Apnea Board Forum - CPAP | Sleep Apnea
Leak rate question - Printable Version

+- Apnea Board Forum - CPAP | Sleep Apnea (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Public Area (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Public-Area)
+--- Forum: Main Apnea Board Forum (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Main-Apnea-Board-Forum)
+--- Thread: Leak rate question (/Thread-Leak-rate-question--46001)

Pages: 1 2 3 4


RE: Leak rate question - Expat31 - 08-27-2024

Starts looking good ! 

I think it's a matter of letting time doing it work, for you to get settled in the new settings environnement. 

One thing to watch out for, are clusters of events, there were 2 on the 24th. This could indicate positional apnea.

But again, it's early days.

Glad things seem to be going in the right direction at the moment.


RE: Leak rate question - weepingwillow - 08-27-2024

Awesome, thank you! I finally have hope after years of struggling with my sleep.  

Thanks


RE: Leak rate question - G. Szabo - 08-27-2024

Indeed, August 24 is the smoothest ride so far. To make it even smoother and mitigate obstructions, you can increase the minimum pressure to 13, which increases your aerophagia. Fortunately, your flow limit is reasonable even at this pressure. So, it is a comfort issue.
At a hose temperature of 27, you can increase humidity to 5 without much risk of condensation. For me, higher humidity equals more comfort.


RE: Leak rate question - weepingwillow - 09-05-2024

I'd like to post a few more charts but it seems I've met a limit and I'm not allowed to post any more (?).

I had an AMAZING night of sleep recently but haven't been able to replicate it quite yet. I noticed that on the great night of sleep, the leak rate was very stable and low. On other nights the leak rate is higher and fluctuates a good bit. Although it stays below the red line, I'm wondering if it might be problematic because the leak rate chart is so noticeably different on my night of good sleep compared to nights of not so good sleep. Would love to hear thoughts or suggestions about this.

A positive development is that I'm rarely experiencing aerophagia now. Go figure, right after I bought Gas-X in bulk from Costco!


RE: Leak rate question - Crimson Nape - 09-05-2024

To free up attachment space, simply go to your profile control panel (UserCP), scroll down on the left side to Miscellaneous > Manage Attachments, and delete your oldest ones.

Here is a quick link to this location: UserCP > Miscellaneous > Manage Attachments
- Red


RE: Leak rate question - weepingwillow - 09-05-2024

Thank you, Crimson Nape! Attachment issue fixed. Smile

Here are my last 3 nights. The first night is the one that left me feeling energetic and hopeful; the last two nights have taken that hope away for now...


RE: Leak rate question - weepingwillow - 09-05-2024

I took another look at my own charts that I just posted, and I'm remembering now that after my good night of sleep, I increased the min pressure from 12.6 to 13.0. I was thinking that might reduce the few remaining OAs I was having. In hindsight, perhaps that wasn't such a good idea? I'll try dropping back down to 12.6 tonight unless ya'll advise against it.


RE: Leak rate question - G. Szabo - 09-05-2024

Your flow limit is good. To further increase your comfort and reduce pressure bumps at night, you might want to increase your minimum pressure to 14 cm.
It would be best to increase the maximum pressure to 17 because you are approaching your current ceiling.


RE: Leak rate question - weepingwillow - 09-05-2024

Thanks, G. Szabo. And here I'd been thinking that going lower might help. But I think I see your reasoning-- it may help to be more proactive with the minimum pressure so there are fewer pressure fluctuations and OAs.


RE: Leak rate question - Expat31 - 09-05-2024

Yes, as you still have some stubborn events around, and increasing minimum pressure to 14 could certainly help clear these up.

I have a couple of other observations and alternatives. 

- Whilst overall your leak rates are well within limits, they are pretty erratic. and you may be quite senstive to these, and thus causing arousals. I have a similar situation also. 
As a mouth taper also, I couldn't understand why unable to stop this. My eventual solution was to tuck my lower lip under the top lip, than fix the tape over them, making sure the tape was long enough to cover the corners of the mouth, - generously. 
It seemed to create a sort of double seal. 

- An alternative to increasing  minimum pressure of 14 as mentioned above, is to reduce EPR  to 2. This could help better control your remaining obstructives and centrals. 

As your current flow limitations are effectively zero, you have room to manoeuvre. Depends on how you feel with this. 
 
It's just a matter of trial and error until getting it right.