WTH? Last night something happened that caused my machine to shut itself off?

[Crimson Nape]

I know it's not intermittent power. Several years ago, I set up a battery system that supplies constant power for up to 14 days of CPAP use without recharge. I've lost power several times since the setup and slept through all of them unaware.

[cathyf]

Case solved!

Leave smartstart on if you want to you have only been interrupted by this once so far so seems to be infrequent. If your machine keeps turning off then you can try turning smartstart off to confirm if it is the issue. 

If not the issue then probably power (either house or power supply) or machine but those are less likely.

I have computer battery backups all over my house, and when the power hiccups I've got screaming alarms everywhere! (Fortunately it happens pretty rarely!)

I'm beginning to wonder about the power supply on the blower, too.

I'm also afraid to use the pillows. The ResMed headgear is pretty big and my head is round so the pillows end up at kind of a weird angle. The pillows get in this weird state where they aren't centered, or they are splayed out, and leak like crazy. I have noticed that my usual puff-of-breath to start the blower needs to be a lot harder with the nasal mask than the FFM, and the pillows needed even more force. It almost seemed like the pillows were getting pushed up my nostrils and pinched shut. That would explain why it stayed off for 2+ hours -- while asleep I wasn't breathing with enough force through my nose to turn it back on.

So can you guys explain what happens without smart start on if you pull off the mask, drop it on the bad, and walk away? How long does the machine blast air out? Indefinitely?


(At a previous job we had a diesel generator that powered the whole building. If you've got a backup then you've got to test it, right? So every Tuesday morning the generator would kick on and we would transfer power to it and run for an hour.

Most of computers would crash during a 7 second power drop, so we had about 80 individual battery backup batteries.

So every battery alarm in the place would yelp and we would all jump out of our skins. Then an hour later (when we had all lost track of the time and were no longer expecting it) it would happen again.

Most weeks at least one battery would shoot craps. Usually that meant that the attached computer would power off suddenly and the user would yelp. We had one server where the database took 45 minutes to rebuild -- just in time for the second crash! Occasionally the failure resulted in a battery alarm screaming continuously.

...yeah, it got pretty old...)

[Geer1]

You overthink things too much. It is highly unlikely there is anything wrong with power supply or blower, those usually are not intermittent problems. Your issue has a cause that is far more common.

If nasal pillows are going inside your nose you need the next size up. You want the cutout of pillow to barely fit inside your nostril, this will ensure the best flow possible. It is easier to start blower with FFM is because it is easier to create more immediate flow/pressure through your mouth, nasal mask and then pillow mask do have more obstructions to exhalation so it will seem like more effort. It takes less effort to press the button .

Yes if you take off mask and walk away it will blast air until you shut it off. Turning your machine on/off the old fashioned way really isn't as difficult a habit to get into as you think it will be. Worst case you will forget to do it a time or two and sit there stupidly wondering why the machine won't turn on/off (then it will click).

[SarcasticDave94]

Yep the best solution I can think is to use the "snooze" button.

FWIW what seems like my next machine has built-in battery backup, ones internal and the option for an external. Each supposedly good for 8 hours.

[cathyf]

So last night I made another try with the pillows, using the size medium cushion. I turned off smart start, and reset the pressures to 7/15.

I'm now pretty convinced that y'all are right -- the pathological interaction between the too-small cushion causing me to open my mouth and then the machine decided that I had disappeared and shut off. Definitely much better to have the machine blast away during that period so that when I do shut my mouth it realizes I'm really there!

I woke up with nasty dry mouth early in the night, and here's the 20-minute view of that hot mess:
[attachment=33110]
but otherwise the night was pretty quiet and my flow limits way down from usual.

I'm going to post a comment on corruptalligator's nasal pillow thread. I think that the fit on the pillow mask is not quite right -- it still feels like they are tilted in relationship to the angle of the bottom of my nose, and the back of the headgear is being pushed up by the back of the cervical collar. Which I suspect has to do with the headgear being simply too large. (The headgear with the hose connection on top has no top strap or other way to make the top smaller, so I'm stuck with it as it is. While the size medium frame/headgear is ridiculously too large, the size small is usable but still too big.)

[SarcasticDave94]

There's a pillows mask you tape on, called bleep dreamport. Image below. Those that are successfully using actually like them. Insurances typically will pay for the supplies for this. I've never used it, but don't think it's been mentioned. So now you're armed with this odd bit of info. Helpful or not, I dunno.

[attachment=33111]

[Elgeeone]

Try an N30 headgear. They slide on the P10 frame exactly like the P10 strap but has a large adjustable buckle on one side. I use it opposite to most (left side) as I have scarring around my left ear so I put it on the right side. You will see major improvement on the straps not moving. Also was going to advise going up a pillow size. In my case, they gave me a small pillow at first. Learned what to do about it here. I actually am far more comfortable with  the large sized pillows, medium still caused sores. 
Also have tape allergies. My solution was a good soft cervical collar. Now my mouth can stay mostly closed. No dry mouth either. No chin strap ever worked. My leakage improved drastically with the collar. Had to try a few brands as some are too narrow under the chin and you can still tuck your chin or open your mouth too wide. I found a stronger foam style that I cut to fit my chin properly. It’s a very easy set of fixes. Good luck!

[Ratchick]

I'd second the recommendation to try the N20 headgear. I find that if I push the P10 straps too high on my head, it tips the pillows so I don't get "clean" airflow as the headgear angle alters the angle of the pillows significantly. And I absolutely made the same mistake with pillow sizing too. I felt like I was not getting enough air and woke up with a headache for the first time since I started PAP apart from the attempt with the F30. Swapped up and it was night and day. If the mouth dryness becomes an issue, there's always the option to mouth tape. I also find a chinstrap helps keep my cheeks from chipmunking, which is nice!

[Geer1]

Too hard to tell what was going on with that scaling (need to zoom in on time more). The dry mouth was just because of leaks.

[DaveL]

Geer1 great response. StupidStop.

I had issues with my S10 shutting off several times in a night. It really concerned me.

StupidStop is turned off now!