#Cholesterol Normal Range

[truwellth]

Cholesterol

Here find detailed info on: Cholesterol Levels. Know about, Cholesterol Foods. Cholesterol Symptoms. Cholesterol Causes. Cholesterol Levels By Age Chart. Know, How To Reduce Cholesterol?... from Rajashree Gadgil… Top Nutritionist in Thane & the founder of TruWellth Integrative Health Center… the best nutrition center in Thane.

[servantofwrath]

just got my blood test results back and i am startlingly healthy for my age and weight i should do drugs about it

[so-much-for-subtlety]

my labs from yesterday morning were already done: my testosterone is actually a little above average (for my age) made coffee and walked to market to get apples and this very mid pan au chocolate and now home for duddy cuddles

[superchemistryclasses]

Top Biochemistry Lab Tests: Essential Diagnostics & Their Importance

Biochemistry lab tests play a vital role in diagnosing, monitoring, and preventing diseases. These tests analyze blood, urine, and other body fluids to assess organ function, detect imbalances, and identify potential health issues before they become serious. Whether you’re undergoing a routine checkup or experiencing specific symptoms, biochemical tests provide crucial insights into your…

[reasonsforhope]

"A simple blood test costing less than $10 could prevent hundreds of heart attacks and other adverse cardiac events per year.

Troponin is a protein found in heart muscle cells that if detected in the blood stream means the heart has been damaged in some way: a key indicator of cardiovascular disease risk with greater predictive power than cholesterol levels.

A troponin detection test that can be administered along with other simple blood tests could alert hundreds of patients to their higher risk of heart attack and stroke, allowing them to alter their lifestyle or even start taking statins, in advance of an adverse cardiac event.

The concept was demonstrated in a paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The authors showed that adding cardiac troponin levels to existing risk factors such as smoking status, cholesterol, diabetes presence, and blood pressure increased the predictive powers of these screenings—done after CVD events or in advance of a statin prescription.

In fact, in their study of 62,000 Britons with a 15-year follow-up, one additional CVD event would be prevented for every 408 and 473 individuals screened when troponin was added, a result of troponin being a good indicator of so-called “silent” heart damage that could lead to a CVD event in the future.

The study also found adding troponin tests meant that up to 8% of people classified as intermediate risk were changed to high-risk.

“Troponin, even in the normal range, is a powerful indicator of silent heart muscle damage,” said Anoop Shah, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and lead author on the study.

“As such, the test provides an extra layer of information that we can use to boost our accuracy when predicting people’s risk. We want to identify as many high-risk people as possible, so that no one misses out on the opportunity to get preventative treatment.”"

-Article via Good News Network, April 11, 2025. Study via Journal of the American College of Cardiology and ScienceDirect, April 2025.

[scooplery]

😞

got my blood drawn today please pray that the vials hold the answer

[doberbutts]

I want to talk a bit about the whole "fat trans men are denied top surgery" thing because it's true. Many surgeons have BMI requirements and will not operate on anyone classified as more than "overweight".

But I also want to discuss how testosterone often makes you gain weight, putting trans mascs in a fairly difficult position.

When I started testosterone, I weighed 178lbs. I rapidly shot up to 198lbs. At 5'10" I'm classified as just over a BMI of 30 according to my discharge papers, making me classified as obese. I also started having a bit of a cholesterol problem and being that A: I've also hit my 30s in that time and B: I have an extensive family history of high cholesterol in the men in my family, we tried changing my diet and exercise to see if it was lifestyle or if it was genetic.

In that timespan I dropped 3lbs (bringing me to 195lbs, just under that obese line) and my cholesterol continued to climb. It's been about 7 or 8 months with no other change.

When I tell people that I weigh roughly 200lbs, they don't normally believe me. To be clear I don't really care about any of these numbers, I care about my overall health irt stamina, strength, fatigue, etc and I care about my actual muscle mass and body condition. There are, admittedly, times where I look at my stomach and go :( aww I used to be skinnier. But then there's also times like two nights ago when I looked in the mirror after my shower and just saw A Guy standing there looking at me.

Anyway. My point is, testosterone (and age) made me gain a significant amount of weight, and nothing really I've done has gotten it off. Which is fine with me, because I feel better at this current condition and am stronger and have more stamina than I ever did at lower weights even when I was a competing athlete. Everyone I tell my weight and BMI to is shocked to learn that I am 200lbs and classified as obese. From complete disbelief until I stand on a scale, to the immediate "you wear it well" or "it's all muscle though", to the inevitable "okay but BMI is a load of shit anyway", clearly even though that's what the numbers say I am not exactly the poster child for what lawmakers and fat phobic doctors fear monger about when they discuss the "obesity epidemic".

I am lucky enough that while my surgeon is being very annoying in other ways, she at least has no BMI requirement. For 7 or so months I have been putting in a lot of effort to try and lose some weight to fix my cholesterol and I have pretty much nothing to show for it. If it's that hard for me, someone who visually doesn't really look fat, how difficult must it be for someone who is definitely not toeing the line like I am. How impossible for someone who is in the 400lb, 500lb, 600lb range.

Testosterone makes you gain weigh, and then surgeons won't operate if you gain too much. What a fucking joke.

[alexanderwales]

Notes on 3000 miles

Last year my doctor told me that I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a high resting heartrate. So I started biking on an exercise bike, and by my best estimations, I'm either close to hitting 3000 miles or have already gone past that.

I should clarify that this wasn't all at once. I took many breaks.

So here are some notes.

When I started, I was on an exercise bike that my wife had gotten from her work. It wasn't the best, but it was free, and I made a deal with myself that if I biked every day for a month, then I could justify getting something better. I really really did not want to buy a piece of exercise equipment that would just sit in the house gathering dust, because that would feel awful ... but I do kind of wish that I had gotten the better bike sooner, because it removed some of the "friction" of exercise, where it felt like there were too many reasons not to get on the bike. The new exercise bike (a refurbished Peleton off Facebook marketplace that my wife got me for Christmas) really does just feel and move better. I think the general principle of not doing costly monetary commitments until you've shown costly personal commitment is a good one, however.

Blood pressure is in normal range. Cholesterol is in normal range. Resting heartrate is in normal range. This was all the case three months in, and this level of cardio is more than enough to maintain it.

Right now, I bike for thirty minutes a day, going 8-10 miles according to the bike. That range is enormous, because it represents vastly different amounts of work. Going 10 miles in 30 minutes is 20 miles an hour, and I keep the resistance relatively high, so by the end of it I'm always panting. By contrast, going 8 miles makes me feel like I didn't put in enough work.

My goal every day is sweat-based and completely qualitative. I want to soak through a shirt. This means that doing more laundry than I'd prefer to, which is an unanticipated consequence of the biking. It's also, compared to all the metrics the bike gives me, a very clear sign that I am actually exercising my body "properly" in a way that's achieving something.

I did some of the Peleton classes, and found a lot of the metrics to be motivating, but ... eh. Exercise is mostly about being healthy and maintaining my body, so my current strategy, for the last six months, has been to either shut the brain down or keep it fully engaged in something that passes the exercise time. Usually this means a TV show, especially a foreign one with subtitles, which need slightly more brainpower.

The final two minutes is always the worst. I'm just ready to be done with it. Sometimes there's gas left in the tank, but I still feel sweaty, thirsty, and overheated. I have a water bottle, and I drink from it while I bike, and I have a fan pointed at me that I turn on once I'm warmed up, but I always have a sense, in those last two minutes, of "finally I'm done". I tried the thinking man's solution, only biking for 28 minutes, and this did not help. In my entire year of biking a half hour a day, I didn't ever elect to go into overtime.

I initially lost ten pounds, then slowly gained it back. I am, in fact, overweight, but I'm holding more or less steady now, and there have definitely been some body composition changes, with muscle replacing fat. I went down about four inches at the waist. I've changed very little about how I eat (which is 90% meals that I cook myself, and a daily coffee drink of some kind, usually made myself with sugar/cream/chocolate). Biking amounts to 300-400 calories a day or something like that, so I'm presumably eating more to compensate and just not realizing it.

Mental health has been rocky, but that's just sort of how it is for me. I definitely feel less mentally well on days that I don't bike, and feel better afterward, but I have no idea how tight the correlation is, and if I had been keeping track on a mood tracker, I'm not sure I would be able to sus out from self-reported mood alone whether or not I was biking.

During the summer I replaced a lot of indoor exercise bike stuff with outdoor biking. My son has only recently learned to bike, so he's been with me many of these times. Usually that means that we're either biking a lot less distance, or we're biking for a lot longer time at much lower intensity, sometimes both. There's a bike path that's downhill from our house which goes for maybe six miles, with some good, clear turn back points, but that means a fairly arduous uphill to get back home. If I lived in a place where the weather wasn't frigid for almost half the year, I would probably be doing outdoor biking more.

I think the most important thing, if you're doing exercise every day, is making sure that you're doing it in such a way that it's sustainable and virtually incapable of injuring you. This mostly means proper form. Early on, I had a habit of pressing down the right pedal with the outside edge of my foot, and after fifteen minutes of doing that, the muscles in the foot would be aching and uncomfortable. I'm not sure why I was doing that, but it was difficult to get myself to bike in a way that wouldn't be putting strain on me.

I think it's okay to skip a day ... if it's for the right reason. Of the days that I've skipped, I always try to make sure the reason isn't "fuck it, I don't want to". I should either be feeling sick, feeling like I need to rest, or replacing biking with some other form of exercise like a hike in the woods or some weightlifting or something. If I start skipping days because I just don't feel like it, that's where the whole scheme falls apart.

I am currently sort of wondering how long this is going to go on for, and I think the answer is "for the rest of my life", or at least until I'm unable to keep it up for whatever reason. I don't think there's any particular reason to prefer an exercise bike (or regular bike) over running or rowing or some other form of cardio, but I think I have proven to myself that this is cardio I can do daily and stick with it to the level that is probably necessary for me to stay healthy. I'm not committed to doing it for the rest of my life, since in theory some other form of cardio might come along and sweep me off my feet.

I do wish that I had started earlier in my life, even if daily exercise has not been the panacea for mental health that I had been kind of hoping it would be. I hope that I have the willpower and wisdom to keep up with it indefinitely.

[truwellth]

Cholesterol

Here get detailed info on: Cholesterol Levels. Cholesterol Normal Range. Cholesterol Symptoms. Cholesterol Causes. Symptoms of High Cholesterol in Females… from Rajashree Gadgil… the best nutritionist in Thane & the founder of TruWellth Integrative Health Center… the best nutrition center in Thane, Mumbai.

[tobeabatman]

Pre-diabetes is a bs term, pre-obesity is a bs term.

There isn’t any ”pre” for conditions. You aren’t ”a pre-cancer patient” if you are a heavy smoker with no cancer, and you aren’t ”pre” any condition, even though you know there’s a good possibility that you’ll inherit a certain condition later in life because you are genetically predisposed to it.

There is no pre-obesity because not every fat person will get “obese”, aka very fat (not that there’s anything wrong with being ”obese”/very fat either. My BMI is considered ”obese” for my age). Unlike what thin people often seem to think, a lot of fat people have a certain weight after which our weight gain will naturally stop or slow down. You can observe this happening when you look at your fat relatives: e.g your fat aunt most likely isn’t adding on a lot of weight anymore after a certain age.

The term ”pre-obesity” works as a way to justify why we fat people deserve to be shamed or why we deserve to get sh*t care by healthcare professionals. It gives an excuse for treating smaller fat people like shit, even though there’s a lot of contradicting research on the health effects of being a small fat (”overweight”), some even stating that ”overweight” individuals live longer than their thin counterparts. And regardless, the line between ”overweight” and thin was drawn on water and changed over time: there is no reason why we define BMI over 25 as overweight, besides the fact that the number 25 was easy to remember (and BMI itself isn’t even accurate).

There isn’t pre-diabetes, because that’s a stupid fear-mongering term used by health gurus on the internet. I would be considered ”pre-diabetic” by internet graphs that state certain blood glucose levels, and HDL and LDL cholesterol levels to be pre-diabetic.

Despite this, my blood results were considered to be in the normal range, and later (after I expressed concern for my blood tests results due to those stupid ”signs of pre-diabetes” graphs on the internet) a nurse told me that if my blood results had been a sign of me getting diabetes soon, the doctor(s) who analysed my blood tests would have told me that.

Anyway, have a lovely day all!

[macgyvermedical]

The following information is from Sickening, by John Abramson:

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist on main but when I say Big Pharma is a racket I mean...

Doctors work via particular guidelines. Many of them are punished by their hospital systems if they fail to follow those guidelines, which are considered "best practice". The guidelines are written largely by pharmaceutical companies or people paid by pharmaceutical companies.

Just like Disney likes to keep it's copyrights fresh, pharmaceutical companies like to keep their patents. And they do this by churning out new drugs. Only about 1 in every 8 of these new drugs actually represents an actual advantage over existing drugs or therapies. They, of course, market the absolute shit out of all of them as though they did.

In theory, newer insulin analogs (lispro, glargine, etc...) work better and have fewer side effects than older recombinant human insulins (regular, NPH). In the actual trials the only difference between the two is a single average non-fatal hypoglycemic event over the course of 5 years of therapy. There was no difference in effectiveness. Oh. And the newer ones are 10 times the out of pocket price (an average of $468/year vs $5,224/year). Which is considerable considering 1 in 4 insulin-users report "rationing" their insulin for cost reasons. 90% of people on insulin take the newer insulin analogs because that's what's on the guidelines.

Pharmaceutical companies have all the data on their drugs, which they don't share and which they alone interpret. It took 4 years of near-daily pestering for Cochrane Reviews (a major independent reviewer) to get a copy of the data for the drug tamflu. When they got it, they found that in 77 trials, the only thing it consistently did was decrease the symptomatic time from an average of 7 days to an average of 6.3 days, even though the company was marketing it under claims that it reduced complications and hospitalizations- something none of the trials showed.

You have to treat 140 people who have not had a heart attack or stroke with statins (cholesterol-lowering medicines) for 5 years in order to prevent 1 single non-fatal heart attack or stroke. There is no difference in death rates from cardiovascular causes between statin-users and non-statin-users who have not had a heart attack or stroke. You have to treat 30 people who have had a heart attack or stroke to prevent one heart attack or stroke. You have to treat 80 to prevent a death.

According to a very large, independent (non-pharmaceutical industry) study called the ACCORD study, people with type 2 diabetes actually had significantly worse cardiovascular outcomes if their average blood sugar was kept in a "normal" (non-diabetic range) (under 125) vs a somewhat higher range (150-180). So significant were these findings that they ended the study early because too many people in the "normal" range were dying.

Omeprazole and Esomeprazole are technically the same drug that work exactly the same way and exactly as well when given at the same dose. The only thing that makes esomeprazole any better is that it is given at a higher dose. And it's way, way more expensive.

[whimsicalworldofme]

I just need to celebrate a little in a public forum...

I started taking ozempic on Saturday of last week. I have diabetes, insulin resistant pcos, and some other issues. My current diabetes medicine wasn't really doing anything for me anymore. My cholesterol was up. I was worried about my heart and my liver. I saw the studies that show the GLP-1 meds can help your health outcomes in those areas as well as treat the insulin resistance and beetus. So I asked my doctor about going on it and she wrote me a prescription.

I was really scared because I've heard horror stories about people feeling deathly ill on this stuff, being constipated, throwing up endlessly, and other things.

I had a low level of nausea the first couple days after my shot but sipping water made it go away. And for the first time in my life, I feel full after eating!

But more than that, for the first time since getting diagnosed with diabetes, my blood sugar levels are in a normal healthy range. Not healthy for a diabetic, but for a non- diabetic! After watching my numbers go up and up and up no matter how hard I tried for years, seeing them down made me cry happy tears.

This medicine might save my life. Do you know what a powerful feeling that is?!

[cafefoxtale]

I today's video you mentioned needing to adjust your calcium levels before going on GAHT. My calcium was unusually high soon after I started, and I was curious to know if you had a similar issue.

Don't feel pressured to answer this. I've not heard of HRT affecting blood calcium levels, but it would be nice to have notes to compare to.

Mine was higher before starting HRT. Either way, I would ask your doctor to check your parathyroid hormone levels. In my case I had one that was hyperactive and was the root cause of my calcium levels being really high. I got one of them removed and my calcium levels dropped to within normal ranges. Again, I suggest talking to your doctor and seeing if you can get those levels checked.

With that in mind, you should also get your triglyceride levels checked. mtf HRT can raise those levels up, not sure about ftm. Mine were through the roof before HRT, and it was no thanks to my calcium levels. You can cut those down through sticking to a heart healthy diet and exercise. Mostly, stick to a low fat high protein diet and be sure to eat food that is rich with omega-3 and good fats/cholesterol. Eggs, fish, and cheese are all good things to eat, and finding zero or low fat substitutes is always good. My main one was replacing sour cream with nonfat plain greek yogurt and ice cream with frozen greek yogurt.

[jodilin65]

Thought I would update this blog every 5 days instead of every week. So I'll try to update it on the 5th, 10th, 15th, 25th, and then the last day of whatever month it is.

Thursday, May 1, 2025

It’s happening! Yes, step 3 is finally happening after an 8-month fight. One of the most common journal prompts is what the biggest lesson you’ve learned in life is, and it used to be that many things would spring to my mind, like trusting my instinct, not being too forgiving, saving money, etc. Now it goes something like this: Never ignore your problems. They won’t go away just because you don’t want to deal with them.

So the CPAP will be here on the 2nd. Life would be so much easier if specialists and medical procedures weren’t booked so far out in advance and healthcare was free. Then it would be really awesome if I didn’t have to have so many fucking health issues to begin with!

Next up is getting used to it, and the final step is hoping I don’t have CSA, and it actually restores my energy. Never thought I would be so excited for a device I could shove up my nose and throw a harness over my head with a hose attached to it, but the nose part isn’t that much different than the silicone nasal dilator I’ve been sleeping with most of the time.

Also, I may not miss stomach sleeping as much as I thought because it’s already hard to sleep in that position since I just can’t breathe.

Due to some reward thing Tom got, we got a hefty discount on breakfast at Burger King where I got a brief case of acid reflux, though the pancakes and tater tots that gave it to me were well worth it. Variety is nice every now and then, and I can’t remember the last time I had pancakes.

Tom finally got his lab results. LabCorp is really slow compared to Quest. His cholesterol is low, like it always has been. His TSH is only 2.5. I would feel like I was about to die with it that low! I remember how horrible I felt the last time mine was down there. His platelets are also a little low, and so is his protein, but that’s mostly connected to his plasma donations. His A1C jumped a bit to 5.8, but his vitamin D is in the normal range.

Woke up to find a message from Circle reminding me to return the tester if I haven’t already. Shouldn’t they have gotten it by now? Then there was another message asking if there was anything else they could do for us. Well, they—and the CPAP company—could have gotten the damn thing to me sooner.

He also learned something from the CPAP company that kind of pissed me off. All we had to do was have the CPAP company get a copy of my prescription from Lincare. It would have been expired, but all we needed to do was answer a questionnaire, and they would’ve sent us the damn CPAP!

So we kind of did and didn’t waste hundreds of dollars on Circle. Yes, we could have saved the money, but through Circle, we were able to learn more about my condition. Suspecting my sleep apnea worsened was one thing, but having it confirmed through testing was another. And now I’m also alerted to the fact that I could have CSA. God, I hope not!

No nightmares, but I did have breathing issues and the usual weird/shitty dreams.

An eye doctor we’ve seen that we didn’t really care for was my primary care doctor in one of my dreams. I was embarrassed because I realized that for the second time, I had forgotten to wear a bra. I wondered if he would think I never wore one.

Then we paid $27 for me to go to some place (a school?) and take a huge test, although I don’t know what it was for. I had been up since 10:00 PM, and it was already 2:00 PM, and I was only halfway done. Having been under the impression it would only take a couple of hours, I was getting frustrated and wondered if we should just go home. “It’s up to you,” Tom said.

Then I was telling him I was going to shut down one of my email addresses, but wasn’t sure which one.

Lastly, I ran into Marie, who didn’t sound anything like she really does.

Andy once posted something I totally agree with: If the Arabs put down their weapons, there would be peace. If the Jews put down theirs, they would no longer exist. Yet everybody’s siding with the terrorists. I never could understand the victim-blaming. Oftentimes when a woman is raped, she gets shamed and blamed while her rapist gets all kinds of support. People are so fucking twisted and backwards.

We tested the dolls yesterday. I’m still experimenting with both Jade and Joy. I had Tom see if he could trigger a response out of either of them, and he got nothing from Joy and minimal responses from Jade. He asked her to light up two of the lights on the EMF reader, and she didn’t. But then as soon as I took over, twice she lit up two of them!

When I got up today, I approached Joy with the reader and said, “Good morning, Joy. Light up if you can hear me.”

Nothing.

“Good morning, Jade. Light up if you can hear me.”

Blink.

So yeah, pretty interesting. Don’t know that I’ll ever be 100% convinced she’s haunted—much less find out by who and why—but I still have a lot more learning and experimenting to do. I have other dolls I would like to test as well at some point in time.

Friday, May 2, 2025

Ugh, I had a hellish night! 🙁 It seems I woke up every few minutes gasping for breath whether I was on my stomach or side. My sleep was so broken up that it extended out three hours past when I got up yesterday. I don't know how much of my nose was a problem, but it did seem stuffier than usual.

I skipped my meds, and probably shouldn't have. It's just that I wanted to go right for the coffee when I got up.

I'm just so worried the CPAP won't be enough! I am so fucking done with all these health problems. Just so fucking done. I can't take it anymore. I am utterly batshit exhausted, and my lungs felt like they were used as a punching bag. The CPAP is to arrive today, but I don't know if I can stay up long enough. I may have to suffocate one more night. When I do get it, I may also have to titrate up my usage and aim for an hour the first night, then two, then three, etc. However, I'm going to try my best to just dive right in full-time, keeping in mind how shitty I've been feeling and why it's necessary and important.

It could still very well be that decent sleep simply isn't something I'm meant to have, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life struggling for something that isn't meant to be and keep on fighting a losing battle. I'm so done with this life if I don't get better.

I canceled both the pulmonologist and sleep study appointments. Curious, I asked how far they were booked out at the sleep lab, expecting to hear that they didn't have anything before September, but they actually have appointments available in late July. A three-month wait is still a long time. 

I decided not to review the pulmonologist yet and let people know just what I think of the arrogant idiot in case I need him again—and damn do I hope not! Neither of us likes him, and if I need any pulmonologist again, then I've got bigger problems on my hands. So I hope Tom is right when, after his research, he came to the belief that a CPAP would be all I need.

Had my first pill nightmare in quite a while. I was holding a handful of thyroid pills and decided for some crazy reason to suck on them like hard candy, even though in real life they dissolve instantly. After a while, I panicked and was like, oh my God, how many of these things have I had! 

They say sleep apnea increases the chance of nightmares. Because the sleep is so fragmented, it confuses the brain, I guess.

Unless they're just not going through, I'm really getting sick of messaging people only to be ignored. I'm not going to remind them that I messaged them either and I'm waiting for a reply as part of my pulling further away from those that just don't seem to care. I don't know everything going on in their life, so maybe something came up, but we're not just talking one person—we're talking three people. I asked Christine how she lost 63 lb… nothing. I asked Becky how long it took her to get used to the CPAP the second time around and if she ever takes nights off from it… nothing. Also, I still haven't heard Melanie's take on Jade. As for my take, I'm still not 100% convinced she's haunted, but she is definitely more reactive than any of the dolls I've tested thus far, though contradictory in some of her answers.

Raptor Cliffs, the new golf course, came out. I only played it once, but it seems okay.

Saturday, May 3, 2025

Although I haven't used it yet because it was at the very end of my day yesterday, the CPAP came, and I literally cried tears of relief all over again. I think I've shed more tears in these last few weeks than I have in years. Tonight will be my first run with it, so wish me luck!

Two days ago I had okay energy, yesterday I was exhausted as fuck, and today I'm still kind of tired even though I did sleep a little better last night because I took a full clonazepam before bed.

My teeth have felt so clean and smooth since the last cleaning. I'm definitely okay with bumping it up to three times a year instead of two, which she said would be important after a deep cleaning. Decided to get disposable electric toothbrushes every four months rather than packs of new heads for the rechargeable one I've got.

I created another blog on Tumblr just to keep track of my chats with Jade. I would have laughed my ass off at the thought of something like this not too long ago and deemed the person to be delusional, if not seriously high on wishful thinking, but there's no denying what's been going on here even if the last session was disappointing. Still, I hope I can develop this newfound ability even further!

I haven't started it yet, but the May challenge is out on VZ. I did a quick glance at the rides, and it looks like I'm going to be riding through six different U.S. state capitals, including Phoenix, so I'm sure I'll recognize some places there.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Starting this entry to the tune of a thunderstorm. Overall, I’d say my first night with the CPAP, even though I didn't wear it the entire night, was good and bad. I think it was mostly good, though. It did make my nose a little sore, and unfortunately, I do notice it when it ramps up. I think there may have been a couple of pockets of air that escaped from my mouth, too.

It said I slept with the mask for 5 hours and 38 minutes and had about 5 events an hour, but my mask seal and humidity levels were good. It also said I took the mask off 5 times. That’s the thing, though... I was wearing it while I was unwinding with my audiobook before I fell asleep. I never even had to get up to pee while I was sleeping, nor did I wake up with a headache. Just tired. So I don’t think I actually slept with it for that long. I think the time I actually slept with it was closer to 3 hours. But hey, that’s more than I expected! I wasn’t sure I’d get past an hour. Another good thing is that I think I did sleep on my stomach, though not for long. My score was 81.

I’ve been swapping messages with Jessie the last few days, and she said she couldn’t use this mask because she would open her mouth.

The CPAP, which is made especially for women, is cute with a leafy design on it. At first, I was worried that it would blow my lungs right out my ass when it ramped, and while it didn’t do that, it was a bit noticeable as I was falling asleep. Hopefully, I can get used to the sensation of it. It says it ramped up to 7 from 4.

The machine tells me more than the app does, and unfortunately, there is still evidence of central. I hope it’s not the case and it’s just me having to get used to it that’s confusing it! From now on, I’m not going to put it on until I’m actually ready to sleep. That way, I get a more accurate picture of what’s going on.

It was a little cold as well, and while that may be okay for this climate, we may eventually get a heated hose—especially if we do move to a colder climate. Also, a mini backup travel CPAP of some kind, because if anything happened to this one, I’d be fucked until we got a new one. Hopefully, it will last 5 years.

I’m glad Tom remembered that the nasal pillow I had the last time was an XS because S is too big. Had to pay extra for the XS because my nose is so damn small.

I screwed a hook into the wall about six feet high to hang the thing when I’m not using it because the hose is pretty long.

I had a negative moving dream, although it made no sense. Without seeing it until we moved in, we rented a place that I didn’t realize was so small and dumpy. I was like, why would we think paying $600 for this when we had a newer, bigger place for less?! Of course, I don’t know where the hell you could get a good-sized newer place for $600 or less these days.

Wow, it’s raining pretty hard now.

The water was off yesterday because a pipe broke a few streets over, but it was only for about an hour. It was horrible timing because we were doing laundry. Why is it that these parks always turn off the entire park’s water instead of just that street???

Monday, May 5, 2025

Written last night:

I wish there really were such a thing as an all-purpose cleaner, but Tilex is better for mold and mildew because it sprays more evenly rather than in clumps, CLR is good for scrubbing the shower, toilet, and sinks, and Clorox wipes are best for wiping down countertops.

We ran out to Publix yesterday because we both wanted something different for a change, so we got some cooked food. He got potato wedges, and we shared some macaroni and cheese, which I let him have most of because it was kind of peppery. I got fried shrimp and ribs. They were really good.

I like that the CPAP has a dial instead of a touchscreen. It's right behind my head on the headboard shelf, so this way I don't have to worry about bumping it. While it would be great if I could get used to this thing eventually and it would restore my energy, it kind of sucks to know that I'm likely stuck with it for the rest of my life. 

It seems like there's never any undoing my problems. No cures. Just treatments. And if something does get cured, it eventually returns to haunt me somehow. I wish there was something I could do to restore my thyroid, but even if it were possible to give me a thyroid transplant, the antibodies would only attack that one as well. Still, it's sad that I'm never going to be able to sleep normally again. I'm never going to be able to simply fall into bed, close my eyes, and sleep, regardless of any outside sources that may wake me up.

So I have to remind myself that hey, if this thing can restore my energy and give me my life back, then it's worth it. As I get used to it, I can hopefully save money by no longer needing nose strips, but for now, I continue to wear them because it may be a while before I'm able to sleep through the whole night with the nasal pillow. I hope to beat last night’s time. The money spent on nose strips may have to go to mouth tape if I end up having mouth farts, LOL. Sometimes my mouth fills with air, and that eventually leaks out. Hopefully, I’ll adapt to that and the ramp-up. They’re definitely sensations I’m not used to. It would ramp up, wake me up, ramp down, then ramp up again as I would fall asleep, and so on and so forth. 

It's pretty amazing how it knows exactly how much air I need. They wanted it set in the standard range of 4 to 20, so going up to 7 wasn’t that high. Who knows how much higher it may go the more I use it.

I read the wrong list of rides. The May challenge is scattered throughout Europe and not the U.S. That’s why it’s called the Eurovision Challenge. I'm starting off in the Netherlands, and eventually, I'll ride through Luxembourg, England, France, Sweden, and Ireland.

Written this morning:

Unless something up there is trying to tease the shit out of me, I have real hope for the first time in nearly half a decade where my fatigue is concerned!!! The only thing I can't tell for sure is how many events I had were actually real events, and I doubt most of them were, because I wore it for nearly two hours before I crashed and had trouble falling asleep. If I yawned or cleared my throat, it would count as an event.

What's exciting is that I slept with it longer and scored a 97! Even more exciting is the energy I have today after just two nights of using it! Like I said, I hope nothing is just teasing me, because sometimes I do have good days. But this is a really good day, and it will be interesting to see how long the energy lasts (I'll update that in tomorrow's entry). Usually, on the days I do have energy, it doesn't last all day.

I woke up with the usual dread, thinking, Oh no. How exhausted am I going to be today? How much am I not going to be able to accomplish because of it? How much is it going to fuck with my mood? But as soon as I got up and started moving around, I noticed the difference.

Also, interestingly enough, I haven’t had to get up to pee since using the thing during my sleep. Both Andy and the pulmonologist said it cuts down the bathroom trips. I joked with Tom that maybe he needed a CPAP because he always gets up to pee. The pulmonologist did say that some people benefit from CPAPs even if they don't have sleep apnea.

I'm not saying this will be the case for sure, but I may end up with a routine where I start off without it because it's so much easier for me to fall asleep on my stomach. It's easier to shift onto my stomach in the middle of my sleep with the mask on than to fall asleep with it in the first place. So I may end up falling asleep without it, waking up, and then putting it on. I've now got the most efficient way to get the thing on quickly. I just drive the nose holes up my nose, grab the bottom strap, and slip it over my bun. As soon as my nose gets used to it, I’m good to go.

Because there's pressure underneath the nose, it gets sore. The nose holes don’t go very far into the nostrils at all, but more like against the openings. But there's still an upward pressure for some reason, so it's going to take time to get used to it. It was on and off last night. I took it off as I was falling asleep, and then I later put it on and didn’t get woken up by it ramping. It ramped up to 9 this time. Then I took it off because my nose hurt.

As I said, the number of events isn’t likely accurate. I've got to do an even better job of making sure I only wear it when I'm actually sleeping to get a better picture of how many events are real. I'm not nearly as worried about central as I was, even though it's still picking up between 1 and 2 centrals, because as long as it doesn't go over 5 and you feel refreshed, you should be fine.

If I can continue to feel better and better physically and therefore emotionally, it will be worth knowing I'm likely stuck with it for the rest of my life. According to AI, even if I were suddenly at an ideal weight, I only have a 10 to 30% chance of getting out of it.

[chasing-rabbits]

Life is going too fast, I'm 31 I feel so old lol I mean I know its not really 'old' but it feels like it sometimes like I am an adult adult now I've hit my 30s. I'm feeling so restless lately but at the same time the thought of working on the website is like eh but I need to get it set up. I've been working on it for awhile now which is why in the meantime my impatience led me to try set up the big cartel website but I took that down ages ago because it was just not that great and idk why I remembered big cartel being better before & I had some big life changes that disrupted everything. Its like there's always something, mental health shit or physical health that makes it so hard for me to maintain any kind of shop or something I set up for myself. I started the new year being told my cholesterol is shit & I no doubt have blood pressure issues - if only the GPs were not so shit & actually listened properly to their patients but no they do not so despite consistent high BP readings during my check ups because I can't give them with 2-3 readings a day for 7 days in a row they basically just ignore it every time I go in which is wild given my family history of high BP, strokes & such being so shit especially on my mums side of the family. So yeah my cholesterol is too high its out of the healthy range for normal people let alone those w/ heart issues in the family. But I'm confident that this year will be the year I finally get the website set up sorted & ready to go as dealing with my cholesterol isn't really an obstacle to that goal where as anything mental health related always has been & the issues with my fatigue & such but I'm finding ways to work on that like resigning myself to getting help.

First things first getting a cleaner in as I cannot maintain a nice clean home by myself & my mum was really nice & got me a perching stool again which will help my ability to cook healthy meals as I won't have to stand. I'm also going to get a small table for my kitchen if there's room so I can sit & prepare my food there if I need too. Plus finding healthier foods for when I can't cook than what I currently buy but the biggest thing is that I just don't eat & then I get really hungry & over eat. I'm trying to make sure I actually eat 3 meals a day now downside is gluten free food is expensive & the GF Vegan health brands are often even more expensive. It's just a con really like charging so much more for GF foods I did find out oats are definitely gluten free so I can buy any oats I want but ironically the ones I love are the GF Vegan oats by MOMA but they have some other vegan non GF ones that looked good too, although a lot of the instant pots even some sachets they add skimmed milk powder to them & its like akdjka WHY. I have become addicted to deliciously ella products though, especially her on the go breakfast bakes they are filled with either peanut butter or almond butter & they are so good & surprisingly more filling than I expected for the size. downside is iirc her products aren't the cheapest but I can afford it so it is what it is. If anyone has any links to any good GF Vegan recipes that are easy to make for someone w/ disabilities then I'd love suggestions. I do have a pressure cooker but I have no clue how people do those one pot meals in them I tried doing pasta in it and it did not come out good & not a one pot pasta just the pasta idk if I over cooked it or didnt put enough water in idk but it was gummy and stuck together so yeah.

[lanaboodhoo]

An Overview of Conditions Treated by Cardiologists

Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, and electrophysiology. A congenital heart defect may occur when the heart or one of its associated blood vessels fails to develop normally before birth. The spectrum of these defects ranges from mild to severe with some children not requiring treatment while others require multiple surgeries to correct. Coronary artery disease is the most common heart disease and accounts for 1 in every 4 deaths globally. It is due to narrowing or blockage of the blood vessels that supply the heart with blood and oxygen, usually due to cholesterol deposits. Heart failure is the inability of the heart to pump enough blood to meet the needs of the body. This may to be due to weakness of the heart muscle, or if the heart is unable to fill properly. Conditions such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, inflammation of the heart and abnormalities of the heart valves may cause heart failure. Valvular heart disease may affect one or more of the four valves of the heart, which normally keep blood flowing properly through the heart. Treatment for narrowed or leaking valves may be medical, surgical or catheter based. Electrophysiology focuses on the electrical system of the heart, disturbances of which may result in heart rhythm abnormalities. These may include irregular, slow or rapid heartbeats. Treatment may include drugs, implantable devices or catheter ablation, where tissue causing the problem is destroyed. Symptoms of a heart problem may include chest pain, abnormal shortness of breath, dizziness, blackout, palpitation, cough and swelling of the legs. These should prompt referral to a cardiologist if a cardiac cause is suspected.