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An EPR of 3 cm and a low minimum pressure of 5.4 cm aren't doing you much good. The lowest the machine can deliver is 4cm.
I would suggest raising your minimum to 7 cm and leaving the EPR at 3 cm and see if that helps. If your CA events go up, you can lower the EPR 1 cm at a time and re-evaluate.
Believe it or not, raising the pressure slightly may help you breathe easier.
I was reading your port, and that is puzzling why you suddenly have the large leak? Did you notice this before in your OSCAR previous daily reports?
If you have tried the same style mask but new one as well as the tube, maybe the next check would be to try a completely different brand of mask? The fit may be better with a different brand? Have you ever tried a nasal pillow mask or nasal mask? There is less possibility of leaks with that type. You may need to experiment with several before you find the right one.
I also noticed that your minimal pressure is pretty low. That low of a pressure would make it difficult to feel comfortable to breathe. You aren’t getting any benefit from EPR at 3 cm. To get benefit of the EPR feature of your Resmed you would need to have atleast a minimum of 7.
Stacyburk’s explanation about the flat top refers to the graph in your chart. He was saying if you look at the graph a flat top would be mouth breathing. ( not the location of the leak on your mask)
Thanks for your post. I've learned a valuable lesson.
Zach21--sometimes a small change causes a big problem. I'm a mouth breather. I use a bunch of things to solve this issue.
* make sure my mask is ok I see yours is new.
* I use a cervical collar under my jaw
* I sometimes tape my lips shut.
I try and change one thing at a time. And it takes time to see the effect. Sometimes several days; sometimes more.
I've had much worse leaks after changing my pillow!
Thank heaven for the wonderful people here who have provided help and suggestions.
DaveL
Toronto
DaveL
compliant for 35 years /// Still trying!
I'm just a cpap user like you. I don't give medical advice. Seek the advice of a physician before seeking treatment for medical conditions including sleep apnea.
A big "thank you" to everyone on this forum that helped me sort through this issue! It seems that I mistakenly set my pressure too low (5-7), and when I raised it to 7-9.6 the leak problem was reduced and my sleep improved. I'm now feeling rested.
However, it does look like there are still some substantial leaks (they're lower than they were, but still seem quite high during the first half of the night). Perhaps this is just an issue of me playing around with the mask fit a little? This doesn't concern me too much as long as I'm feeling rested when I get up in the morning, but it does concern me a little because this leak rate is much higher than it used to be.
(01-04-2023, 09:53 AM)Zach21 Wrote: Perhaps this is just an issue of me playing around with the mask fit a little?
Sometimes it's best to just start clean by fitting the mask. Take a look at this mask fit info and follow it exactly. This has helped a lot of people with the same problem.
Unfortunately, I'm suddenly getting lots of leaks again and I'm waking up feeling lousy. This has been happening consistently for the past few weeks and I've diligently made incremental tweaks to my mask fit and the problem has not resolved. I'd be so grateful if you could help me identify anything I might have missed! Thank you!
