Leaderboard

On a mask with no bag the waste comes in when you exhale. With no bag to fill the O2 vents to the room while you exhale.

I think if we are understanding your old setup correctly, you have what is called a "simple face mask" -- O2 was continuously flowing into the mask (not being held in a reservoir bag as the new NRB mask does). If that's right, then once you had inhaled with the old setup, O2 was still flowing, but not doing you any good because you were either holding o2 in your lungs or in the process of exhaling. With the bag, the only time you are actually using O2 is when you are inhaling. But I am confused, because a simple mask has holes in it (like the ones on your NRB, but on both sides) because that's where the exhale goes out. Could it be that you had a demand valve system, in which the only time O2 flows is when you "demand" it -- when you start inhaling (or perhaps press a button)? That would explain a lot (no bag; high effectiveness). If it is a simple mask in your old system, you aren't getting nearly as much pure O2 with that as you would with an NRB, because of the holes in the sides and also because you are rebreathing some of the CO2 that you have exhaled.

... yeah.... he's wrong! .... crap like that is what makes FB such a dangerous minefield for clusterheads... mixed in with that absolutely essential care, compassion and vital info is stuff like this that does a disservice.... especially to the folks new to CH and those w/o the time, desire, ability, means or motivation to go in depth. i mean no disparagement to the many good folk on the many sites... and i'm there too.... but the info is just so scattershot and unreliable it's scary.... with much difficulty checking the bona fides of the poster or researching a topic.... ... the pioneers of busting figured a better way.... the info is right here.... and the Yales and Harvards of the world are finally getting on board.... .... if the anecdotal reports from thousands of clusterheads on the dangers and consequences of overuse (even "proper" use) of triptans isn't enough.... it's right in the medical literature and on the dang label/insert of the script!

It's hard to figure out why that would work better, but I'm sure hoping it does again for you.

...nose breathing ok INSIDE a mask....the caution if mouth breathing with tube....dilutes the O2. ....the breathing you describe for anxiety was similar to what i did to calm the frantic panic of a bad hit....which only made it worse. when adopted (part by accident...part by "there has got to be a better way!")...the effectiveness of O2 then dramatically improved.... ...my experience with low tank volume was the necessity to monitor the resulting decreasing flow volume...actually was a nice distraction to focus on and crank up....that or pounding my head with whatever hard object was in reach, at least til i figured shit out.... ...never tried but some report better success with a demand valve (can be expensive)...provides plenty O2 while, at least theoretically, saving O2 ...plenty of incredibly sadly funny "info" on some FB forums....at least here it's easier check out our (my) biases/history...