Sleep Apnoea and CPAP

I had a bit of a breakthough recently. I was put on permanent pressure rather than demand pressure, set at 19 - which is high - as I was not responding adequately to demand pressure. It didn't seem to be making a lot of difference, and I had tightened the mask to keep it on. Then I found the foam seal was splitting so I contacted Resmed and got an appointment with their nurse/technician. She said that I was getting a lot of events in the half hour ramp period so she removed the ramp. There was also another issue related to exhaling, that I didn't understand but she changed. It made a lot of difference. The immediate high pressure is a bit unnerving at first, but I have got used to it, and I have been getting much better scores, including a couple of 0.0, which I have never got before. I still get high numbers if I lie on my back but I mostly have trained myself not to do that and its only occasional. I am still not getting much better than 5 hours sleep, but I have some ideas to try and improve that.

This kind of proactive approach by the technician is way more than I have ever had from a consultant, they never seem to manage more than fiddling with overall pressure or moving from demand to permanent pressure, and in fact some of the stuff some consultants have told me amounts to pure nonsense.

I have the Airtouch F20 cushion, full face, they have to be replaced every month.

It has quite a delicate foam/sponge seal on it that cannot be washed so after a month it becomes ineffective because of the build up of facial oils. I can often get it to go to 5 weeks but on average it lasts a bit over a month. I use one until I get excess leakage from it then change it.