Power outage/leaflet of full face mask

[Anxious]

hello Everyone!! I am new here - been on Cpap since first of the year - had a regular CPap with Full face mask (mouth breather - bad allergies/sinus). CPap didn't go well. Couldn't sleep more than 2 hours with it on for the month I waited to get the titration and second office visit. Switched to auto last week and doing much better. But I am having a lot of issues with my mask. - It is a Fiskel?? It leaks and leaves marks on my face - If I adjust it so the air is blowing directly in to my mouth then it is really close to my eyes - drying them out. that means it is probably too big right?

Plus last night I read the mask leaflet (to see if I could get some clues about fitting) and it said that in case of a power outage without the air blowing out, the CO2 would possibly not leave the mask through the escape and "suffocation could occur" - OK if it is right there in the literature - why don't the DMEs tell you so you can prepare - I realize power outages are sort of rare in most places - and yes you might wake up because the machine turns off or your apnea kicks in - but...as you can tell from my "name" I have a bit of anxiety. I really feel they should highlight that disclaimer - you should be told that orally from the DME supplier. The leaflet actually said at very low pressures it is possible not all CO2 would escape. I also found in my book for the machine that anyone with a Full face mask should have some sort of "safety" something - I don't think I have that. I have the regular exhaust escape or whatever it is but that's it.

So my question is - how good is the little power outage alarm - anyone have one? I did find someone on some forum that had it that thought it wasn't loud enough - anyone else find that.

Well thanks for whatever advice anyone has - I really want this to work this time (I was actually dx 8 years ago but didn't do anything about it).

"Anxious"

[Debjax]

I have mine plugged into a good UPS that has an alarm when the power goes out, and will also keep the machine powered a few minutes at least so it will give hubby and I time to wake up. I'm getting his on a UPS this weekend.

[kennethryan]

I have mine plugged into a good UPS that has an alarm when the power goes out, and will also keep the machine powered a few minutes at least so it will give hubby and I time to wake up. I'm getting his on a UPS this weekend.

Be sure to get a good UPS - I see you have an S8, note they say it requires a pure sine-wave UPS for power. Cheap UPSes use a pretty harsh pulse wave which can stress the power supply inside the blower. I would expect it to work for a while, but eventually burn out the blower's power supply.

The UPS should say "pure sine wave" in its specs someplace. "Stepped approximation" is what you do not want.

[ozij]

Anxious,
I assume your mask is a Fisher & Paykel.
I would always trust the official instructions more than I'd trust a sales person. The sales persons say whatever will make the sale - and they are not accountable for what they tell you. The company on the other hand is accountable for the written instructions.
Dear Anxious, allow me to introduce you to the very very anxious members of "CYA Unlimited" the legal team who are there to make sure a medical device company has as many warnings as possible on its manuals.

Your mask is supposed to have a non-rebreathing valve - and the intsructions say to check it before every use. You'll be OK if you manage to maintain enough anxiety to do that before every use. The valve opens when there's no pressure, and lets in the fresh air.

As for the CO2 clearing comment: Note how they do not say low pressure is contra-indicated. NOr do they give a minimal pressure below which the mask it not to be used.

By the way, I noticed that despite your anxiety, you know neither the specific name of the mask, nor its parts. Learning the subject - in depth will give you more control of the issue, and may help with some of the anxiety.

Oh, and some of us find that as the therapy kicks in, our anxiety is reduced. Anxiety is a natural, normal, life saving response in people who are choked many times an hour every night.

O.

[ozij]

Anxious,
I assume your mask is a Fisher & Paykel.
I would always trust the official instructions more than I'd trust a sales person. The sales persons say whatever will make the sale - and they are not accountable for what they tell you. The company on the other hand is accountable for the written instructions.
Dear Anxious, allow me to introduce you to the very very anxious members of "CYA Unlimited" the legal team who are there to make sure a medical device company has as many warnings as possible on its manuals.

Your mask is supposed to have a non-rebreathing valve - and the instructions say to check it before every use. You'll be OK if you manage to maintain enough anxiety to do that before every use. The valve opens when there's no pressure, and lets in the fresh air.

As for the CO2 clearing comment: Note how they do not say low pressure is contra-indicated. Nor do they give a minimal pressure below which the mask it not to be used.

By the way, I noticed that despite your anxiety, you know neither the specific name of the mask, nor its parts. Learning the subject - in depth will give you more control of the issue, and may help with some of the anxiety.

Oh, and some of us find that as the therapy kicks in, our anxiety is reduced. Anxiety is a natural, normal, life saving response in people who are choked many times an hour every night.

O.

[Gale Hawkins]

I have the Remstar Pro and Plus machines and they only require a pure sine wave (true 60 Hz) if using the factory humidifer. Since years ago i dropped using the humidifer I just have my plugged into a $50 500VA unit from Office Depot that I started using during the ice storm. The alarm wakes me.

[Anxious]

Thanks everyone - I appreciate all the responses. I guess I will try to live with the little alarm until we can afford the backup - although $50 at Office Depot is definitely affordable - maybe I will look into that.

I am trying to learn as much as I can - yes it is a Fisher and Paykel - when I search around on the internet it is easy to pick out which is mine. Yes I have a "rebreathing valve" - I knew that - is that what a "safety (entrainment) valve" is? My book makes it look like the rebreathing valve is the "exhalation device". And the book does state that the rebreathing valve only "attempts" to keep CO2 rebreathing to a minimumn in case of outage. And the book does give a nice table that explains how much CO2 gets expelled at each pressure - with 4 being the lowest pressure. As the pressure goes up more and more CO2 gets expelled - all makes perfect sense. And yes I guess the leaflet is sort of like reading all of the side effects of drugs - the have to list the "maybes". So anyway I feel better about it all and do understand it a bit better than I did when I posted - lots more reading/researching and reading the replys to my post. So yes I realize education is important for anxiety!! (but all this reading information/internet also bring it on sometimes - guess I just have to keep going when I get to that point)

I got an appt to go back in Thurs and get mask refitted so hopefully that wll be my final step in sleeping through the night!!

Thanks again I really appreciate all the information!!

Anxious

[rested gal]

Welcome to the message board, Anxious.

As far as I know, all Full Face masks (masks that cover nose and mouth together) have a safety valve flap that stays open if the CPAP is not blowing. CPAP air flowing through pushes that flap closed in FF masks, so that the only exhaust when the machine is running is through the normal exhaust vent holes.

So, when power goes out, the FF mask's safety valve flops open. That lets you breathe in a little more air than you can suck in through the normal exhaust vent holes.

Chances are extremely good (imho) that the stifling feeling of not being able to breathe well (and possibly having an apnea or hypopnea when the machine has turned off and isn't "treating" you) will finally wake a person wearing a FF mask before they'd even come close to real suffocation.

I agree with ozij that many of the dire sounding warnings on mask/machine literature are there for CYA legal purposes. Even if there is only an extremely remote chance of "suffocation" happening -- like to a barely-able-to-breathe person who is practically incapacitated in a nursing home with a FF mask strapped on -- the manufacturers' lawyers want to dot every i and cross every T, just in case.

Look at it this way -- before you were diagnosed with OSA and put on CPAP, your brain was arousing you enough to breathe better when you were literally suffocating with apneas. Night after night, for years probably. Some of the apneas may have even been suffocating enough to wake you all the way up to an awareness of being awake, even if you didn't realize what had awakened you.

You will be getting some air in with the FF mask, through the normal vent holes, as well as the safety valve opening when the machine air flow stops. When it finally becomes uncomfortable to breathe with the mask on, you'll wake up fine. Just my opinion.

A good UPS is a good idea, of course.

[TheDreamer]

Speaking of cheap UPS....Staples has an APC 550VA one for $40 ($30 after a $10 rebate) for 'president's day week'....they also have a cheaper CyberPower 425VA one for $25.

I was actually on Best Buy's site yesterday thinking about grabbing a cheap UPS (the CyberPower 425VA for $46), when I spotted that they have 1500VA for $140 yesterday was last day for their President's Day Sale....I said I was torn between getting small cheap or big cheap, when somebody in chat told me about the Staples one.

I went for the APC one.

Meanwhile...its on my list to someday acquire a 1500VA APC SmartUPS (not SC)....which does do pure sine wave output.

The Dreamer.