cheek straps for comfort (where the old mask was just rigid plastic), and sat in front of the nose rather than going in, which made it easier to put on. So I went with that. Note: you try on a floor model (which does get disinfected between clients), but take home a new unopened one.
I get home, take it out of the package, and it reeks horribly. Some of it was new plastic smell, some of it was I don't even know what, but I had to wash it and let it air out. For two days. Still had a slight smell, but I needed to try it.
...did I mention that you have the option of switching to a different mask, but only in the first two weeks after you get it. I don't know what happens if you decide a month later that you don't like it, but I wasn't keen on finding out.
Anyway. Tried the new mask, and by the next morning my skin under the gel pads was burning, and my upper lip was sweaty from the plastic sitting on it. (The old mask stayed off my lip because it was held "up" by the tubing going up my nose. New mask didn't have that, therefore much sitting on lip.) I had my aides re-wash in case that helped. Spoiler; it didn't. The gel pads still burned, my upper lip was miserable, and every time my bed shifted (I have an alternating air pressure mattress to prevent pressure sores) the mask kept wanting to torque sideways. And if it got off enough to be blowing on my face and not up my nose, I couldn't get it back in place.
So I called to make an appointment to do a different mask. It's kind of stupid that I had to go in -- 25 minutes each way of driving for a 5 minute appointment -- but whatever. And in the meantime I stupidly kept using the new mask, forgetting that the old one was still functional. I only realized I could switch back to the old one on Monday night, when my appointment was Tuesday. At least I had one night of being sensible?
Option B is a very minimalist thing with non-adjustable straps. But it felt okay so I brought it home. The good news is it didn't stink horribly. But I discovered two things.
For one thing, a new mask feels different than a worn mask -- the straps are tighter, the edges are sharper. It's too small, even though the straps have some stretch to them. And this is compounded by the thing where comfortable for the first five minutes does not mean comfortable overnight. The straps are a somewhat coarse cloth, my nose hurt, and the whole thing just got worse and worse until I called my roommate in at like 2am to switch back to the old mask.
The other thing is that my nose is breaking out, probably from the bad new mask. There are cranky bumpy spots all over the cpap-contact plane, both on the sides of my nostrils and on the strip in between. Which means that "ridge in the soft plastic of the nasal pillows" feels like "razor blade, albeit not too sharp of one, being pressed against my nose".
I need to call them (booooo) to see if this mask has a larger strap option -- and if they'd be willing to fucking mail the damn thing; I'll even pay the fucking postage just so I don't have to go in -- but the "hurting my nose" thing I don't know what to do about. It may be that once my nose recovers from the bad mask, the new mask will be fine. It may be that I need to invent some sort of padding. It may be that it won't work st all. But ... i don't know if I will even know before the two weeks are up.
There is no option C. Well, there is, but option C is "use one of the nose pyramids and not be able to use iPad for anything". Which ... I do not want to resort to. But they only had those two masks for the nasal pillow option.;
Brief background; I bugged my doctor into letting me take a sleep test, amd bugged him into getting me a cpap even though my sleep apnea was only "mild". There are several types of masks. Broadly speaking, there are nasal "pillows" which kind of sit under or sometimes in the nose; a triangle pyramid-ish thing over the nose; triangle thing over nose and mouth, which to me kind of look like fighter pilot masks (::briefly derails, thinking about Tom Hardy in Dunkirk::), and full face masks. For safety reasons I can't do anything over the mouth -- I can't take the mask off myself, and so vomiting would be ... bad -- so the latter two are out. And I use my iPad at night, for insomnia and for music and for anti-brainweasel activity, but I can't raise my arms, which means masks with high profiles are a problem. Which restricts me to nasal pillows.
I've been using a mask that is tricky for people to put on me -- there is a small length of wide tubing that goes up a bit into the nostril, and it likes to fold back on itself or sit at weird angles. It's something that would be trivial to correct if I could reach it, but hard for people without access to my sensory system to do, and if usually takes multiple tries; but for the most part it's been good.
Also relevant: For health reasons, you're supposed to replace cpap components -- mask, tubing, the water chamber that humidified the air, filters, etc -- regularly. Insurance pays for the replacements, some items every 3 months and some every 6.
The mask I use has been discontinued.
(fuckers.)
So, I had to go in to get fitted for a new mask. I mean, I could just have not ever replaced the mask part, but I don't want to breathe too much gross bacteria, and it does get cleaned regularly but still, if it's important enough that insurance pays for replacements...
So I went in, and they had two types of nasal pillow masks available. Option A had adjustable straps, gel pads on the cheek straps for comfort (where the old mask was just rigid plastic), and sat in front of the nose rather than going in, which made it easier to put on. So I went with that. Note: you try on a floor model (which does get disinfected between clients), but take home a new unopened one.
I get home, take it out of the package, and it reeks horribly. Some of it was new plastic smell, some of it was I don't even know what, but I had to wash it and let it air out. For two days. Still had a slight smell, but I needed to try it.
...did I mention that you have the option of switching to a different mask, but only in the first two weeks after you get it. I don't know what happens if you decide a month later that you don't like it, but I wasn't keen on finding out.
Anyway. Tried the new mask, and by the next morning my skin under the gel pads was burning, and my upper lip was sweaty from the plastic sitting on it. (The old mask stayed off my lip because it was held "up" by the tubing going up my nose. New mask didn't have that, therefore much sitting on lip.) I had my aides re-wash in case that helped. Spoiler; it didn't. The gel pads still burned, my upper lip was miserable, and every time my bed shifted (I have an alternating air pressure mattress to prevent pressure sores) the mask kept wanting to torque sideways. And if it got off enough to be blowing on my face and not up my nose, I couldn't get it back in place.
So I called to make an appointment to do a different mask. It's kind of stupid that I had to go in -- 25 minutes each way of driving for a 5 minute appointment -- but whatever. And in the meantime I stupidly kept using the new mask, forgetting that the old one was still functional. I only realized I could switch back to the old one on Monday night, when my appointment was Tuesday. At least I had one night of being sensible?
Option B is a very minimalist thing with non-adjustable straps. But it felt okay so I brought it home. The good news is it didn't stink horribly. But I discovered two things.
For one thing, a new mask feels different than a worn mask -- the straps are tighter, the edges are sharper. It's too small, even though the straps have some stretch to them. And this is compounded by the thing where comfortable for the first five minutes does not mean comfortable overnight. The straps are a somewhat coarse cloth, my nose hurt, and the whole thing just got worse and worse until I called my roommate in at like 2am to switch back to the old mask.
The other thing is that my nose is breaking out, probably from the bad new mask. There are cranky bumpy spots all over the cpap-contact plane, both on the sides of my nostrils and on the strip in between. Which means that "ridge in the soft plastic of the nasal pillows" feels like "razor blade, albeit not too sharp of one, being pressed against my nose".
I need to call them (booooo) to see if this mask has a larger strap option -- and if they'd be willing to fucking mail the damn thing; I'll even pay the fucking postage just so I don't have to go in -- but the "hurting my nose" thing I don't know what to do about. It may be that once my nose recovers from the bad mask, the new mask will be fine. It may be that I need to invent some sort of padding. It may be that it won't work st all. But ... i don't know if I will even know before the two weeks are up.
There is no option C. Well, there is, but option C is "use one of the nose pyramids and not be able to use iPad for anything". Which ... I do not want to resort to. But they only had those two masks for the nasal pillow option.;