CPAPtalk.com

vandownbytheriver wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 25, 2024 9:50 pm

I was hoping limiting the pressure excursions would help the leaks... does not appear to be the case, the leaks were worse! The leaks looked great on the 20th, not sure what's going on there. Are you waking with dry mouth? I have a theory that mask and mouth leaks can actually cause CO2 stripping, it's like a huge exhaust port opened up... in any case the leaking will reduce the effective therapy pressure, note how the FL's seem to correlate with the leaks.

Yea, you called this correctly. I've definitely been having worse mouth leaks at the higher pressures, it's been worse the last couple nights as well. My wife keeps saying she prods me in the night when I've got my mouth open because of the noise. I've just ordered a V-COM, we'll have to see if that helps.

You mentioned that you have nostrils that can close... there are products to prevent this, one good one is Mute, comes in a fit kit with three sizes, Lanky Jason uses and recommends them. They go in the nose, not sure if they'd interfere with your pillows.

I have tried mute (before cpap) - I tolerated it pretty poorly. I'd always wake up with it missing somewhere in the sheets.

NoisyBreathing wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:17 pm

vandownbytheriver wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 25, 2024 9:50 pm

I was hoping limiting the pressure excursions would help the leaks... does not appear to be the case, the leaks were worse! The leaks looked great on the 20th, not sure what's going on there. Are you waking with dry mouth? I have a theory that mask and mouth leaks can actually cause CO2 stripping, it's like a huge exhaust port opened up... in any case the leaking will reduce the effective therapy pressure, note how the FL's seem to correlate with the leaks.

Yea, you called this correctly. I've definitely been having worse mouth leaks at the higher pressures, it's been worse the last couple nights as well. My wife keeps saying she prods me in the night when I've got my mouth open because of the noise. I've just ordered a V-COM, we'll have to see if that helps.

You mentioned that you have nostrils that can close... there are products to prevent this, one good one is Mute, comes in a fit kit with three sizes, Lanky Jason uses and recommends them. They go in the nose, not sure if they'd interfere with your pillows.

I have tried mute (before cpap) - I tolerated it pretty poorly. I'd always wake up with it missing somewhere in the sheets.

What about mouth taping? I'm having a lot of success with it... fixing to try going back to nasal, from full-face... that ESON 2 looking pretty good... and I'll be taping with three strips for that puppy, given that I'm on bi-level 17/21cm. I've been experimenting with taping my upper lip over my lower to limit jaw drop even further... had the best night ever last night, first I've hit 99% with my O2Ring:
https://sleephq.com/public/ad520175-06f ... 96ec41b9d2

I have thought about mouth taping, but it sounds fairly unpleasant (and I have a beard/mustache)... it's definitely going to be my fallback option, but I'd like to see if I can resolve things without it.

https://sleephq.com/public/b1660f44-c4b ... 62131369fa w/ V-COM

I think it's better (and I definitely felt fine this morning)

Alright I gave mouth taping a shot, it's not as bad as I expected but I'm not sure I can do this long-term

https://sleephq.com/public/dae08670-355 ... d773b5db77

When I woke up enough around 8 I noticed the tape had detached from part of my mouth. I lowered the humidity setting from 2->1, we'll see if that helps.

V-COM definitely feels better, but I'm a little suspicious of the stats... my cpap no longer consistently detects when I've taken off the mask, so I'm not really sure what that's doing to the numbers here.