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Night 5 for me on the Hybrid. Because of what I have now conclusively determined to be a cold I have had no choice but to go with the Hybrid for these 5 nights or to do without. An attempt at a short nap on Friday before having to make a late night pickup at the airport (where I picked up the conclusive evidence of the cold, she left for Europe on July 4 and came down with a cold exactly at the same time with almost the same severity - voila!) and it was impossible to sleep/doze because of the airway collapse.

I have settled on large pillows, short ring, large cushion, retained the chin cup, no overhead hose hookup (was doing it Mike's way from day one for me but didn't work too well). Even with the cold I got a pretty decent night's sleep. I started out the night with medium cushion (sans chin cup) and medium pillows on the short ring and it just wasn't going to work. I went back to a combination I had some success with earlier and it was like coming home.

So, for me, Hybrid is a keeper and last night felt so secure and reassuring, after all the adjustments of course, if I get a few more of those this interface may become my standard.

My Encore report was pretty good and this combination has proved best for me. Snores remain off the chart and leak rate a little disconcerting but that seems to be a characteristic of this interface (for me at least) but AHI is pretty good and my subjective sense of well being is pretty good as well so I'll not pay too much attention to those indices other than to see that they don't change too much.

If I have anything else substantive to share about the Hybrid I'll post a new thread and let oldgearhead's fade into the bit based sunset.

David

Night One:

After NOT being able to use the mask as is, I did the Flap removal and was able to try it.

MY experience is challenged at best, at least I'm consistent with masks:

I have trimmed the flap from Both the Med and the Large Cushion.

I am using the Large Cushion and the LArge Pillows in the HIgh Position.

Last night I slept with it for 1 1/2 hours until one of the pillows popped out and I could feel the pressure on my upper lip creating a sore so I switched to my Activa.

I noticed in addition to the pressure sore right under my septum, just below my nose in the center, that it seems that pressure escapes from the flap on the elbow.

Do all of you have pressure escaping from that valve located at the turn at the elbow? I read that it is supposed to seal at 3 cm of pressure. I'm running 9-10 cm so it should be closed.

When I put my finger over that opening at the elbow the mask is very quiet.

I checked my data and it shows I was in Large Leak the whole time. My leak rate was 75 avg while I was using the Hybrid but I was not leaking from the cushion or maybe just a tad from the pillows, so that valve is suspect for the large leak numbers. (As Compared to the Activa at leak rate:25)

Snore was 60 vs about 6.0 with the ACtiva.

Also, my snore was very high during that time but immediately dropped down when I switched to the Activa. Possibly the snore was really the vibration being created by that large leak.

I'd appreciate hearing about that valve in the elbow.

Thanks,

Tom

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): activa, seal

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): activa, seal

Tom,
Negative on the check valve. I have no air leaking past mine when its pressured. Does the little 'flapper' look okay?

You should contact the vendor about the problem. If you were to have a power failure while you were in a drunken stupor, you could die and they would be responsible.

Yes it does look ok.

But it is definitely leaking from there.

I thought I read about someone else on the forum having that issue, do you recall it?

Tom

Tom,

I'm not sure who to give the credit to for this, but one of the women users of the Hybrid said if you tied the side straps together with something, it tends to angle the pillows more towards the face, perhaps helping you to keep them in the nose better. I think, though, you have bigger fish to fry with that flap issue.

I, too, did remove the medium chin flap, after seeing you can purchase new mouth seals individually, and it seemed to make a pretty big difference, although I haven't slept with it yet. I think if you don't have that chin piece pulling down on the mask, you can get a better fit with the pillows.

Good move by Mike with the "flapectomy," or, as you put
it, "Mandiblecotmy." A rose by any other name...