does this stop airflow long enough to speak ?

Hello, LafinTurtle:
The meaning of the terms distal and proximal vary depending on whether you're looking at it from the patient's perspective or the machine's.  Usually we look at it from the patient's perspective, and any port on the patient's mask is a proximal port.  Regardless, occlusion of any pressure ports won't make a difference, and squashing the supply hose shut will ruin it.  The only way to vocalize properly is to lift up or take off the mask.
sleepydave

You would think that someone would come up with a device that temp. deverts the air flow so that people with nasal pillow mask could talk. At 4cpm this is too bad, but after ramping up to 14 cpm its hard to understand.

I agree!  The minute I put on the mask, that's when somebody in the house wants to talk!

Since I'm new to the process, I don't want to take off my mask to talk.  I seem to get it on correctly the first time, but never again that night if I take it off.

Does anyone have a "pause" on their machine?  I think the ramp up feature is good, but I hate having to start all over again if I need to talk.  I've shortened the time from 45 to 30, but don't think it would work for me if I shortened up the ramp time further.

I find if I start to swallow and then talk I can... Weird.... Otherwise it is very difficult to talk...

After a little practice, I am not having a problem talking while CPAP is running and my Swift mask is on.  It just sounds like I have a plugged up nose, yes there is some extra air that comes out my mouth.

Some of us have a built in system...I've never had any problems with talking with my mask on/pressure going. I couldn't figure out why everyone complained about not being able to talk when I can answer the phone and carry on a conversation fully hooked up until my mom got her CPAP and she opened her mouth-lol. I don't know what the difference is...try as I might I can't get the air to come out my mouth no matter how I controat my throat. Just luck of the draw I guess.