I got the Remstar Auto w/C-flex last Friday. Been tweaking a bit for the past few days and checking the data on the Smart Card - trying slightly different settings, different masks, etc. Anyway, the machine shows large leaks every night - lowest was 23 minutes, largest was over an hour. It also shows a fair amount of snoring, but the leaks and the snoring don't always coincide. The different masks don't seem to make a great deal of difference either - the 23 minutes was on a full face, but the nasal the next night was 36 - not a great deal longer. If the leaks were just from mouth breathing, I would have thought the full face mask would not have that many minutes of large leaks. The auto still seems to do a really good job of taking care of the apneas and hypopneas - my largest AHI was 1.6, smallest .7 And the machine doesn't seem to need to ramp up way high to take care of the A&H either. My titrated pressure was 16, so I set the machine from 10 to 16. The highest it's ramped has been 15.4, and that only a couple of times. Average is usually about 12 something, maybe 13. Anyway, I quite like the machine, but I do wonder about the leaks and the snores. I'll try taping my mouth tonight, but wonder if anyone has any other ideas.
Debbie
? on Encore leaks
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wading thru the muck!
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Debbie,
Are you sure it's large leaks? 23 and 36 minutes of large leaks is huge! I am suprised that the machine is able to treat you so well. It also sounds like your titrated pressure of 16cm is way on the conservative side if you are being treated so well at 12cm. I'd work hard to track down the leaks. My guess is a leak that large would wake you up. Certainly a half hour of mouth breathing would wake you and give you a whopper of a sore throat. Does the leak graph exceed the max leak line? If you can, please post some more detailed data about your leaks.
Are you sure it's large leaks? 23 and 36 minutes of large leaks is huge! I am suprised that the machine is able to treat you so well. It also sounds like your titrated pressure of 16cm is way on the conservative side if you are being treated so well at 12cm. I'd work hard to track down the leaks. My guess is a leak that large would wake you up. Certainly a half hour of mouth breathing would wake you and give you a whopper of a sore throat. Does the leak graph exceed the max leak line? If you can, please post some more detailed data about your leaks.
Sincerely,
wading thru the muck of the sleep study/DME/Insurance money pit!
wading thru the muck of the sleep study/DME/Insurance money pit!
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momcochran
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:48 pm
leaks
Need some help here too... my husband just got his cpap machine and full mask just 2 weeks ago and after 2 hour of great sleep his mask starts to leak too .... around his mouth or up at his eyes and it gets so bad with the noise that it wakes me up and him too.. is this ok or what can we do about it... we have tried so many new mask... what are we to do..
Greta C[/b]
Greta C[/b]
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wading thru the muck!
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- Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:42 am
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momcochran
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:48 pm
mask
From momcochran
To answer your queston on which mask his my husband tried ,,,,First Respironics Comfort Full Face ( Large) to big lots of leaks right off from the start... than went to the (meduim) to small for his face.... than went to Resmed... mirage full face mask series 2 doing much better untill about after 3 hours of good sleep than it starts to leak and or makes a sound that wakes him up and me.. we tried Fisher & Paylet Oracle 452 Oral too cant do that one....now i would like to try Fisher & Paylet Flexfit HC 431 full face mask but my home health doesnt have one for him to try and if she orders it we will have to pay for it... not good .. this one is to go under the whole chin and works with people that has mouth movement in there sleep... and can you tell me what the different between Resmed ( Ultra Mirage Full Face mask ) to (Resmed Mirage Full Face Mask System Series 2) ???? any help you can give me i need in ... the dr say my husbands oxg level with out the mask is 71 that is bad a norma persons is to be between 95 to 98 so we have to get him sleeping with the cpap machine... so HELP me
To answer your queston on which mask his my husband tried ,,,,First Respironics Comfort Full Face ( Large) to big lots of leaks right off from the start... than went to the (meduim) to small for his face.... than went to Resmed... mirage full face mask series 2 doing much better untill about after 3 hours of good sleep than it starts to leak and or makes a sound that wakes him up and me.. we tried Fisher & Paylet Oracle 452 Oral too cant do that one....now i would like to try Fisher & Paylet Flexfit HC 431 full face mask but my home health doesnt have one for him to try and if she orders it we will have to pay for it... not good .. this one is to go under the whole chin and works with people that has mouth movement in there sleep... and can you tell me what the different between Resmed ( Ultra Mirage Full Face mask ) to (Resmed Mirage Full Face Mask System Series 2) ???? any help you can give me i need in ... the dr say my husbands oxg level with out the mask is 71 that is bad a norma persons is to be between 95 to 98 so we have to get him sleeping with the cpap machine... so HELP me
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rested gal
- Posts: 12881
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2004 10:14 pm
- Location: Tennessee
hi momcochran,
You asked:
The Ultra Mirage masks, including the Ultra Mirage FF (full face) have an adjustable bar going up to the forehead pad. The vertical bar has a button you can push to tilt the mask, to find the best angle against the face. Often leaks can be stopped better through fiddling with the "tilt" than by adjusting the straps.
I use the ResMed Ultra Mirage FF mask for nights when I'm congested and need to breathe through my mouth. It's a very comfortable mask, as full masks go.
You asked:
The Series 2 masks have a fixed vertical bar from the nose up to the forehead pad. That bar has has no way to adjust it.can you tell me what the different between Resmed ( Ultra Mirage Full Face mask ) to (Resmed Mirage Full Face Mask System Series 2) ?
The Ultra Mirage masks, including the Ultra Mirage FF (full face) have an adjustable bar going up to the forehead pad. The vertical bar has a button you can push to tilt the mask, to find the best angle against the face. Often leaks can be stopped better through fiddling with the "tilt" than by adjusting the straps.
I use the ResMed Ultra Mirage FF mask for nights when I'm congested and need to breathe through my mouth. It's a very comfortable mask, as full masks go.
Hi Wading,
Yes, it says large leaks, and yes it's over the max line. And yes, I thought the 16 way to conservative myself, which is why I finally broke down and bought the autopap.
I don't have my sleep study with me, but from what I remember, my AHI was about 40 something (43?) so severe OSA. Snoring mild, and mostly just on my back. When titrating, the lowest pressures actually made things worse (my O2 dropped significantly at pressure of 2 and 4) so they bumped up quickly. 8 was the first sign of any improvement, and it wasn't much. 10 was significant improvement - halved AHI to 20 or 21. At 12 there was another significant improvement - AHI dropped to 8. Then really nothing until 16 when it dropped to 4. Well, the idea is to get the AHI under 5, so I was titrated at 16. I had questions and concerns then - I thought that if I only needed the 16 to drop 4, then I only needed the 16 about 4-5 minutes total per hour, and a pressure of 12 should be fine for the other 55 minutes. But I didn't know as much then as now (hadn't heard of central apneas and the other problems too much pressure can cause) so took the scrip for 16 pressure and got the cpap. It helped but still some fatigue and just not feeling like I'm getting really good sleep, and I was on that for over a year.
Anyway, I think the autopap shows that I really didn't need all that pressure and I think I'll be doing a lot better with the auto. I think it's probably mouth leaks and mask leaks - I wore a full face one night, but it doesn't fit me quite as well as the nasal I usually wear, so probably shifted a bit and leaked. I'll play around with a couple of other masks and see if that takes care of it.
Mostly, I just thought it rather odd that if I was mouth breathing, then the snores and the leaks ought to match up, and they didn't always. They usually overlapped, but occassionally I got one but not the other. Just wondered if anyone else had run into something like this and figured out what it was.
Heck, maybe the cats were playing with the buttons.
Thanks
Debbie
Yes, it says large leaks, and yes it's over the max line. And yes, I thought the 16 way to conservative myself, which is why I finally broke down and bought the autopap.
I don't have my sleep study with me, but from what I remember, my AHI was about 40 something (43?) so severe OSA. Snoring mild, and mostly just on my back. When titrating, the lowest pressures actually made things worse (my O2 dropped significantly at pressure of 2 and 4) so they bumped up quickly. 8 was the first sign of any improvement, and it wasn't much. 10 was significant improvement - halved AHI to 20 or 21. At 12 there was another significant improvement - AHI dropped to 8. Then really nothing until 16 when it dropped to 4. Well, the idea is to get the AHI under 5, so I was titrated at 16. I had questions and concerns then - I thought that if I only needed the 16 to drop 4, then I only needed the 16 about 4-5 minutes total per hour, and a pressure of 12 should be fine for the other 55 minutes. But I didn't know as much then as now (hadn't heard of central apneas and the other problems too much pressure can cause) so took the scrip for 16 pressure and got the cpap. It helped but still some fatigue and just not feeling like I'm getting really good sleep, and I was on that for over a year.
Anyway, I think the autopap shows that I really didn't need all that pressure and I think I'll be doing a lot better with the auto. I think it's probably mouth leaks and mask leaks - I wore a full face one night, but it doesn't fit me quite as well as the nasal I usually wear, so probably shifted a bit and leaked. I'll play around with a couple of other masks and see if that takes care of it.
Mostly, I just thought it rather odd that if I was mouth breathing, then the snores and the leaks ought to match up, and they didn't always. They usually overlapped, but occassionally I got one but not the other. Just wondered if anyone else had run into something like this and figured out what it was.
Heck, maybe the cats were playing with the buttons.
Thanks
Debbie
momcochran,
I was having the same problems as your husband. It seemed like my Mirage FF mask would start out sealed good but during the night it would leak and wake me up. Through quite a lot of trial and error and being awake I noticed that when I would start to fall asleep my jaw would drop when I relaxed. My mask would immediately leak and then the treatment leaked out my mouth on the side the mask was leaking. The night before last I figured I could stop my jaw drop with a chinstrap that I had. Since I put the chin strap on with my FF mask it hasn't leaked hardly at all. At least not that I have noticed. In fact, I can move around all I want and it hasn't leaked. I went 5 hours straight without waking the first night and last night I slept 6 hours straight without waking. You might want to give it try. It has worked for me so far.
I was having the same problems as your husband. It seemed like my Mirage FF mask would start out sealed good but during the night it would leak and wake me up. Through quite a lot of trial and error and being awake I noticed that when I would start to fall asleep my jaw would drop when I relaxed. My mask would immediately leak and then the treatment leaked out my mouth on the side the mask was leaking. The night before last I figured I could stop my jaw drop with a chinstrap that I had. Since I put the chin strap on with my FF mask it hasn't leaked hardly at all. At least not that I have noticed. In fact, I can move around all I want and it hasn't leaked. I went 5 hours straight without waking the first night and last night I slept 6 hours straight without waking. You might want to give it try. It has worked for me so far.
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momcochran
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:48 pm
leaks
Hi
Has any one tried Fisher & Paykel Flexfit HC 431 ff mask that goes under your chin.... i called the company today and they told me that that would stop leaks if ones mouth drop thur the night and cause leaks but i cant aford it only to fine out it doesnt work... has any one tried this one before...
momcochran
Has any one tried Fisher & Paykel Flexfit HC 431 ff mask that goes under your chin.... i called the company today and they told me that that would stop leaks if ones mouth drop thur the night and cause leaks but i cant aford it only to fine out it doesnt work... has any one tried this one before...
momcochran
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steveinhouston
HC431
Everyone's face is obviously different, but my experience with the HC431 was that it leaked like a sieve. For me, the Resmed Utramirage FF mask was the best full face mask at controlling leaks, but I have since starting using an Activa nasal mask, which does not leak at all.
This is a facinating thread.
I checked it to learn of the best masks if, by some weird chance, I am able to choose one, or one of my choices is listed here but I must ask, how is it some of you are able to try "several" masks? Are you buying them yourselves and who has masks to try? Your provider? Your hospital?
(in another thread I describe how my provider says if I open the box, that mask is mine for six months - no tryouts!
I checked it to learn of the best masks if, by some weird chance, I am able to choose one, or one of my choices is listed here but I must ask, how is it some of you are able to try "several" masks? Are you buying them yourselves and who has masks to try? Your provider? Your hospital?
(in another thread I describe how my provider says if I open the box, that mask is mine for six months - no tryouts!
Last edited by MichaelM on Fri Feb 04, 2005 7:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
I was very fortunate to have a DME who let me try just about any mask that I wanted. He also let me take a couple of masks home to try. I went to return the one that I wasn't going to use as much and he said to keep it. From the stories I've read, some folks have good DME's and some BAD DME's. Same with doctors.... Maybe you should try to find a different one but it sounds like your experience isn't that uncommon unfortunately.
Take Care
Take Care
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Amount of Leakage?
This seems like the appropriate thread to post this question rather than creating a new one.
Just got my autopap 3 nights ago and the Encore software and reader two nights ago.
How much leakage is common and okay? Last night I had: max avg. 64.0, avg. 90% 37.0, and avg. 34.0 with no large leaks reported.
Is this normal and acceptable? The mask is the Mirage FF. What experiences have others had.
Thanks...
Just got my autopap 3 nights ago and the Encore software and reader two nights ago.
How much leakage is common and okay? Last night I had: max avg. 64.0, avg. 90% 37.0, and avg. 34.0 with no large leaks reported.
Is this normal and acceptable? The mask is the Mirage FF. What experiences have others had.
Thanks...
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MichaelM
I have three friends also on cpap. We have bought extra masks (without the DME) to try - you can buy masks online a lot cheaper than through a DME. Also, you can sometimes get them really cheap from online auctions, especially if the manufacturer has come out with a new model - the older ones can be very inexpensive. Anyway, if we get something and decide we don't like it, we will offer it around to the others. I've bought 4-5 on my own (and given 2 away) and gotten to try on a couple of others that my friends had. At least it gives you a better idea of what kind/type might work, or what size you might need. ie one friend has a size small in this mask, and it's still too big for my face, so I know that mask isn't going to work for me.
And the only way you're going to find out if friends use cpap is asking. Most people don't volunteer information, so you usually have to admit it first. "Hey, I have to start using a cpap machine. Anyone else have or use one?" kind of thing to find out. You might be surprised. Actually, I found many of my friends used one, but only three really live close enough (or were enough interested) to do the mask switch with.
Debbie
I have three friends also on cpap. We have bought extra masks (without the DME) to try - you can buy masks online a lot cheaper than through a DME. Also, you can sometimes get them really cheap from online auctions, especially if the manufacturer has come out with a new model - the older ones can be very inexpensive. Anyway, if we get something and decide we don't like it, we will offer it around to the others. I've bought 4-5 on my own (and given 2 away) and gotten to try on a couple of others that my friends had. At least it gives you a better idea of what kind/type might work, or what size you might need. ie one friend has a size small in this mask, and it's still too big for my face, so I know that mask isn't going to work for me.
And the only way you're going to find out if friends use cpap is asking. Most people don't volunteer information, so you usually have to admit it first. "Hey, I have to start using a cpap machine. Anyone else have or use one?" kind of thing to find out. You might be surprised. Actually, I found many of my friends used one, but only three really live close enough (or were enough interested) to do the mask switch with.
Debbie