Leaks and mr smiley face.

[sol]

Last night my mask leaks almost every which way ,it starts with a good seal for about 1 1/2 hrs probably as toss and turn ,pressure goes up ,more leaks ,get up with dry mouth drink some water,back to sleep trying to adjust mask ,all this just to get some sleep ,and to top it up an hour before getting up checked sleep report it shows sad red face ,and the last time look at it , shows the green smiley face with leak rate 120 l/min. seem that mr smiley want to cheer me up even with lousy night .any one have some suggestion .

[LSAT]

go to...padacheek.com and check her anti-leak strap for the Quattro

[robysue]

Last night my mask leaks almost every which way ,it starts with a good seal for about 1 1/2 hrs probably as toss and turn ,pressure goes up ,more leaks ,get up with dry mouth drink some water,back to sleep trying to adjust mask ,all this just to get some sleep ,and to top it up an hour before getting up checked sleep report it shows sad red face ,and the last time look at it , shows the green smiley face with leak rate 120 l/min. seem that mr smiley want to cheer me up even with lousy night .any one have some suggestion .

Just a bit of insight into Mr. Green Smiley and his friend Mr Red Frowny. Mr. Smiley shows up whenever your 75% leak rate is LESS THAN or EQUAL to 24 L/min. In other words, as long as you are leaking at a rate of LESS THAN or EQUAL TO 24 L/min above your mask's intentional leak rate at your pressure setting, the ResMed engineers do not believe you are leaking at a rate that is sufficiently high to compromise your therapy and Mr. Green Smiley shows up on the Sleep Quality report on the LCD.

The only time Mr. Red Frowny shows up is if your 75% leak rate is GREATER THAN 24 L/min. In other words, you have to be leaking at a rate of 24 L/min for AT LEAST 15 minutes out of ever hour of run time for the night before Mr. Frowny shows up on the Sleep Report.

So, on the night in question, somehow, during that last hour of "sleep", your leak rate was below 24 L/min for enough time to convince the S9 that your 75% leak rate for the whole night had now dropped to just barely below 24 L/min and Mr. Smiley could come back to cheer you up. Of course, Mr. Smiley probably didn't cheer you up that much since you had a lousy night of chasing leaks all night long.

As to your real problem: How to fix the leaks that are both keeping you awake and posing a real problem for your therapy? Well, you can start by going to the user control panel at the upper left of the window and entering your equipment. Knowing exactly WHICH mask you are using will help the forum members give you good advice for troubleshooting your mask situation. Giving us some insight into what (if anything) you've already tried in an attempt to fix the leaks will also help. And help us out by letting us know whether you've ever had a decent night with this particular mask or not. Or whether you never had a good night with any mask for that matter.

I wish I could give you some specific tips for chasing the leaks, but that's the one problem I've been blessed not to have faced in my three month battle to adjust to CPAP. Best of luck in figuring out how to fix the leaks though and wishing you a good night's sleep.

[chunkyfrog]

Besides fit, patience, and dogged determination, there seems to be a zen factor to getting good leak figures.
It sounds silly, I know, but to relax, accept, and 'be' the mask actually works for me.
OK, go ahead and laugh. . .

[robysue]

Ah, gvz, so that's why I'm the only person on this board who keeps dreaming of being the stuffed goose: Mr. Red Frowny has it specially out for me to stuff the air down my throat to fatten me up for dinner? Maybe because I've never, ever had a 95% leak above 10 L/min even as a brand new newbie?

LOL

[snoozysue]

Sol, as you live Down Under you might want to try the new Quattro FX. It is an amazing improvement over the Quattro FFM. My leaks are down and the pressure that I need is also down. I have been using it for approx 2 weeks and every night the pressures are lower than I have ever had before, this in turn has reduced the leaks.

[Laos Film Director]

sol, for me and some others on this forum the Quattro FFM is a big leaker. I want to use a FFM, but the Quattro didn't work me due to leaks and increased AHI. I tried the anti leak strap from pad-a-cheek and it really brought the leak rate down significantly. I also woke up with an extremely dry mouth with the Quattro which caused me to switch to a nasal pillow mask.

When I switched to two nasal pillow masks, the Swift FX and the Adam Circuit, my S9's red frown disappeared completely and forever. My suggestion would be to try a nasal pillow mask (the swift FX) or get the anti leak strap from pad-a-cheek.

[sol]

Thanks you all for the for the feed back been encouraging .

[DoriC]

Just a few random thoughts. You list your settings at 8-18cms, have you tried narrowing the range? Sometimes too wide a range sets off runaway leaks. Also what type of bed pillow are you using, you might need a special cpap one. Keep us posted.

[sol]

According to the rescan pressure range between 8 -17 it depends on the leaks ,when leaks kept under control max pressure about 14.

[DoriC]

You can try and control the fluctuations by setting pressures to something like 9/10-14cms for a few nights? My husband uses a very narrow range(10.5-13) or (straight pressure of 12cms) as the leaks and rising pressures trying to keep up with leaks really disturbs his sleep. He was titrated at 13 but rarely needs it, his 90% is usually 11-12. It will be helpful to know what your new titration is so you can work around that.

[carbonman]

there seems to be a zen factor
It sounds silly, I know, but to relax, accept, and 'be' the mask actually works for me.
OK, go ahead and laugh. . .

Not silly at all......

viewtopic/t58565/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=41316&p=362720

[BobbieSue2]

There is a very simple solution, a Quietus Cloth CPAP mask liner. It did wonders for me!! Good Luck
BobbieSue

[avi123]

sol, have you done the Mask Fit test which is available on your CPAP?

Also:

http://www.resmed.com/us/assets/documen ... sa_eng.pdf

[Necromancer]

Just recently was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I haven't seen any smileys as of yet good or bad. O2 levels still fall into the 50s at times while I sleep