Coleman's Oscar Review request

Not sure why, but my trend the last three days has moved the wrong direction. I seem to be having a lot of large leaks, due to my mouth being open.

I am still at a minimum pressure of 6 and EPR of 2, would it be a good idea to bump up to pressure of 7 and EPR of 3 and give that a try?

Also, Oscar flagged a "cheyne stokes respiration" for 24 minutes, and upon googling that I felt a little freaked out. Is that a common issue?

Thanks again for your time and help!!

It's a shame that all periodic breathing is labeled "Cheyne-Stokes" breathing. CS is a small subset of periodic breathing, and it has a distinctive flow rate. If you zoom in on about 6 or 7 minutes in the CS-flagged segment, someplace where there are a lot of CA flags, we can take a look to confirm that you should have no worries.

Periodic breathing occurs when one CA sets off another. You breathe more deeply, washing out a bit of CO2 and delaying your next breath by a little. Then after the pause, you do some recovery breathing, which is deeper and again washes out a bit of CO2. Rinse and repeat. These periods of unstable breathing will correct themselves, and you will probably have fewer and fewer episodes as time goes by.

CAs are "consistently inconsistent," as some people put it. So my advice is to stick to your current settings for a few more days and see how things go.

About the large leaks: do you think you'd be willing to give tape a try? Although it's a bit pricey, you might buy a box of Somnifix strips. They're very gentle on the skin. If you get along well with tape, you can switch to something cheaper down the road.

Thank you for the information about periodic breathing, I won't worry about that for now!

I am not opposed to mouth tape, I did try it for a couple of nights last week. The only issue I had was my mouth would still fill with air, and I think I was swallowing it and had quite an upset stomach in the morning. But maybe now that I am a little more used to the CPAP, along with the chin strap, I can give the tape a try again and see if it helps.

Hoping to get a good night tonight! Thanks again

After a couple nights with the chin strap and mouth tape, which did help when used together. I got my Phillips Dreamware full face mask yesterday. I had the best AHI yet, and was able to stay asleep almost the entire night.

Hoping for another good night tonight!

Excellent news -- thanks for letting us know!