Help for a newby friend. Kind of urgent!

[congahands]

I have a really close friend who just started on the hose Wednesday night. His AHI for his PSG was over 80. He took his machine back yesterday because it quit working in the middle of the night. After seeing the results below, I'm thinking that it shut off because it didn't think he was on it. Last night wasn't horrible too.

It's a Remstar Pro M. All he knows about his mask is that it is a full face. I got his card from his wife this afternoon and looked at last nights data on my reader and encore viewer.
I can't figure out how to get the image into this page but here are the high points.

He was on the machine for 6.5 hours.
His pressure is set at 10 but I think that's probably irrelavent because he's in Large Leak(266 l/min) for 64.18% of the night.
His average leak was 79 l/min. My leak on my quattro at a pressure of 16 is 39-45.
His OAI was 15.1
His HI was 2.1
His vibratory snore was 194.2!!!!!!

The LL line is solid brown for the first 3.5 hours and the VS line is a solid yellow bar for most of that time.

What could cause a leak like this? It's almost like his hose isn't connected.

I'm going over at 8:30 tonight to see what I can do to help and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

CH

[Rockin Mama]

One thing I can say, is have your friend strap on his mask, and set his pressure to full throttle, and see if his mask is on properly, that could be one thing, and second make sure he's not draw dropping and causing leaks also... Make sure his mask isn't too small too... hope you can help!

[RAINSUX]

As you probably know, nothing means much of anything until you get the leaks under control. My snores go up when my pressure is set too low, but this could be caused by the leaks. If it were me I would concentrate on the leaks, and then fine-tune the rest of it.

Sam

[tattooyu]

I agree with RM. Since he is using a FF mask, jaw dropping could be putting his mouth below the edge of the mask if it's not the right size. I don't know how you feel about it, but maybe bring your mask over just as a test.

Other than that, the mask must not be fitted right at all. That, or a ferret chewed through his hose.



Good luck and let us know what you find!

[builta]

Lots of DMEs (and Sleep Centers) have a return period for masks (some up to 30 days.) Have him ask if he can try different masks (while laying down) and try to find one that doesn't leak. I tried about five different full face mask types and sizes before I found one that fit me without leaking. You want to try them over night if possible. He will learn a lot quickly and things will get better. Check out the "Light Bulb" above also known as "Our Wisdom" for detailed advise. It helped me a bunch.

I agree with your thought that the leak was excessive and the Remstar M Series machines have a "Mask off" shut down setting that is suppose to shut if off if the mask is removed from the face (sometimes large prolonged leaks set it off). It on the setting menu (under the flap). You should be able to restart it by just pressing the power button. You can also turn off the "Mask off". I think that I remember reading that there is also a "Thermal overload" to protect the motor that will reset after it cools back down.

[cflame1]

you probably know this, but you might not... if you end up with a LL... your machine won't respond (or is it record). All that I know is that it doesn't work quite right.

So definately see what you can do to deal with the large leaks.

[congahands]

A brief update.....

First off I got some numbers a little off when I first posted. LL is 120 l/min and apparently that is the limit of the machine. He was in LL for 266 min, not leaking at 266 l/min. Either way, he wasn't getting any theraputic benefit.

Secold his mask is a F&P Flexifit 431.

I took a one day set of my charts, and his one day set of charts over and showed him and his wife what was going on. Their jaws hit the floor when they saw his leak numbers.

It occurred to me, just before we(my wife and I) left to go over that he has a pretty thick goatee, and I checked with the chat board to see if that could cause that big of a leak. They agreed that the beard was probably the major cause.

The only thing that didn't make any sense was, how did the sleep lab get decent results during his split study?

So Mrs. LL called the sleep center and explained the problem. The tech asked what his leak numbers had been as if she expected that everyone would know that. DUH!!!! NO!!!! Anyway the sleep tech was great. She said, "My patient isn't due for a while. If you want, bring his machine, and mask here and I can help you out. Oh and take a jar of vaseline and put it in the freezer, I'll explain why when you get here."

I'm going to echo what has been said so many times. This board is soooo valuable. Without the knowledge I had gained here, about getting information off of the card, and all the rest, I wouldn't have been able to help them and they didn't know where to turn.

Lastly, I've never heard of this "frozen vaseline" thing for beards. It might be something that can come in handy here.

I'll post again when I find out what the sleep lab said.

[congahands]

Final update......

Sorry, it's been a rough week. So my friend went to the sleep lab. The sleep tech was aghast that he'd been given a FF mask with his really thick beard. She fitted him with a nasal mask, and sent him home with it(free) with instructions to not tell anyone where he got it. He has been sleeping great ever since!

Once again.... DME???? Idiots!!!!!
Sleep lab techs???? The only sane people in the industry!!!!

But that's just my opinion.

[dsm]

Final update......

Sorry, it's been a rough week. So my friend went to the sleep lab. The sleep tech was aghast that he'd been given a FF mask with his really thick beard. She fitted him with a nasal mask, and sent him home with it(free) with instructions to not tell anyone where he got it. He has been sleeping great ever since!

Once again.... DME???? Idiots!!!!!
Sleep lab techs???? The only sane people in the industry!!!!

But that's just my opinion.

That is great that it worked out ok. I have had days in a row where my leaks were big black lines across the data charts & I could not seem to get to the cause. Having a beard is of course the main suspect. I went for close on a week with LL bars & then one night it all came good again - I had replaced the hose, tightened the straps, washed the seal, dampened my face.

My leaks are not as good as before the beard but rather than take it off am thinking of following your friends example & going back to trying a nasal pillows mask (nasal masks seen to restrict airflow in my nose).

DSM