leak question

Hi,
I use the swift LT nasal pillows with the resmed elite II cpap, pressure is 6, and have been on therapy for about 9 months (therapy is for UARS/central apneas). I used to be a mouth breather, but can easily breathe through my nose with the mask on. After a couple months of therapy the DME looked at my data and said the leak rate was good and low, and I have not noticed any change in fatigue since then. I normally sleep alone, and my girlfriend came to visit this weekend. She told me that I did breathe through my mouth some, as she heard air coming out of my mouth. Normally I do tape my mouth shut, but I do not seal my lips end to end with tape. My question is about how the machine records the leak rate. If I open my mouth and I get the air blasting out my mouth, I assume it is reorded. But, I have found before falling asleep it is possible for me to breathe out of my mouth with the machine on, and not get any air blasting out of my mouth....in this case, I assume the air is just blowing straight out the vent, and not making it through my nose and into my mouth. Does anyone know if this would also be recorded as leak by the machine? I want to optimize my therapy, and love my swift LT, but would consider trying a FFM if it may be more beenficial.

I don't know the definitive answers to your questions today, but I have a setup similar to yours and I have an appointment Tuesday to go over all my data and determine if anything needs to be changed to optimize my therapy. I will share anything pertinent after that appointment. It will represent the opinions of a single Respiratory Therapist, but this guy is the most savvy individual I've dealt with in person during my CPAP journey. (There is much wisdom in these forums.)

Any effort to 100% seal my mouth took my overall therapy downhill. Like you I have just a strip at the center of my lips, plus a makeshift chin strap. I believe the machine will record your exhales as a higher level of leak. There are dissenting opinions on this site about what this means for the quality of your treatment--I don't personally believe that your therapy is compromised if you are not expelling more air than the machine can compensate for. The way you feel is a pretty decent barometer for how your therapy is going. However, if you are expelling air with every breath that can't be good. If your mouth is dry, that's probably a bad sign. Your girlfriend said you are breathing through your mouth "some"--you might be OK.

If you happen to have your own recording software you can run your own experiment and see exactly what the leak printouts look like by managing your breathing patterns in various ways when you're awake and looking at the resulting patterns.

It wouldn't be a bad thing to have a FFM for emergencies like colds and flu, so nothing wrong with picking one up during one of your mask replacements and trying it out.

I won't give up my Swift LT for Her easily.

Thanks for your reply, it looks like the way you tape is identical to me! I have found that some days I wake up with a dry mouth, some days I do not. Just like you, I do not want to give up the comfort of the LT! It is the first mask I took home, and after the first month I have been able to comfortably wear it all night long without a single issue! If you could ask your therapist that would be great. I also have an RN at the DME that is very knowledgible and has been on CPAP since one of the first ones came out (some 20 years or so), so I will try and get in later this week and ask him the same question. I don't have the software on my home computer to do a trial test while awake, but he is willing to show me my data, so I may at least take a second look at how my leak rate has been since I last checked.