Boodarai's photos with the keyword: sleep apnoea

For the last month I have been using a CPAP machine with nasal mask. Now I have a chin strap too (to keep my big mouth shut... as I am losing 30% of the air through it) and am trying to learn to love it as much as me mate Trevor.

Finally settled on the nasal mask as the one that was... least disturbing. Managed to go to sleep in it but each time I woke up and opened my mouth I could feel a jet of gas shooting out of my mouth as the machine pumped the air into my nose (level of 8cm) and straight out my mouth. Sort of like Leeloo in the last scene of The Fifth Element. This is the mask I now have to trial for a month, and what I will have to sleep in for the rest of my life.

All wired up and strapped for my first sleep with the CPAP machine. The two nurses - Julie and Andrea - at the Sleep Disorder Clinic at St John of God Hospital in Ballarat were both wonderful: doting, caring, helpful, respectful, kind. What a whopping difference to my experience in the Dandenong Hospital DTC a fortnight ago!

Trial of nasal pillow mask. No no no no no!

Trial of full face mask for my CPAP sleep test. It leaked a lot of air from the top - apparently my nose is not that suitable for this sort. I also found it a bit claustrophobic.

My private room at St John of God Hospital in Ballarat, ready for my CPAP sleep trial. My sleep doctor is the excellent Dr Wayne Spring of Ballarat.

No, it's not a bomb (back off ASIO). I'm all wired up for a sleep test, with electrodes attached to my forehead, cheek, neck, chest, feet and hand, and a monitor around my chest and waist to record it all.

No, it's not a bomb (back off ASIO). I'm all wired up for a sleep test, with electrodes attached to my forehead, cheek, neck, chest, feet and hand, and a monitor around my chest and waist to record it all.