Some Progress!

Some progress last night. ( I am using a ResMed Vantage S8 machine for therapy.) I originally set the unit for CPAP, because the EPR (Exhalation Pressure Relief) feature only works in the CPAP mode, and I had problems with exhaling against the pressure (not sure what the pressure was at that point) in the sleep study. Last night I took the plunge and set it at AUTO and gave it a range of 7-14. No EPR, but a range of pressures, not just the fixed one. My sleep study and prescription indicate a pressure of 10.

Modest success!! I was able to keep the mask (Ultra Mirage FF) on all night (7.5 hours), and my AHI was 6.3, down from 19.5 and 27.3 the two previous nights! I did not have the constant feeling that I was fighting machine pressure. I actually slept!

I still am having mask issues (VERY sore forehead this morning with the UMFF) but I have devised a pad with I hope will ease that. I really want the Breeze to work, its much less confining than a full face mask. But unless I can overcome mouth breathing, I guess it will have to be the full face mask. A chin strap didn't work in the sleep study, I just opened my lips even though they has cinched my jaw shut during the sleep study. I often get up during the night to get some water, so taping my lips shut to stop the mouth breathing would be a real pain.

I will be giving the Breeze another try tonight with the unit set to AUTO. Perhaps I won't need to open my mouth to gasp for air. Fingers crossed!

Excellent! I'd call that far more than modest success. I'm glad to hear that you got some sleep!

I was very sore with my mask at first. I thought I was allergic to it. I taped (micropore) the skin where the mask hits, and that helped. I have been adjusting my mask making it looser and looser to see where the mask fit goes from excellent to good. The looser I make it, the LOWER the leak rates have been. Last night I had it so loose that I wasn't sure it would stay on when I slept on my side. Not only did it stay on, but the leak rate was .00 l/s!!

Keep experimenting & check the results. Come up with that happy medium between comfort and efficacy. It's out there somewhere!!

Hope you have an even better night tonight!

Bookbear wrote:I really want the Breeze to work, its much less confining than a full face mask. But unless I can overcome mouth breathing, I guess it will have to be the full face mask. A chin strap didn't work in the sleep study, I just opened my lips even though they has cinched my jaw shut during the sleep study. I often get up during the night to get some water, so taping my lips shut to stop the mouth breathing would be a real pain.

Just a thought... if you got the mouth breathing under complete control by securely taping over the mouth, you might not need water during the night. That is, unless you are needing the water throughout the night for some reason other than dry mouth. Or, lift just a corner of tape up enough to slip a straw through.

Another thought - work on fashioning yourself a "DIY" mouthguard to force the tongue to maintain an airtight seal inside the mouth. I finally got around to making myself another one (dog treated the best one I ever made like a toy!) and have been using that successfully for a couple of weeks now.

mouth leak solution, cheap DIY oral appliance

Or, since the "NoseBreathe" custom dental appliance carries a money-back guarantee (I think), perhaps it would be worth a try. It's discussed in several topics in these links:

Links to: Mouth leaks - Air Leaks - Tape - DIY Guard

Bookbear, wanting the Breeze to work for me (and it did!) so I could give up 6 months of uncomfortable full face mask wearing was why I pursued stopping mouth air leaks with such single purpose determination. There's bound to be a method that will work for you, too!

you must be wearing the mask way too tight for it to irritate and make your forehead sore, either that you are allergic to the silicone pads. I can pull the forehead pads completely away from my forehead with very light pressure. Make sure you clean those pads of any skin oils. If you are female, it may be any facial lotions causing the irritation.

That mask will leak more if you over tighten the straps and CRUSH the cushion, you have to use and allow the air pressure to help make the seal, use the nosebridge pivot to adjust any leakage out of your eyes if any exists.

if you are having difficulty falling asleep, try using the "Settling feature", this will keep the pressure low until the timer has elapsed, similar to a ramp in cpap mode but in the autopap mode it just ignores any events seen and stays on the bottom pressure set until the timer expires. If you get up during the night you can reset it just like a ramp.

if your last titration was 10cm, then your autopap range should only be about 2cm higher than a cpap titration. Use caution when you get up in the 15+cm range as you can enter the range where pressure can start to trigger centrals (all depends on the patient and how they handle pressure). So if you wake up and look at the LCD seeing 14+cm then you might want to back down the high pressure to 12cm. The Resmed machine will still go above any high pressure setting by 1-2cm, examining AutoScan reports will bare that out.

If your finding some success with current setup, just try fine tuning things vs making drastic changes such as a mask change. Some people can use it, but I find that Breeze interface horrible, it blows cold air directly into the nares, it's way more noisy than the UMFF. You also have to be careful using that mask when in autopap mode, that mask can cause the machine to miss events or make it more difficult for it to see them. Not a problem in cpap mode, but it can be in autopap mode(s).

CONGRATS Bookbear!!! Its a GREAT feeling to notice some progres being made, ain't it??!!!

I too use an S8 Vantage AutoSet and I can feel the benefits I am getting with my treatment with it.

I use a ResMed Mirage Swift nasal pillows system and I love it!!! Very comfortable, effective and non-intrusive. Another advantage is that the S8 has a setting to calibrate it for the exact bias flow of the Swift, which is particularly useful in AutoSet mode.

I'm sure that you knew this already, but I thought I'd give a roaring endorsement to the Swift, for you to consider.

Cheers!

Chuck