Hi Everyone,

Im new to the board.    Just got my  M Series Respironics with built in humidifier and really love this machine.
I had one of the early "turn of the century" bipap machines, KnightStar.

I have been using my old  mask with my new Resmed and read this forum.   I called the  DME  today and ordered
a  Hybrid, as they did not include a new mask with my machine.    It should be here Friday.

I really like the idea of  being able to breath through the mouth as I have a problem with that.

I just hope that my results are half as good as what you people are experiencing.

Johnny

good luck. hope you love it as much as I do !

This Hybrid mask is the bomb!  I started out with the Mirage Swift II for three weeks, then the Mirage Liberty for one week.  Could not use the Swift because I found I was a mouth breather (I was losing air through my mouth).  The Liberty just didn't fit well - comfortable, but leaked unless I pulled the mask so tight into my face and nose that I had an inprint for 8 hours after taking it off.  I then tried the Hybrid.  This Hybrid is, in my limited experience, the best fitting, most comfortable ffm I have found.  I really like the nose pillows and seperate mouthpiece.  No nose sores, no painfull pressure against my face and No leaks!  WOW!  Only five masks tried and I can't imagine using anything else!  Thank you all for your comments about this ffm.  It saved me a lot of time and trouble.  Very cool!

Snorke

Help.....I have the hybrid, but my nostrils seem to be too large even for the large size pillows.  I have e-mailed the hybrid company to see if they have XL size, but no luck.  How in the h... do you keep those nasal pillows from leaking.  I have tried medical tape, almost to the point of looking like I just got out of the ER, but that did not work.  I tried the ear plubs silicone stuff and that was a joke.  Can anyone tell me how to get a good seal with those pillows and be able to move from side to side without a huricane blowing out from those things.  Man I like  the hybrid, but it is so frustrating, seems like I am in a wind tunnel from the get go.   Thanks.

I had the same problem when I first used it.  Took some messing around and I found that pulling the top of the head strap a little tighter raised the pillow more onto my nose, that worked for me.  Anyway, no mask is absolutly perfect out of the box - takes some tweeking.  It's the best fit I have found.  So far.

Oh, and raise the pillows to the highest setting - If you havn't already done that.  Good luck!

He's got a novel method getting the Hybrid mask to work for him - pictures and all.  Very cool!

Do hybrid masks require a different pressure setting than standard nasal pillows?  I was very happy with my new hybrid the first night of use but my wife tells me that I am snoring again.  What's going on  

Background facts:
* Been successfully using ResMed nasal pillows for over a year but had to tape my mouth completely shut to stop blow-by. (A bit scary!)
* Have pretty mild apnea.  Only require a setting of 6 cm H2O.
* Not likely to get any help from my doctor.  I had to order my Hybrid on-line because he wouldn't sell me one.   :

snorke wrote:

He's got a novel method getting the Hybrid mask to work for him - pictures and all.  Very cool!

Could you put a link to this, I am interested in getting the Hybrid but not sure if it's right for me!

Thanks

http://www.apneasupport.org/viewtopic.php?p=79239&highlight=whitebeard#79239


This is the page.  Scroll down to Linda's post and note pics of Whitebeard and his Hybrid idea.  She's the one who put the pics up for Whitebeard.

At first I tried some of these, but found by simply adjusting the straps was great for me.  I'd make a major bet that Whitebeards mask doesn't leak -- how could it?  With all those strap and bands and dohickies....

White beard ......you are a genius!!    That is the darn neatest contraption I have ever seen.   Kudos are well deserved.  Now all I have to do it to try to find all the ingredients to make the "pie".   Nice, nice job.

Back again.  I could not find most of the items for Whitebeards setup, however, I just tried using just two regular rubber bands on each pillow.  One small enough, overlapped(kind of like a figure 8)  so it fit fairly snug around the pillow.  It was then attached to a longer rubber band that I just looped trough the top head strap.  It worked just find and I did not have any leaks.  I took whitebeards advice and put a pice of rolled tissue on my forehead to protect against the rubber band marks.  Cheap and really effective.

I just picked up a Hybrid 3 days ago after midnights.  I fooled with it for about an hour and went to bed with it, I had minimal leaks and had the burning on my upper lip.  I gave it a good washing yesterday after waking up and having the burning and this afternoon when I woke up I didn't have the burning.  I also have the headgear marks on my face which I don't really care about.  I do notice that I have a slight pain right at the top of my lip just under my nose, I am hoping this goes away after a few days.  Every day wearing this mask has been a little easier and more comfortable.

I don't really have any mouth leaks, and only minimal nasal pillow leaks, which I am still in the process of fine tuning the mask.  The one thing I have noticed is that I wake up feeling really groggy for about 3-4 hours before I start feeling normal again.  I don't have a data capable machine so don't know if my AHI's are down or up.

As I am on midnights and sleep !@#! anyway, I am cautiously optimistic that this is going to be a really great mask for me!

I am a side sleeper and this doesn't affect it whatsoever and woke up this afternoon actually on my stomach with no problems (not normally a stomach sleeper)

I am going to day shift for the next two weeks so will have a better idea of how this mask will be for me, I have both fingers crossed

I have been on CPAP for about a year and have used the optilife and comfort lite 2 with nasal mask but found my lips were opening causing air to escape.  I also fought with these masks to control leaks.

I do have a question regarding provigil, I am a shift worker and we have recently started a really screwball shift schedule where we actually have 6 shifts;  2 day shift early start at 8am-6pm, a late dayshift 10am-8pm, early afternoon 4pm-2am late afternoon 8pm-6am and the worst is midnights early 10pm-8am and late 12am-10am, we work 6 weeks of the early rotations and then 6 weeks of the late rotations.  My schedule is as follows; 5 on, 2 off, 3 on, 4 off.  

I guess my question is I have always felt tired and foggy throughout the day CPAP has helped but I still feel this way especially on midnights and afternoons, should I request this med from my Dr.?  I am a police officer and feel being totally awake is kind of important   

snorke wrote:

This Hybrid is, in my limited experience, the best fitting, most comfortable ffm I have found.  I really like the nose pillows and seperate mouthpiece.  No nose sores, no painfull pressure against my face and No leaks!  WOW!  Only five masks tried and I can't imagine using anything else!  Thank you all for your comments about this ffm.  It saved me a lot of time and trouble.  Very cool!

Snorke

I am at the end of my first 6 weeks of CPAP therapy using the Flexfit 432 ff mask, and yesterday I requested a Hybrid as a replacement. I've heard so many good things about it in this forum, I was so excited to get it. I'm a mouth-breather, and a side-to-stomach sleeper, so I figured it would be the best thing and a great improvement.

I hope I made the right choice, I needed the large interface with the smallest nasal pillows. If last night was anything to go by, though, it wasn't.

It was fine during the start of the ramp, then it began to leak around the nasal pillows at about half of full pressure (for me, 13). I tied the pillow stalks together so they were a bit closer and that worked for a bit, but then they began leaking again. When the machine got up to full pressure, 13.2, I almost had to hold it against my face - every exhale almost forced it off my face - the sides, chin and nasal pillows all leaked.  None of the vents were blocked and they were  pretty loud, even for me, and I don't hear well...

Since it was late by this time I switched to my old mask for the rest of the night and will try again tonight.
I did end up tightening it a lot to stop the leaks but that was painful when I put my head down.

I need a plan for tonight.Should I cut the bar between the two pillows? I thought I'd see if that's part of the problem. Maybe switch the interface to the medium, since the large was leaking around the chin, though before it got up to full pressure it felt very good. Overall it just seemed like at the same full pressure there is much more pressure inside the mask - I felt like a gale was blowing into my mouth, forcing it wide open. That didn't feel good at all.

I can get into the clinician's menu and enable the EPR, which I'll try, despite the fact that someone in here said it cuts the efficiency. Does it?

Down but not defeated...


_________________
We can't change the wind, but we can adjust the sails!

g]
 I changed my mod to my mask a little using all hair elastics, and the christmas decoration clips, I used small elastics on each side using the velcro on the straps to hold them in place, it works really well and really keeps the nasal pillows in place, and I now I don't have to worry about that rubber band breaking! anyway I have been using this new updated mod since January. For me this has still been the best mask I have ever used.[/img][/url]

Sorry about the size I thought I had that image sized down! But at least you can see how it works, I also usually put a gauze pad under the elastic on my forehead to keep from getting a line mark on it!