Getting started -- waking up with horrible dry mouth

[eviltim]

Another mediocre nights sleep for me. I tried putting on my homemade chinstrap and woke up with it around the tube somehow. I also woke up many times and had a pretty bad AHI (almost 5). At least I kept the mask on all night.

[Shastzi]

Use the full face mask Luke.
The hassle you are going through trying to make this work is worse than adapting to a full face mask.
Once you get the hang of cleaning it and getting a good seal, it's worth it.

Peace, Love and Carrots.

[eviltim]

Yep, that seems to be where I'm headed at the moment.

[martinsr00]

I dunno - I'm more concerned about mouth opening reducing the effectiveness of the therapy. Does treating the dry mouth with xylimelts/other tricks also keep it from opening?

Have a full face mask, and have learned to breathe through nose. But things leak, etc, and mouth is still dry. But mouth or nose, all is pressurized and lungs are getting filled.

[eviltim]

So I slept last night with my chinstrap on all the way. My mouth was not terribly dry and there was water left in the humidifier (when I sleep without the chinstrap all the water is pretty much gone -- I assume the mouth leak is too much for it to keep up with). However I still woke up 5+ times.

Anyone see anything odd about this graph that I'm missing (other than the terrible summer hours I am keeping)

The total stop at 5:30ish is me disconnecting the hose to go to the bathroom.

[Shastzi]

Dude, your leak rate is murdering you.
We need to get you down to near zero on that.
Run don't walk to the full face mask supplier. (DME, etc)
You might need to try several before you get one that is right for you but it'll
be worth it.

Go for it!

[DreamDiver]

Hello Dreamdiver, is the water level reducing in your humidifier overnight ? Mine stopped doing this with the sudden change to having a tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth when I woke in the morning. Dreadfully dry. Changed out the humidifier for a new one and problem resolved.

Well, I guess dry mouth isn't a wake trigger for everyone. Lesson learned! I've only seen the water level go down overnight in the winter. I'm glad you successfully troubleshot the humidifier as the problem.

...
Run don't walk to the full face mask ...

+1
(and a papcap or a ruby)

[eviltim]

Wow, my leaks were brutal last night. Off to the drs tomorrow to discuss this and probably try on some masks.

[eviltim]

Looking thru hybrid and full face masks right now. Seems like full face masks are a lot more popular than hybrids...any particular reason?

[zonk]

Leak rate looks decent for the 1st half of the night, maybe mouth leak for the 2nd half
Do you get dry mouth or/and congestion? Beside full face mask, chinstrap can helps too