Sure enough, upon return from a very nice trip to the NW for a few days, I came down with my usual post-travel upper respiratory infection. I rode it out without antibiotics but it took several weeks and I haven't really felt right since. TMI: loads of mucus, hacking, and expurgating. That's over now but appears to have left me permanently tired and short of breath. This is exactly how I felt when I was experiencing heart failure the first time.
To compound matters of chicken and egg: my new BIPAP mask appears to have worked only a few weeks in keeping down my AHI (Apnea/Hypopnea Index). About the time I started fighting with the fit of the thing last week, I started to have trouble going to sleep. That first big apnea would jerk me awake, searching for O2. Lately, this has led to morning naps as well as afternoon naps to catch up. (I wish I could see daily data on this.)
The only other bit of data I have is that I haven't seen a sinus rhythm indication on my Apple Watch now for several weeks. (I have been off the amiodarone since April.) The reading I get is something they call Inconclusive which means, not sinus rhythm, but not A-Fib either.
I am becoming a recluse. Going anywhere doesn't interest me too much. Depression symptoms anyone?
I have been informally dieting and have lost maybe >10 lbs since returning from PHX. (Interestingly, that has not helped my stamina.) It didn't seem too hard to do, maybe because I am less interested in food.
So, is this normal deterioration? The three year slide? Who knows? I think I'll start with the rhythm docs in SLC and see what is shakin'.
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