PVP surgery and F30

[salinas212]

Had the surgical procedure done early on the 18th. Uneventful procedure and general anesthesia was completely uneventful which as a COPD'r is a huge success for me. However the plan of my going home within a few hours proved elusive as it has a dozen times for various surgeries I've endured since my original wounds in July, 1969. This time I started with a low grade temp (101.6F) within an hour or so of the procedure which is normal/common for the procedure. Then it jumped to 102.X two hours later. That's the VA's magic number for "no-go" on discharge immediately after out-patient surgery. Next up was a myriad of tests including blood cultures which take 24 hours. During that time I rested fitfully even with my AirCurve 10. Long story short I didn't get released until late yesterday afternoon, Oct 24th.

Came home catheterized yesterday which I should be able to remove tomorrow morning. Not my first rodeo in that regard. Due to the original and previously mentioned wounds in 1969 I've left the VA hospital half a dozen times and subsequently removed and/or reinstalled one or more subsequent catheters from home. No one is more reluctant to self-catheterize tomorrow if necessary due to having had my urethra blasted with a green laser along the length surrounded by the prostate just 4 days ago! But they gave me all the supplies including, most importantly (to me) the sterile Lidocaine lubricant jelly. Fingers crossed I'll be able to urinate on my own tomorrow sans catheter as this is easily the most painful catheterization I've EVER had to endure! It hurts constantly 24/7. Don't even wanna consider having to re-do!

Tracking shows my two new F30's were delivered to my townhome complex office via FedEx on Friday so I'll either pick them up later today or have my son do it when he stops in to check on me. Wasn't too jazzed to see the current feedback posted here but maybe I'll get lucky. Either way plan is to use one later today for a nap as well as tonight. It'll either work or it won't. No biggie, been here before too. But I could use a kind turn of luck mask-wise as I'm already feeling pretty beat up.

I'll post more on F30 soon as I have something positive/negative to report. Fingers crossed!

[Pugsy]

Geez....if you didn't have bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all.

Hoping and praying for the best for you.

July 1969......I assume Viet Nam? I think that my husband was there around that time.
Just in case I never said it or even if I did it never hurts to say it again....Welcome home and thank you for your service.

[salinas212]

Yes'm Pugsy bad luck started spring of 1966 with my being drafted. Quick 24 weeks training then straight to Viet Nam. I was on my 3rd tour (30th month) there (Laos & Cambodia actually) I was a grunt (LRRP) in the 173rd Airborne doing long range recon patrol with a 12 man ranger team monitoring troop, payroll and ordinance movements down the Ho Chi Minh trail into SVN and reporting to ICORP (Army Intelligence). Last thing I remember was walking straight into an ambush. Next thing I knew I woke up in a bed several weeks later to a small B&W TV with a man saying "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

This past Thursday was my 26th surgical procedure since Army discharge requiring general anesthesia and countless others done under local anesthesia.

While I appreciate the kindness and gratitude expressed in your post and of course you're welcome I must also say I didn't volunteer for it or believe in it even at the time... no one did! My stupid adolescent testosterone-filled choice/neurosis to embrace it once there with such a cocky; "if-I'm-gonna-be-a-dog, why-be-a-Chihuahua" philosophy of volunteering for the LRRP teams with 74th Ranger Detachment. "Never again" doesn't cut much ice today. But I fulfilled my end of that contract. Today the VA is fulfilling theirs and other than a few snafus, fubars and comedies of error along the way you'll never hear me utter a cross word about them. They've done plenty good by me!

Sorry for the potentially perceived rant but opioids tend to make me more (although not completely) pain-free and a smidge chatty beyond my normal nature not to mention barbed wire minus the wire in my %#@& makes me a lil crazy!

[Pugsy]

Sometime if you are up to it maybe we can have a little chat privately (if you want to) about those Nam experiences and the Rangers (my husband was a Ranger and I need to ask him which division because I forgot). I want to say the 173rd but I might be wrong there.
You all might have crossed paths at one time or another. The timing would be right. He will tell you he was one crazy SOB.
And don't apologize for being drafted....that doesn't matter to me one whit.

And don't worry about being a bit chatty when on the meds...me too. I understand.

[salinas212]

Yes Pugsy I'd like that! Give me a week or so to get back to some semblance of normalcy and I'll send ya a PM invite for when works or is most convenient.

Re: New F30 - Had them in-hand for a little under two hours now. No sleep yet but I have worn & tested at higher-than any pressure I've personally ever used/required while sleeping (18 CM) and admittedly it leaked a bit. Nothing major and just feels about right for both a new and "new-to-me" mask. Pliable material is tight, hasn't broken in or taken a set yet. Headgear similarly affected. I don't foresee any deal-breaker right outta the chutes but will know more tomorrow morning and even more in a week or so. For now I'm content and feel no different about it than I did with my go-to F20 mask with under an hour mileage on the clock. Nothing painful so I can find a way to make this work. Liked it much better initially than the DWFF unit which I still use once/twice a week to maintain comfort & silicone pliability as a change-up. After the reviews I read here I'm far more hopeful tonight than I thought I'd be. Fit for me is about perfect/good as it gets with the medium size. Template and mask feel confirm I've got the right size at medium and both my 2 other nightly 'users' are large.

Methinks after a week or two's use this'll be right-as-rain and odds are at least 50/50 I may have a new contender for 'favorite mask'... certainly no worse than a tie with the F20. Definitely not giving these two back to CPAP.com yet!

[salinas212]

Yesterday I promised a first full night's review of the new ResMed F30 today. Due to events of last night I ended up being forced to self 'de-cath' near 9:30pm. And while the VA sent me home with lots of supplies for anticipated events there was no sterile liquid I could use for irrigating the cath internally and made a judgement call to go out on a limb and remove it 10.5 hours early. Good news is I was able to void immediately. Bad news is it came in drips, dribbles in disturbingly small amounts in the 10-15 cc/ml neighborhood. Accompanied by what can be best described as feeling like I was passing equal parts napalm, broken glass bottles, razor blades, thumb tacks & goat's heads. Long story short; I had 18 mask on/off events between 11pm when I got back to bed and 4am this morning when I caved, got up. That trend continues since but admittedly slightly easier and very slightly less painful as well. (Think voiding as described above minus the goats heads!).

Make no mistake, I like the new mask but just can't quantify it with any back-up documentation due to extenuating circumstances. I'll get back to this soon as things mellow out around here.

An interesting aside I discovered yesterday is that the mask-hose interface elbow from the F20 & F30 are 100% interchangeable with each other. Secondly, least for me, I find the F20 elbow even quieter, less intrusive than the highly advertised uber quiet F30 venting with its plastic shroud cap. However the precision feel of the F30's ball swivel setup easily kills that of the F20. Given that I still opted to use the quieter F20 elbow last night and that won't likely change.

[weroberts75]

An interesting aside I discovered yesterday is that the mask-hose interface elbow from the F20 & F30 are 100% interchangeable with each other. Secondly, least for me, I find the F20 elbow even quieter, less intrusive than the highly advertised uber quiet F30 venting with its plastic shroud cap. However the precision feel of the F30's ball swivel setup easily kills that of the F20. Given that I still opted to use the quieter F20 elbow last night and that won't likely change.

Will the F30 cushion fit on the F20 frame?
That's something that I've been wondering.

[salinas212]

Sorry but those two pieces aren't even close as I wondered the very same thing and checked/compared the two closely.

[weroberts75]

Sorry but those two pieces aren't even close as I wondered the very same thing and checked/compared the two closely.

Thank you! Looks like I'll just have to buy the whole mask if I want to try it...

I'm getting great therapy with the DreamWear FFM, but I've always preferred ResMed's headgear and quiet venting technology.