Continuing the BP saga

About two weeks ago, I noticed that I was often tired during the day. When I looked at the data from the CPAP machine, I could see that the number of apneic events had increased from one to two an hour (an acceptable level) to twenty or more. No wonder I was feeling tired. Then I started researching whether any of my medications could influence sleep apnea, and it turns out that beta blockers might well do this.

As it happens, I had run out of beta blocker pills, so I decided to try a few days (or more) without these pills. The number of apneic events dropped dramatically (good),but my blood pressure and pulse slowly increased. Which is better, preventing apnea or lowering bp? No doubt they are both connected.

I had an appointment on Sunday with my family doctor (booked a few weeks ago) that gave us the chance to go over the detailed sleep and blood pressure logs (like a good student, I prepared all the data beforehand). We decided that the next step in my on-going experiment with medication would be to restore taking the beta blockers, but to take them in the morning and not in the late afternoon. So far, there have only been two days with this new regime; the blood pressure and pulse have dropped to good levels. There's a problem with the CPAP machine such that I can only get data until two days previously, so I still haven't seen how my sleep has been affected. I'll know tomorrow about the first day.

Another development is that my weight has been dropping steadily albeit slowly. On Yom Kippur I probably shed a fair amount of water, but even since then I've lost about half a kilo. This is probably due to my new diet (no milk) although it may also be due to the new medication for aldosterone; I can't see that this medication has had any affect on my blood pressure, but some nights it definitely works as an diuretic. For the last few nights I've been waking four times a night to go to the toilet, meaning that I am definitely losing liquid (and hopefully weight) but this is also ruining my sleep.

Maybe it's just as well that I no longer drink milk or flavoured milk products as there has been a shortage in Israel for the past few weeks. I've nearly run out of rice milk (a poor substitute) so I've been drinking more herbal tea in the past few days. Hopefully 'our' supermarket in Bet Shemesh will have some rice milk as there's none on the kibbutz. Soya or almond milks have more potassium than 'real' milk so these aren't an option.

In another two weeks I'll do yet another blood test to see how the new medication combined with changes in diet have affected my blood potassium level. Will it have gone up? Gone up seriously? Will I have been too strict with myself and now the level has gone down??