Struggle with Full Face Masks...

[laurent123]

Hello,

I'm fighting against fatigue for 5 years now and I'm still looking for a solution. I've red so many pages on the web/forums but still no solution found...so I thank you in advance for the help.

The only mask I can stand while sleeping is the nasal pillows (Dreamwear). But I'm a mouth breather and I'm not sure these masks works well for me... I succeeded to have almost zero leaks with it, and I guess it's linked to the surgery of my turbinates six months ago. The problem is that I generally sleeps only 4h with it maximum. 

2 or 3 monthes ago, I spent few nights with a F&P full face mask and I felt a real improvement ! Unfortunately, it's very hard for me to sleep with this kind of mask... I'm a bit of anxious guy, who takes deep breathes sometimes, etc. and it's really hard to sleep with that on my face. Nasal pillows are ok for me, but FFM or nasal masks makes my nose swollen! Am I the only one ?? The humidity in these masks seems to give me some trouble.

I tried to do that again last nights, but my turbinates are swelling as soon as I try to breath with this FFM. 

I also have the full face version of the Dreamwear, but the few times I tried it, it was leaking a lot...but maybe I should give it another try!!

Anyway, the cpap technician is coming tomorrow to bring me an Evora Mask, and I have big hope that I could sleep with it and get some good nights...

My question is: do you think it's possible to have only good nights with a sort of mask ?? Even if number and graphics in Oscar are good ???

I always heard to be patient, therapy can take a long time, etc etc... I can't really trust that anymore because I really felt better when I had success with FFM!

Thank you very much if you can enlighten me, can't wait to read your thoughts on this! 

[Ockrocket]

It is counterintuitive, but a FFM actually needs to sit lightly against the face rather than tight.. the way they work is that they "inflate" to form a contoured seal against the skin once the machine is running.

I'm also one who takes an intermittent deep breath (most people do, they just don't normally notice because they aren't wearing a CPAP mask).. the FFM doesn't restrict the ability to get a good lungful of air, even though psychologically it may seem that way.

For a FFM I found a firm, broad flat pillow to be the best, being a side sleeper the contoured and softer pillow options tended to dislodge the mask from my face during sleep, this often resulted in higher leak numbers as well.