I started therapy in late March with a full face mask - Fisher and Paykel FLexfit432 - and a ResMed Elite S8 CPAP machine at a pressure of 13. I'm a mouth-breather and a stomach sleeper. I'm very enthusiastic about how the therapy makes me feel, so I want so much to be successful!
The mask was bothering me - not so much because I can't sleep (because I do sleep, but I sleep face, literally mashing it into my face.
With the Flexfit I awake with air blowing in my eyes, a ridge on my nose, a puffy face and eyes, big grooves in my cheeks, you all know what I mean!

So reading in this forum made me think the Hybrid could be the answer. I got one two nights ago. It seems to sit very lightly on my face and esp in the nostrils - the smallest set of nasal pillows don't go into the nostrils and they pop off of the openings easily. The first night when it got to full pressure it leaked everywhere. I tightened it and that was worse, I loosened it and used rubberbands to hold it up and the pillows together... after 2 hours nothing worked, so I switched back to the Flexfit and tried again last night.
Last night I adjusted it fairly loosely (trying to follow the advice of people in this forum). I still couldn't get the nasal pillows to stay in place to eliminate leaks. I slid the air hose up through the top of the headpiece to keep the mask high enough to keep the pillows in place. I fell asleep but woke 5-6 times with a burning nose and upper lip, a very dry mouth, a headache from the noise - it was awful.  In all I lasted from about 9PM until 1PM.

Should I give up on this? What other masks can I try? Are there other masks that would work for me? Should I have the RT come to my house and try lots of different ones? I'm very discouraged and down, for the first time since I started.


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

jaxie wrote:

So reading in this forum made me think the Hybrid could be the answer. I got one two nights ago. It seems to sit very lightly on my face and esp in the nostrils - the smallest set of nasal pillows don't go into the nostrils and they pop off of the openings easily. The first night when it got to full pressure it leaked everywhere. I tightened it and that was worse, I loosened it and used rubberbands to hold it up and the pillows together... after 2 hours nothing worked, so I switched back to the Flexfit and tried again last night.

Jaxie,

   Did you try a different sized set of nasal pillows?  Tighten the straps at the top.  It does wonders.   There is one type of mask which works better loose.  The Hybrid works better tight.

Sleeping_now

jaxie I have been using the Hybrid since last September or so, with fairly high pressures too! I still use it now with BiPAP 18/14 it leaks at that high preeure but only around my mouth, I made a fix for the nasal pillows using Hair elastics and Christmas decoration clips, the fix was posted back in Oct 07, anyway with my modification I continue to use the Hybrid mask it isn't perfect but I find for me it is the best I have used so far. Good Luck to you White Beard

Thank you for the encouragement... White Beard I did see the pictures of your ingenious arrangment and can see that might help... I did tighten the top straps and also try the different pillows but the smallest ones are still a bit too large it seems. I'll try a few more things this weekend.


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

Jaxie - I also have a resmed elite 8 (pressure at 14) and am currently using the hybrid mask.  I had similar problems with the full face masks, and even tried the resmed nasal pillows (which worked reletivly well in unusual sleeping positions - but was a total disaster when I would open my mouth).  

So far, the hybrid mask seems to work best for me.  Although I had to adapt my sleeping position to staying flat on my back throughout the night.  (Occasionaly I can flop onto my side but that runs the risk of knocking my mask loose which creates air leaks that are hard to remedy in the middle of the night.)

Best of luck to you in your search.  I believe that finding a mask that works for you is probably the most difficult / most important aspect of getting the right CPAP set up.
Mike

P.S.  I haven't experienced the dry mouth because I use a humidifier.  However, the burning nose can be treated with a little "AYR" cream.

I have been using a  hybrid now for 4 or 5 months and found that if I tie one leg from a pair of pantyhose around my head under the nasal pillows it holds them in.  I happen to be married so I had easy access to the pantyhose by asking the wife.

It does help alot and the pantyhose are soft and smooth enough that they do not hurt at all.

Good luck
Cami