Giving up on fixing leaks

[Snowbird47]

Well, fellow PAP'ers, I have reached the end of my rope on stopping leaks. I have monitored and followed about every suggestion from these boards, four masks both pillow and FFM, chinstraps (two different types), tongue-to-roof-of-mouth, mouth guard, yada yada yada.

I am an active sleeper, but not a mouth breather, and because my AHI is generally in the 1 - 3 range and I feel better I am just going to live with the leaks, which range widely (FFM worse than pillows) between 0 and 25%, seemingly at random. at this point I am going to be satisfied at keeping leaks below 10% and happy at below 5%. All the effort I have put into eliminating them is just not worth the trouble to me.

I know some of you all feel differently and may have tried many more masks and solutions than me, which I certainly understand, but I am done.

[FrankNichols]

I wish I could get down to 25% - I would be thrilled, so I completely understand your frustration and decision.

[Kris the Crone]

Snowbird, you have done so much to try to alleviate the leaks, and I get how frustrating it has been for you. Glad your AHIs are low and that you are feeling better, and it is understandable that you are done with trying to fix the leaks. I am only 13 days into using a machine, have large leaks ranging from 0.02% to 17% seemingly randomly, and I am wondering how my quest to keep the large leaks down will go. My latest discovery was that two nights ago when I was too tired to take a shower and didn't wash my face before bed, my LL spiked way up that night to 17%. Well, yeah, the skin oils that had generated and the fact that I had put lotion on my dried out face during the day compromised the seal on my FFM. Last night LL went down to a more normal 5%. So that's one thing I can do to maybe keep the leaks down. I am also concentrating on adjusting the mask correctly. I can see by your list that I have a long way to go to exhaust the possibilities.

[Snowbird47]

Yeah Kris with the Simplus FFM, washing my face and the wiping the mask every night may have helped a little, but it was not consistent.

[PoolQ]

The purpose is to get good therapy, if the leaks don't keep you from sleeping and you are getting good numbers, then you are good to go.

Now if you are getting large leaks for almost all night, then that's another matter because the machine does not report accurately during large leaks. What percent of time in large leak is an unknown to me, 10%, 20%.. some amount of time does not hurt. I guess also that how long at a time, 1-5 minutes or an hour plus.

You can only do what you can do and you have tried a lot.

[kowlooner]

Have you tried the Sleepweaver Advance or Elan? Both are soft fabric nasal masks. I have the Advance.

Once I got the tightness right, leaks pretty much went away. Super comfortable too. Watch the instructional video though, since it will help you get the adjustment right as well as tell you what to do when leaks do happen. The Advance comes in small and regular (or "one size fits most" - kind of like that!) so check which size is best for you.

I'm using straight CPAP with the pressure at 13, so at your pressure settings it shouldn't be a problem. The only thing is I don't think I'm a very active sleeper, so I can't attest to the mask's efficacy there.

You might want to check with others who have the Elan though. The Advance doesn't have a swivel attachment, so it could get dislodged by the weight of the hose if you move around a lot. The Elan has a swivel, so maybe it's better in that regard. I got the Advance mainly because I thought the Elan looked too dorky.

I also have the Aloha nasal pillows, and they're okay but they're not as comfortable and do seem to get dislodged easier.

I'm new to this, just a month and a bit in, but I see lots of people who apparently have huge problems getting used to CPAP. I found it incredibly easy, and I honestly think it was having this particular mask that did it. My two cents.