[Treatment] New to CPAP - OSCAR reading

[grzkar]

Hello everyone, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and for the past month, I've been using the Automatic CPAP Philips Dreamstation 2. At first, I tried the Philips Amara View mask, but I couldn't get it to fit properly (possibly because of my beard). Every time I turned in bed, the mask would move a bit, and the air would flow into my eyes, causing me to wake up, which led to interrupted sleep (although, to be honest, I didn't feel that bad in the mornings). Now I'm trying to use the nasal cushion mask AirFit P30i Resmed, and it's much more comfortable. However, I have a deviated septum (although it's not that terrible, when falling asleep with the Amara View mask I was breathing through the nose, same with the P30i), and I'm worried that I might be opening my mouth during sleep (but I don't know how to confirm that), which could be affecting my sleep quality. While I'm not waking up during the night now (so in that aspect, it's better than when using the Amara View mask), I'm not sure if I feel more refreshed in the morning. Sometimes maybe I feel worse? It's hard to tell, to be honest.

I've recently bought an SD card to analyze the data through OSCAR, and I'm attaching my last reading using the AirFit P30i Resmed mask.

My questions are:

1. Does that look good? I'm a newbie at this. It seems not ideal, but not terrible? Is there anything specific I should pay attention to?
2. Can this Leak Rate indicate that I am opening my mouth during sleep? I was wearing mouth tape during the night recorded here, but it was not a strong tape and was a little loose when I woke up.
3. For 41 minutes, my breathing was not detected. Could it be that I opened my mouth then, and that's why the CPAP didn't record me breathing (as it expects air to flow through the nasal mask)?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Narcil]

Large leak - 0.4% (column on the left) that is good. but the leaks are still above the threshold of what the machine can handle (red line on leak graph) for a good amount of time, so you can improve it. i'm not familiar with the dreamstation, but if no breathing was detected you probably took the mask off.

your numbers look good but a few H,OA left so i would raise the min pressure. 4cm is too low for most adults. i would try 7.

[grzkar]

Thanks for the help!

When it comes to the leaks - yeah, but the question is how can I improve that? Do you think it can be a sign of me opening my mouth and thus air escaping (I'm using nasal mask)? Or maybe it's just a matter of tightening the mask?

When it comes to taking mask off - I think that's pretty much impossible, those nasal pillows sits pretty much inside my nose, unless I somehow managed to lay on my stomach and maybe then pushed the mask off? I was wondering if it could mean that I just opened my mouth ?

And when it comes to the pressure - got it, I'll bump it up, appreciate the help!

[Narcil]

according to some quick searching on this forums you probably had your mouth open and didn't take it off.

https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread...scar-Terms

[grzkar]

Ah, that's terrible, thanks for researching that!

[Millstone50]

You probably want to turn Auto Off to On so that a large leak will turn the machine off. I don't think you were wearing it during those 15 minutes

[Deborah K.]

Your leaks look large on your chart, but if you look at the graph to the left of the chart you will see that they are only 0.41.  That's not enough to worry about as it will not affect your therapy at all.  Now if that little bit is blowing in your eyes like your FF mask, then you need to fix it.  Otherwise, I'd ignore it.  

I don't know why you have that big grey area.  By the red line below it and the items below it, the machine shows that it was recording your sleep.  Maybe someone else can help you with what caused that phenomenon.  I hope so.  

[grzkar]

Thanks everyone for the replies and help!

Here is a little update, maybe someone can also comment on that. 

Attaching two data sets, one is using nasal pillow mask with taped mouth, and this resulted in AHI 1.62, but frankly didn't feel great in the morning. Any idea why I do see such a high number of Variable Breathing? And I think I still have an issue with leaks there? As even tho on the left Large Leak is 0, but on the graph the green line constantly goes over the read line - what does that mean? I'm not sure If I know how to read it correctly. I think I need something better to tape my mouth, as now I'm using some nasal straps glued to the mouth.

And the second screenshot is from wearing a full face mask with nasal cushion - I'm constantly waking up with this mask, the AHI is higher, the air is blowing into my eyes, but I think I felt better in the morning? Might be just my wrong judgment tho. This mask is tricky as I prefer to have it more on a loose side, as then it's more comfortable to sleep, I don't have any marks on my nose, but then there is a small amount of air blowing into my eyes, which makes it impossible to fall asleep. I need to sleep on my back with this mask, and that's worse, right? From my sleep examinations it was clear that I had more apnea events when sleeping on my back, so I suppose with CPAP I should still try to sleep on my side/stomach, right? Or in CPAP case it doesn't matter?

[Deborah K.]

I see what you mean about the leaks.  Your machine is not recording something correctly.

The pillows mask does show better results.  I suggest you stick with that.  You're right, you do need better tape.  Lots of people here like 2-inch wide Cover Roll Stretch tape.  I find that I need 2-inch wide tape cut about 5-1/2 inches long to control leaks.  For myself, I like Theraband Kinesiology tape best, but it is more expensive.  I don't know what is available in Poland, but I hope you find a tape that works well for you.

[grzkar]

Got it, I'll try both Cover Roll Stretch tape, and Theraband Kinesiology tape (as it's also available here in Poland) to see what works best for me - thanks for the suggestion! 

I've also bumped up my min pressure to 8, will see how it goes. 

I'll try to come back with some results in a week or so, just to shed some light on those weird leaks reports.

Again - appreciate the help!