04-30-2018, 09:54 AM
Common to switch between nasal and full-face mask as needed?
New to the world of sleep apnea, first-time post. Thanks to everyone who participates in this board—the information has been most useful so far.
63-year-old male diagnosed with mixed apnea (AHI 13.8 on an overnight home sensor test, though actual AHI was probably higher as I was awake for about an hour during the test) and have been prescribed what I gather is a pretty standard first option, ResMed AirSense autosense with pressure between 4–20 cm; mostly it has stayed below 8 for me. I have started off with a nasal mask, despite some misgivings, as over the past couple of years I've often had sinus congestion that prevented me from breathing through my nose fully on some nights. It doesn't appear to be purely allergy-related but instead connected with getting older & having mucosal engorgement independent of external factors, plus a slightly deviated septum. 12-hour OTC nasal decongestant spray works wonders for it but that's a last resort for me as it does lead to rebound effect with repeated use.
I was surprised to find that most nights I'm breathing OK with the nasal mask. But not every night. Some nights I'm clearly laboring to breathe through my nose & have waked to find myself exhaling through my mouth; no doubt I'm doing some mouth-breathing while asleep.
So I'm planning to try a full-face mask (one of the new Respironics Dreamwears), but am thinking that if that works out I might want to purchase one of their nasal masks to use when I'm breathing freely at bedtime & feel that congestion won't be a problem. How many folks out there follow a switching strategy like this, and does it seem to work well, in terms of adapting to both masks and keeping AHIs low and constant?
(I'm not seeing stellar results after two weeks on the machine, OAs reduced to near zero but lots of central events, AHI averaging around 7–8, so also wondering if a full-face mask might do anything to improve that.)
63-year-old male diagnosed with mixed apnea (AHI 13.8 on an overnight home sensor test, though actual AHI was probably higher as I was awake for about an hour during the test) and have been prescribed what I gather is a pretty standard first option, ResMed AirSense autosense with pressure between 4–20 cm; mostly it has stayed below 8 for me. I have started off with a nasal mask, despite some misgivings, as over the past couple of years I've often had sinus congestion that prevented me from breathing through my nose fully on some nights. It doesn't appear to be purely allergy-related but instead connected with getting older & having mucosal engorgement independent of external factors, plus a slightly deviated septum. 12-hour OTC nasal decongestant spray works wonders for it but that's a last resort for me as it does lead to rebound effect with repeated use.
I was surprised to find that most nights I'm breathing OK with the nasal mask. But not every night. Some nights I'm clearly laboring to breathe through my nose & have waked to find myself exhaling through my mouth; no doubt I'm doing some mouth-breathing while asleep.
So I'm planning to try a full-face mask (one of the new Respironics Dreamwears), but am thinking that if that works out I might want to purchase one of their nasal masks to use when I'm breathing freely at bedtime & feel that congestion won't be a problem. How many folks out there follow a switching strategy like this, and does it seem to work well, in terms of adapting to both masks and keeping AHIs low and constant?
(I'm not seeing stellar results after two weeks on the machine, OAs reduced to near zero but lots of central events, AHI averaging around 7–8, so also wondering if a full-face mask might do anything to improve that.)
