Where can I buy this fabric?

[PaulMed]

Hi folks

I just joined, but have had OSA for a long time. What a wonderful resource this forum is.

I'm hoping someone may be able to help me (sorry to start off my forum membership with a question), but I use nasal pillows with the tube going over my head. The headgear is made from what seems to be a fabric consisting of a stretchy rubbery material on one side, and a kind of fine canvas on the other side. I'd like to experiment with making a headgear (the fabric part) so that it fits my lumpy head better My hospital-issued one is (for me at least) a bit of a compromise and the velcro straps are always coming loose, amongst other slight niggles.

Fortunately I have the time to play around with a few prototypes until I get it right.

So, does anyone know where I can buy that fabric or something equally suitable? Any pointers would be much appreciated, thank you.

[James @ Intus]

Hi Paul, welcome to the forums. We love a DIY project so let's see if we can point you in the right direction.

Which exact mask do you use?

[Tigers Fan]

Or ....

If you talk to a wet suit manufacturer or their fabric supplier, I expect you can learn a lot about what you want, including degree of stretchiness.

TF

[SteveB]

DIY headgear

Hi

My wife used to make my headgear, we bought 1" wide "Bra elastic" with sew on Velcro bought from a haberdashers, at the time the shop we used was in Epsom high street, but we got it at other times from other shops, usually a "1 lady" shop, if you decide to try this, shop around as the quality differed from shop to shop, and I used them for about 5 years, my hospital clinic then came up with one I could use, and I switched over to that.

[PaulMed]

Hi guys
Apologies for not responding sooner but time has not been on my side. I tried a few experiments with the fabrics suggested by members and quickly gave up.
I decided to save a whole lot of time by getting a new machine and mask (the old mask was in poor condition and the machine broke some months ago after a lot of years).

So I bought a Remstar System One Auto with a Sleepweaver mask. (After a few months of non-compliance I had decided to get back on track).

The mask is certainly novel and takes some getting used to, it seems to be fairly critical about how tight the straps are, but in general it's simpler than my previous nasal pillows to adjust correctly. I still don't have the perfect positioning but it's early days. The mask is light, and is quite forgiving of movement in the night. I find that with sensible routing of the pipe so that it drops down over the headboard behind my head, I can sleep on either side or on my back without having to adjust the position of the pipe. The mask can squash a little if the pipe is pulled to the side, but that's easily remedied in the night. I find I get air leaks into my eyes, not severe but noticeable, and tightening the side straps helps with that but I don't like it too tight. In general the mask seems to float nicely on my face and given some further testing I think it will become quite comfortable.

The mask is a little noisy when not seated correctly, as with all masks, and if I press the mask against my face in a certain way the noise is drastically reduced, indicating air leaks, but I'm sure I can optimise that with more experimentation.

The Remstar is a lovely little machine, half the size of my old one and very quiet indeed. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to display one night's data, so I have little to go on yet because I have to wait for the first week's data to be displayed. The Auto settings start at 4cms and are not adjustable. The theory is that the machine will judge for itself the correct pressure needed as the night progresses. Apparently since I started using it I haven't snored, so it's doing something right, but I don't yet know what pressure it takes me up to. On two mornings I woke to find the reading at 6.5, and I felt pretty relaxed, but one night at 3am I woke to see it at 11.5, but I also had a mask leak at the time.

All in all, it seems a good combination and I am determined to be more compliant this time. The only down side so far is a foggy head on waking, which lasts much of the day. I didn't get that before starting to use the machine (as I said above, I haven't been using a CPAP machine for some months but I don't recall a foggy head before). Maybe it'll settle down.

I'm happy to answer any questions on this equipment if anyone is thinking of getting either part. Great forum!