Just finished my first week of APAP, I am currently on an Air Sense 10 with Nasal Pillows (p10).
I finally (after much struggling) ended a night with a full 7.5 hours on the machine only waking up once (woohoo). At this point I am unsure if I am going to stick with the pillows as I struggle with congestion + mouth breathing. The sleep tech assured me that the nasal pillows would be right for me (I am currently not convinced of this, but I am going to give it over the weekend to decide if I am going to switch to a full mask).
So my main goal was to try and fix my chronic congestion. It was a journey but might have found the magical formula.
First things first: the sleep tech failed to mention that LESS humidity often (not always) causes MORE congestion (not less). This was counter intuitive to what I assumed! Once I got the humidity back up it helped.
So fixing that issue, outside of the usual, (neti pot, sudafed, claririn) I looked into aromatherapy oils.
They work SO well! Here is what I purchased: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00MKNB9D2/ref=ya_st_dp_summary
The idea is to out 1-3 drops on the pad and put it near the intake of your machine.
If you can't afford the stand, use a cotton balls.
Even if you don't have congestion this does two things:
1) opens up your sinuses to handle the pressure
2) calms you down, makes the air feel "cooler" and less... suffocatey (best way I could describe it).
They have all types of oils for different needs (stress/panic, congestion, soothing, etc).
As far as I have researched it doesn't leave any residue or harm the machine.
Now that the congestion issues been tackled, I am working on dealing with the higher pressures spikes at night walking me up. Which I hear is lessened with full face masks.
I also picked up a cloth tube cover. Makes me feel....more human (with the side benefit of preventing "rain outs" in the tube) if that makes sense?
Outside of that, I am looking to get some mask cloths/pads (once I figure out if I am going to switch to a full face for not). Most are disposable (which is unfortunate) BUT I recently heard about these : http://www.padacheek.com/PACAirFitSeries.html
They are washable and last month's.
I'll let you know if they help once I try them!
The goal is to get your AHI below 5. More modern machines track this for you.
If you have any specific concerns let me know and I'll do my best to help!