Could use some help

[broken665]

I'd like to get a closer view of the flow rate in a 2-minute segment to see if we can see something in there that can help us understand these events better.

I can certainly do that. Any particular 2-minute segment, or just any random 2 minutes?

[broken665]

NASAL PILLOWS???  Is your mouth opening in your sleep?  I know mine does that is why I said no thanks to the nose hose and went full on fighter pilot face mask.

I started with a full face mask, but grew tired of the red mark and irritation on the bridge of my nose and pressure against my lower teeth. As far as I know, my mouth isn't opening, and I'm pretty sure my wife would let me know pretty quickly if it was, with ever lessening amounts of gentleness.

[jaswilliams]

NASAL PILLOWS???  Is your mouth opening in your sleep?  I know mine does that is why I said no thanks to the nose hose and went full on fighter pilot face mask.

I started with a full face mask, but grew tired of the red mark and irritation on the bridge of my nose and pressure against my lower teeth. As far as I know, my mouth isn't opening, and I'm pretty sure my wife would let me know pretty quickly if it was, with ever lessening amounts of gentleness.

Broken665 your leak rate does not indicate mouth breathing and your Philips machine is not flagging large leak so I don't think you are having issues with the Nasal Pillows.

[broken665]

I'd like to get a closer view of the flow rate in a 2-minute segment to see if we can see something in there that can help us understand these events better.

I've attached a zoom in on 2 minutes that had both an OA and H, so hopefully that can shed some light. If something else would help, please let me know.

Broken665 your leak rate does not indicate mouth breathing and your Philips machine is not flagging large leak so I don't think you are having issues with the Nasal Pillows.

Good to know, at least that's one thing that I can check off the list.

[Sleeprider]

Well, that just deepens the mystery. Neither of the flagged OA events in that snippet is a real OA. There is clearly respiration and no 10 second pause, and even the hypopnea is questionable. The respiration is very uneven and I suspect you might be inhaling through your nose and mouth and exhaling nasally. I'm seeing a respiration rate of about 11 BPM here.

Can you post the detail chart for September 7 so I can put this in context. Also do not include the pie chart by using Sleepyhead menu File/Preferences/Appearance and uncheck the event pie chart. Also, what is your Flex setting?

[bfmccarthy]

Eventually all users end up with a full face mask for those few times you end up with a cold or some congestion problem.  My provider allows me to use and mask for 30 days no questions asked!  I knew but later confirmed that I do open my mouth during the night.  By the way you can still have all the negative effects of open mouth by letting your lips part while your teeth stay clenched.  The manufacturer of your nasal pillows mask has a full face memory foam mask you might want to try.

[broken665]

C-Flex is 3. I think I'm uploading screenshots of what you asked for, but let me know if I'm mistaken. I can also upload images from Encore, not sure if it would show anything different. Thank you for all of the help, I really appreciate it.

[Sleeprider]

Holy cow! Look at that tidal volume!

Turn Flex down to 1 and let's see where that takes us. Your machine is grossly miscalculating the inspiratory /expiratory time and it is affecting your therapy. I'm convinced this is the wrong machine for you, but not necessarily the wrong technology. CPAP seems appropriate, but if you get a chance to try a Resmed, don't turn it down. Do you have COPD or other chronic respiratory disorder? My review of your close-up charts does not support the nearly 4.5 second inspiratory time and 1.5 second expiratory time. I think what is going on is your machine is not only getting it wrong, it provides pressure relief and increases at all the wrong times, and completely misses on event flags. Much of this is due to the AFlex setting.

[broken665]

Moved flex to 1. No COPD or anything of that nature, just the usual fat guy deep/heavy breathing. What is an average tidal volume? I will have to look back to see if it's usually that high, or if that was just an abnormally high reading.

[Gideon]

Eventually all users end up with a full face mask for those few times you end up with a cold or some congestion problem. 

Just to clarify, this statement is not true.  I and many others are able to force ourselves thru about 5 minutes of pressure and the congestion clears with just a nasal mask.  In the past I stated that all pap users should have a FFM as a backup for the exact reasons you state.  I found this to be absolutely not true even with my occasional severe congestion.