New CPAP user

I am a new CPAP user. Insurance wouldn't pay for real sleep study so I had a home sleep study but got a prescription which was the goal. I've had my APAP for 3 weeks. I had some problems at the beginning mostly with leaks.

Last night I had my best numbers yet. I didn't feel any leaks but software said i had the worst leaks ever?




Thanks, Jeff

Why do you think that the software says you had worst leaks ever?
You didn't. Your leak line is really quite acceptable.

SleepyHead tends to make mountains out of mole hills due to the scale at which leaks sometimes get showed.

Couple things to remember...that top leak line is total leak which includes the mask's intentional vent rate along with any excess leak.
Vent rate is tied to pressure and as the pressure increases the vent rate will also increase. So your pressure increased and so did the leak line...that's to be expected.
The worst the leak ever got to was 45 L/min...and at your pressure at that time I suspect that the vent rate is going to be up close to that 45 L/min mark.
Do you still have the mask paperwork that came with your mask? In that paperwork is a chart that shows the expected intentional vent rate/flow at the various pressures that can be used. Compare the vent rate at around 16 cm and see how far off from 40 L/min it is. It won't be far off.

Your large leak territory with the Respironcs PR S1 machine is going to be somewhere up around 80 to 90 L/min with your machine at your pressures....you never got even close to that number.
If you were to look at your leak report using Encore software there wouldn't be much movement of that leak line ...at least not like you see the mountains in SH because the scale isn't zoomed in so close.

Do you have Encore software so you can compare? If you want it send me a private message.

Vent rate charts for various ResMed masks.
http://www.resmed.com/us/assets/documen ... sa_eng.pdf

Full face masks at 14 cm pressure the expected vent rate is 44 L/min...there's going to be a little plus or minus variation with all the masks...so what you see when your pressure increases is just vent rate increase that goes with pressure increase...not excess leak.

So even though the SH graph line looks like mountains of leaks it really isn't bad at all. In fact the opposite is true.
You had minimal to no excess leak. I know it looks ugly but it isn't. At your pressure with your mask...the excess leak is extremely well managed. So don't worry about it...there's nothing to worry about.

Another suggestion...you have your APAP set at 4-20. I think you will do better by raising the lower number to 8 or 10.

Thanks for the replies. I felt really good this morning so I'm glad the numbers agree. I will raise the bottom pressure to 8 and give that a try tonight.

Jeff

If going from 4 cm starting out to 8 cm is too big of a jump comfort wise try 6 cm instead and work up slowly. Sometimes when a person has been used to a lower pressure for a few weeks the change to a higher pressure can cause discomfort and disturb sleep...so if you feel overwhelmed...try 6 cm minimum for a few nights.

You may find that with a more optimal minimum pressure that your maximum pressure will stabilize and not go so high so often.