Quote:
Originally Posted by A930Rocket
That’s the problem I had with the fighter mask. I had to keep it super tight to try and keep it from flapping and waking me up. But, no matter how tight I made it, it flapped. That and being a side sleeper, it just didn’t work.
I wanted it to work, because I have narrow nasal passages.
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Yeah, sorry to be a broken record here, I'll try one more time:
If you haven't been able to get a face mask to work, and you need one, then get your doctor to prescribe you a bipap machine like the aircurve 10.
The 'C' in CPAP means 'continuous pressure', it is like running a shop vac into your mouth. The fancier resmed 'CPAP' vauto machines actually have a small amount of pressure reduction for exhale, but that relief is small and wasn't nearly enough for me.
BiPAP is bivalve, the machine is built to honor an inhale and exhale pressure. Mine is set to 8(cmH2O) input and 4 for my exhale. The transition from inhale to exhale is imperceptible to me. Is magic.
Moving to BiPAP totally solved my issues with the chuck yeager mask.
I delayed getting a machine for a decade because I thought the 'sleep center' was totally an insurance scam. There's a big profit incentive for them to give everyone one of these devices. Turns out I was wrong, the machine is a huge huge help for me, I should have done it years earlier before it became an actual crisis.
To get the bipap machine I had to go back and insist on another face to face, spoke with tech and then doctor and got up in the office manager's face. I was suffering and I wasn't going to let them forget it. They had me try a chin strap, various nose fittings but nothing worked. I was skeptical that the machine would help but it COMPLETELY fixed my problem.
They had to handle all the insurance stuff and because my previous contract was so new I had to pay about $500 to switch machines but well worth it.