Night One on BiPAP

[Mark0514]

Yesterday I had a tech deliver my new AirCurve 10 vauto BiPAP at 17/13 and we tested a few full face masks. I'm a mouth breather, with a beard. The first one we tried leaked terribly but the one we settled on seemed ok....meaning I couldnt feel any leaks and the machine was only responding to me inhaling instead of trying to keep up. I had a couple of issues last night like extreme dry mouth. I switched the humidity from auto to 7 and after some adjustments to the mask and chin strap I was able to breathe more through my nose and I woke up feeling pretty ok (no severe dry mouth) but my water tank was empty. Oscar is showing my average leak rate about 60, which I assume is why I ran out of water. The great news is that my AHI was a .5 with only two events, one of which corresponded with a major leak. While one night might not mean much, I wanted to know if I should be concerned with the leak rate if I don't feel it, it's not noticeable in the machine, my partner doesnt complain, and my AHI is low. I hate running out of water, but if I can stop the mouth breathing I could possibly adjust the humidity to where I can a full night without running out of water.

[Pugsy]

Your nice low AHI may not mean all that much if the machine is missing sensing & recording apnea events due to the excessive leaks compromising the machine's sensors.
Is the AHI nice and low because nothing happened or because the machine was clueless during the large leak times????

It's one night though. Work on the leaks because when you go above 30-35 lpm leak the machine can run unto trouble sensing and responding when it is in large leak territory. You want to be able to trust your data.

[Miss Emerita]

Welcome! Yes, the leaks are a concern, because the machine can’t compensate for leaks over around 30. In addition, during large leaks, it can’t reliably detect and respond to apnea events.

Do you breathe through your nose during the day? If so, you might want to try a nasal pillow mask.

The excellent news in your post is that you slept through the night your very first night. You’re off to a great start.

[Mark0514]

Thanks for the replies. I’m a mouth breather for sure, with a slightly deviated septum per my ENT. I can fall asleep breathing through my nose using nasal strips and a chin strap, but all bets are off after that. I don’t know if the chin strap contributed to the leaks or not, but every time we did a mask test yesterday even without the strap, it failed.