Newbie here with need of advice!

Hey everyone! I have been lurking on your board forever! Finally diagnosed in Feb with sleep apnea and have been struggling with masks since. My apnea is considered mild, but I have a lot of arousals. Sometimes I feeI l get a good night sleep and feel decent, but lately it has been more difficult and I am feeling the same way as I did before cpap. I started off using the swift LT for her (had good nights and bad nights) and then started rolling over in my sleep and dislodging the mask. It would be in one nostril and out the other. I wasn't waking up, but if my husband wasn't traveling and he would wake, he would tell me about the leak. I am surprised though that my machine never beeped indicating a leak and also that my leak rate has always been good. Because of the dislodging, I recently got the Mirage Micro. Once again, my leak rate is good, but my Apneas are high for me and continue to go up each night. I do not feel any leaking in the mask (have horrid strap/nose piece marks) but I am waking up feeling horrible. So if my leak rate is in the acceptable range, what is going on? Could I be mouth breathing? If so is there a good full face mask out there? Any suggestions would be appreciated! THanks!

Different people have different preferences with full face mask choices. I, myself, prefer the Mirage Quattro. I've had good luck with it and my leak rate is excellent nearly every night. The key is not pulling the straps too tight. There is a delicate balance between getting the straps just tight enough to hold the mask to your face and yet not so tight that the slightest facial movement causes a leak. It just takes lots of experimenting and adjusting to get it right.

I've had that problem -- with the OptiLife mask. In one nostril, out the other....and then opening my mouth, and having more air come out that way. Finally wake up because I'm thirsty.

Now I have the ComfortLite II, doesn't dislodge when I'm on the side...though sometimes it'll leak because one side unseats.

The leak alarm is something that has to be turned on, and then I've heard that its not really that noticeable. If you go through the settings, don't turn on auto-off...that's usually more trouble than it helps, plus it adds large leak spikes to your usage data.

I think to some extent the machine's ability to detect apnea and hypopnea is impaired by leaks....so getting leaks under control results in increased detection? Though there could be other factors at play....lately I've been having trouble with congestion.

The Dreamer.