New User I am alive again!

[RipVanLarry]

I am extremely grateful to all of you who share your time and wisdom on this site. I started on CPAP in late March after a diagnosis of mild apnea and took to it like a duck to water, only 2 nights under 6 hours use to date. I had been desperate to get my life back after never fully recovering from a bout with swine flu in 2009 that almost took my life. I lost 65lbs over the next 3 years and started to look like a holocaust survivor, I was eating all day long and losing weight. Doctors could not figure out what was wrong, my labs looked good but I did not. I gave up on the drug pushing doctors and went to a naturopath and with the help of IV's and expensive powdered food my weight loss stopped. Gaining the weight back was very difficult until I started CPAP, for the first time in 11 years I am packing on pounds and I eat very healthy food for the most part.

I was also recently diagnosed with mild heart failure at the same time as OA and started taking Losartan, I felt terrible on that drug and finally felt the true benefit of CPAP when I quit taking it. That was around the time our blast of nonstop ozone pollution kicked in for the summer and that slowed me down as it has for the last decade. In the last week with some windy storms and declining ozone I am feeling better than I have in at least 11 years, it is a mental challenge adjusting to having some hope again. I live with chronic pain like Pugsy and it has affected my sleep for over 30 years, my sleep is much more restful now. My blood pressure was much lower on about day 5 of CPAP and I reduced my BP meds. Well that's enough or now I'll be back with some questions later.

[Miss Emerita]

Larry, it’s just wonderful to hear how much better things are going for you! So many aspects of our health and our ability to function in life depend on good sleep, as your story underlines.

Thank you for posting; I know this will encourage other people. In fact, you might want to copy and paste your post here into another post in the “Newbie would like to hear success stories” thread up above.

[zonker]

Thank you for posting; I know this will encourage other people. In fact, you might want to copy and paste your post here into another post in the “Newbie would like to hear success stories” thread up above.

came to see this, left satisfied.

[bombayone]

I am glad that you are doing well. It is premature and possibly dangerous to self reduce your blood pressure meds after 5 days on CPAP. Please consult with your physician about your long term blood pressure management. Blessings and good luck.

[RipVanLarry]

I am glad that you are doing well. It is premature and possibly dangerous to self reduce your blood pressure meds after 5 days on CPAP. Please consult with your physician about your long term blood pressure management. Blessings and good luck.

Thank you for your kind words and I know about the dangers of adjusting meds without a doctors oversight. I come from a family with many medical workers and I have much more medical knowledge than the average person. I would have consulted my doctor but that situation happened when Covid had shut things down. The losartan is a very risky drug to stop taking and I was not on it for very long and did a slow reduction in dosage without any side affects.
I monitor my BP closely and I was getting some very low readings like 93/54 when I decided to act on my own, I did not stop taking my BP med but cut back while watching my readings closely.

[Miss Emerita]

Thanks for reposting in the Newbie thread! I know it was the first thread I looked at when I first came here, in despair after a rocky first couple of nights.