I initially started my CPAP therapy in September and my first mask was a Quattro fill face mask which seem to work well being pretty comfortable, but always my mouth wih the Quattro FX fill face maskd will occasionally fall out of the bottom of the mask and get dry. Consequently I never went through the expense of replacing the mask seal and instead started looking for other mask. I've been using http://www.sleepnation.tv/trialprogram where I tried the Fisher & Paykel Forma in both medium and large sizes as well as the Respironics Fullife. I initially found Quattro FX fill face mask most comfortable of all the masks I've tried. However when I looked my ResMed S9 machine software report I had terrible leakage problems with this mask and my mouth would still pull out of the bottom of this mask. Accordingly I tried to deal with these problems.
First of all this mask was not in the trial program I mentioned above so I bought it cpap.com with return insurance should I need to try still more mask. I went to my health plans respiratory therapist and showed him my new mask he suggested I needed larger headgear. He said even though you might measure out for a medium size in this mask most men require large headgear. Reminding him about my mouth dropping out of the bottom of the mask problems he suggested I move to a large size in the mask even know according to the measuring tool supplied with this mask I am exactly the facial size for a medium mask. My chin indent occurs immediately below my bottom lip. This respiratory therapist claims this is unusual and consequently if I am having my mouth full out of the bottom of the mask problem I should try the large size.
So I noted the opinions of this respiratory therapist. When I got home and went to sleep last night I initially slept only a few hours and woke up briefly with the mouth falling out of the bottom of the mask problem I mentioned. I tried tightening the bottom straps of their headgear to the point of slight discomfort, hoping this would help the mask seal follow the mouth movement . Well that seem to work better than I would ever hope for. I slept well for the rest of the morning till almost 10 and when I created a software report got the best results I have ever gotten with that tightening adjustment. If you study the report I am posting below you will see what I mean. At a little after four in the morning I wake up briefly having experienced tremendous leakage problems while I was sleeping. After the tightening I sleep very well and get very good results according to the report I am posting below. My pressing question is if you think that I should followed that recommendation of my respiratory therapist and try a large size in this mask. If I act quickly I can have both the large and medium sizes simultaneously at home with return insurance on both. Of course this would be expensive but less expensive than having a mask that will not meet my needs. I have also asked cpap.com if I could use my insurance just to exchange the headgear size. They said since the price of the mask without headgear plus that gear alone is the same as what I have already paid for this mask I could do that with my insurance. So what do you think is a little discomfort with slightly overly tight bottom headgear straps is good as it is probably going to get or is it worth acting quickly and having both sizes at my disposal to see if I can eliminate this little discomfort?
