AnnaS wrote:
My hunch is my hose has a leak. To rule out equipment leaks, I called in for a new hose and mask flappers. Unfortunately both will take 5 days to arrive. What can I do in the meantime.
Checking the hose for leaks is pretty easy: Attach one end to a bathroom faucet (my hose fits right over where the water comes out), turn the water on full force and partially cover the other end of the hose with your thumb. If there's a leak, you'll see water spraying out the side of the hose.
Should I stop using the machine. I cannot have a headache like this and function.
Personally I would NOT stop using the machine. If OSA headaches were part of your pre-CPAP daily routine, then you may find stopping the machine will make the headaches get worse.
You ought to try treating the headache with an OTC pain reliever just to see if that helps. While it's not good to take OTC pain relievers for headaches on a daily basis, it is fine to do it up to 3 or 4 times a week in the short run.
Looks like I have a very leaky situation on hand in-spite of using a chin strap for the first time. Good news is my mouth did not open, nor did it get dry. Bad news is I still have a headache and am finding it very hard to focus!
The fact that your mouth didn't get dry is evidence that your mouth didn't drop wide open, it does not necessarily mean that the mouth didn't open at all.
What did the leak line look like
before you tried the chin strap? Any improvement at all in the leak line? Or is it about the same? Also, I see that you are using a FFM. The whole point of a FFM is that you can open your mouth wide open and you won't lose any pressure
if the mask is well sealed. But FFM have a much larger footprint on the face and that can make it harder to get a proper seal in the first place. And then there's this: When we lie down our facial structure changes. And when we sleep, our facial muscles relax. Because of these two things, it is possible (and common) for a FFM that is well seated at the beginning of the night to spring some leaks during the night, particularly if we add APAP pressure increases to the mix. If the lower jaw muscles relax too much, the slackness in the lower half of the face can cause the mask to lose its seal even if the mouth does not pop open. Chin straps are not always effective at preventing those kinds of leaks since they don't hold the mask to the face.
You might want to look into Padacheek's
anti-leak strap (see
http://padacheek.com/PAC_AntiLeak_Strap.html for details). This strap is designed to hold the FFM onto the face when the muscles in the lower face relax enough to allow the mask to lose its seal.
I have been using a pad-a-cheek mask liner (for the past 3 days) to take care of mask marks. Marks are gone but could liners be causing leaks? PLEASE HELP.
Possibly, but not that likely. Many people actually find mask liners help the mask to seal better rather than worse.
You might also be over tightening your AirFit F10: It uses an air cushion seal and if the mask is strapped on too tight, the air cushion cannot fully inflate. And that makes the mask more prone to springing a leak when the lower face relaxes during sleep.
