Miserable Newby

[taxman]

I recently had my GP order a home S/S. I fought it for 3 nights and returned it to the vendor. The report came back positive for Sever OSA. GP ordered RESMED S9. Nurse delivered to me and gave me a 5 minute short course on how to use equipment. Going into 3rd week and cannot wear over 2 hours or so before I am awakened with air leaking profusely from mask. I have made countless attempts to fit full face mask to avoid leaks. I have it so tight it actually makes my head ache and I cannot pull it away from my face. I need to understand why this is happening. The nurse has been little or no help. I am confident the mask is the right size and has the soft silicone seal. Everything is great until about 2 hours have elapsed then all hell breaks loose! I have tried re-tensioning the mask and turning the CPAP off then back on but always end up jerking the mask off and throwing on the floor! I suspect that the obstruction requires the "AutoSet" machine to max out therefore breaking the seal of the mask to my face?

[Julie]

The mask may be 'the right size', but doesn't otherwise fit your face, and you need to try others, of which there are very many.

[Sclark08]

I've had about 300 masks and still suffer with leaks sometime. You will get used to it eventually at least enough to get sleep. I have been using cpap for 16 months and I still cannot get over 5 hours on the machine.
I feel better than I used to but I think I have come to the conclusion I will never feel completely rested ever again.
If your OSA is severe you must take treatment and lower your ahi number. It is very important.
Just take one night at a time. I started wearing my machine for an hour before I went to sleep while watching tv to get used to the machine and it helped. Please try whatever you think might work and ask questions on this web site . Thete are lots of experienced people here. Best of luck

[Janknitz]

I have it so tight it actually makes my head ache and I cannot pull it away from my face. I need to understand why this is happening.

That, right there MAY be the problem. Take a look at my blogpost in my signature below "Taming the Mirage Quattro". It may help you fit this mask, especially if it's a type of mask that has an air cushion as opposed to a gel cushion.

It may NOT be the right mask for you. Most of us go through several masks before finding the best one.

Since you had a home SS, most likely your settings on your (I assume) APAP machine are wide open to try to titrate you, but that's usually a problem because a setting like that has a hard time catching apneas and the pressure goes higher than necessary. It's very hard to fit a mask at 4 cm/H2O that will be leak free at 20 cm/H2O.

We can help you, but you've got to meet us halfway here by listing your equipment make and model number. We need to know what machine, what model, and pressure settings if you know them. Let us know if you are using the ramp feature.

We also need to know the make and model of your mask. If you're not sure, go to https://www.cpap.com and look for one that looks like your mask.

With this information we can help you a lot more.

[Guest]

Boy you guys are great! Last night I viewed the machine settings. The pressure reflected min 5 and max of 20. It showed that the machine was used 21 of 21 days but only 71 hours run time and the ramp was set to "OFF". I watched a youtube video of a sleep tech and his solution to full mask leakage. It basically came down to the lower jaw relaxing and dropping. He recommended an appliance that you can buy from a martial arts equipment supplier in the form of a boil and bite mouth guard vented for breathing. He demonstrated it and he said it allowed him to breath through his mouth but prevented his jaw from dropping and basically locked it in the closed position. From this I gleaned that this was part of my problem. I found a towel and ripped a piece for a test. I basically tied my jaw shut. I went to bed and waited.... The pressure started at 5. An hour later it was at 10. Another hour and it was at 18.9 and leaking pretty bad. I adjusted the mask and fought through it. I checked the pressure later in the night and it had settled at 10.5. At 5:30am I took it off due to discomfort and the fact I was getting up @ 6am. The information screen reflected 9.4 hours of usage, mask fit good, and AHI of 3.7. How do I interpret this AHI value? I will get my equipment information and post tonight. Thanks guys!

[zoocrewphoto]

Boy you guys are great! Last night I viewed the machine settings. The pressure reflected min 5 and max of 20. It showed that the machine was used 21 of 21 days but only 71 hours run time and the ramp was set to "OFF". I watched a youtube video of a sleep tech and his solution to full mask leakage. It basically came down to the lower jaw relaxing and dropping. He recommended an appliance that you can buy from a martial arts equipment supplier in the form of a boil and bite mouth guard vented for breathing. He demonstrated it and he said it allowed him to breath through his mouth but prevented his jaw from dropping and basically locked it in the closed position. From this I gleaned that this was part of my problem. I found a towel and ripped a piece for a test. I basically tied my jaw shut. I went to bed and waited.... The pressure started at 5. An hour later it was at 10. Another hour and it was at 18.9 and leaking pretty bad. I adjusted the mask and fought through it. I checked the pressure later in the night and it had settled at 10.5. At 5:30am I took it off due to discomfort and the fact I was getting up @ 6am. The information screen reflected 9.4 hours of usage, mask fit good, and AHI of 3.7. How do I interpret this AHI value? I will get my equipment information and post tonight. Thanks guys!

The ahi is good. And it sounds like you got a lot more sleep with it.

If you have the S9 autoset, there is data you can look at that will help to narrow down your pressure range. If it needs to go as high as 18, you really don't want it starting at 5. But it is also quite possible that it really doesn't need to go that high. So, looking at the full night's data will allow you to narrow the range a bit and that will help reduce leaks. Also, the mask shouldn't be too tight as that will cause gaps in the seal. It seems weird, but the seal works best when it can inflate which means it shouldn't be too tight.

If you have the escape, then you have already seen the data it has. Unfortunately, it does not show what the pressure did all night.

[Janknitz]

If it says "mask fit good" it's likely the Autoset, not escape.

PLEASE tell us your equipment so we can help. Otherwise we're "flying blind".

[Julie]

Btw, you can buy chinstraps to keep your jaw closed instead of that contraption, but it still won't address open lips.

[taxman]

Miserable night last night! Restless to start with did not help. Could not get mask to seal off when pressure went above 10. I finally edited my profile and equipment. Two attempts both failed....I plan to visit my equipment vendor and see if they can help me with my mask issue.

[Janknitz]

Yes, it sounds like you need to try a different mask, and then use the mask fit feature (which gives full pressure to fit the mask) while lying down to adjust the mask.

The wide open pressure being used for titration may be a contributing factor. You'll have to talk to your doctor about that to narrow it down unless you figure out how to take care of that yourself.

[taxman]

Finally got clarification today from vendor. The nurse is supposed to bring me a machine in two days along with all the paper work. They were waiting on the Doctor's reply from the data they retrieved from the SD card last week. They had supplied me with a "loaner" in order to establish my settings. The person that contacted me today said that the Doctor left the pressure at the 5-20 autoset that was what the loaner was set at. Got interested in the software I've been seeing people reference on this site so I downloaded it a few minutes ago and reviewed the data and reports.I think the Doctor (GP) based his decision on lack of data rather than the actual data. Although I have data for every night since I received the device, it only averages around 3.4hrs per night. I did tell the vendor to have the nurse bring a chin strap with him when he came. She said they normally don't use chin straps with full face mask to which I disagreed based on what little research I have done. Maybe in a few days I can speak intelligently about CPAP therapy on this site.

[jencat824]

Don't worry about 'speaking intelligently', just let us know your questions & concerns. No question is too small or insignificant. No questions is dumb or silly either. Just ask away & you will get some answers. Don't suffer alone, if you have an issue, someone here can help.

Jen

[MaryGordon]

I have just changed to a Quattro FX mask.
I've only had it for two nights and I found some of the difficulties which you are experiencing. However I do want to persevere with it.

This morning after I got up I lay down on my bed again and, with the help of several tips gleaned from this forum, I experimented and found a couple of things which may be useful.

• Loose straps, as several people have said, seem to be essential.

• I have trouble with jaw drop. I discovered in my experiments that if you find the right place on your chin to start off with, and the right tightness of the straps, the jaw can go up and down without breaking the seal. I treid 2 different chin straps before and neither of them would make me keep my mouth shut If I am right about the position of the bottom of the mask on the chin this could explain why they don't usually use a chin strap with this mask.

• I think the way you first place the mask on the bridge of the nose has a similar effect on the seal at the top of the mask.

These are only the findings from this morning's experiment, but I thought they were worth sharing. I am very very hopeful for tonight.

Good luck!

[MaryGordon]

I just found these Youtube video which seems very helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VehPjLsegQQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_GznWwdxzM