We are back in Utah and have been so now for about 7 weeks. Our re-entry was seamless. There were occasional snows, but the springiness of the season made them disappear quickly. Lately we have been unseasonably warm, but that changes tonight for several days of wet weather with snow levels down to 6500 ft. (No worries, we are at 4500 ft). Everyone is happy for weather that delays the rapid melting of the snowpack.
My re-entry checkup with my electro-rhythm doc in SLC went well: He discontinued the amiodarone and I have not had any negative outcomes from that. My ECG was in good sinus rhythm.
My sleep doc wanted to see me since I hadn't seen him for a couple years, so I got a readout from my BIPAP machine for 90 days and did an overnight oximetry as he wondered about my continued use of O2 at nite. In general all was okay. I am a little high on apneas/hypopneas at 6+ per hour. They like one to be at <5. The oximetry suggested some O2 desaturation periods that he suspected were from a leaky mask, so he gave me a new kind built more for peeps with facial hair (c'est moi!). I have now used it twice and I think he may be right--good sleep last night and nap yeaterday afternoon. Jan said I was much quieter, too.
During the desaturations I wandered down to less than 90% on 50+ different occasions and those occasions appear to line up with where the BIPAP shows leaking. But the O2 seems to be keeping me well into the 90%s much of the time and I am in the 90s during waking periods all the time.
Two interesting side notes: We did our annual pilgrimage to Signal Mountain Lodge north of Jackson Hole WY for Mother's Day. We ate our usual large meal in Jackson with a drink and some wine and I didn't take my evening pills until we reached the Lodge later on. Later in the evening my heart went all tachy on me--rates from 120-150 bpm. I couldn't get it down. This went on for quite some while--a couple hours--before it came down, but when it did my watch indicated I was in A-fib. Next morning the A-fib was replaced by an Inconclusive indication and since then I returned to sinus. I was very limited in my stamina at that elevation which is around 7000 ft. Returning to UT has given me back a little more juice.
The other side note is that when we climbed out of Mesquite NV on the way home from AZ to the higher elevations of UT, my nightly rate of apneas/hypopneas virtually tripled. And it continued at that level up until the 90 day reading I took for the sleep doc. It is possible that a bad sealing sleep mask accounts for some of the increase and that the new one will lower that rate. It is clear, however, that elevation is not particularly good for me and there may be a significant difference in my apnea based on elevation.
Yet, I am back steadily in the gym--riding the recumbent bike and using the weight machines several times per week and I feel pretty good, in spite of it all. In fact the sleep doc when looking at my chart and doing the mental arithmetic said to me, "You're 80?" that felt pretty good, too.
Flying to Seattle next week to see whether we are still capable of air travel and city navigating on our own. Stay tuned.
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