CHF, Diuretics, and Weight Up & Down

@mikedc2008 You bring up an interesting question as to if your varying overnight weight changes are typical. I am interested to hear what others have to say.

My weight fluctuates daily but my habit has been to check at the same time each morning and not to weigh more often. I have an Apple Watch and tend to pay more attention to fluctuations in temperature, heart rate and breathing trends. I guess this helps me figure out their relationship to symptoms I am having, hopefully to improve them.

Do you notice feeling weight gain differences? How about your sleep schedule, and do you get up and go to the bathroom during the night?

Yes, I do sometimes get up once in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Maybe once or twice a week. And then in the morning when I weigh myself, I usually find that I have lost about 1 lb. All those things usually follow my going to bed feeling funny (bloated, sore, achy, tired, lightheaded). I do not feel the weight losses or gains. My Blood Pressure stays at low normal with a Heart Rate in the 70’s-80’s. My Diastolic Blood Pressure in the old days was 81-83 (now it is below 80). My weight loss really has not helped me as much as the Beta Blocker (Metoprolol). My high Diastolic Blood Pressure did not go down below 80 until I started taking the Beta Blocker (Metoprolol). That was after losing a lot of weight (low sodium and water restriction diet). I am thinking about getting an Apple Watch too (to monitor my health better). What is the significance for you to always monitor your temperature? Thanks!

I have HFpEF (along with a few other things) and am on a similar regimen. My weight varies from 169 to 172. 170,5 is my normal. What I call the “death guide” (Mayo calls it “Heart Failure”) suggests daily weight checks and to be concerned with as little as two pound changes. I take that with a grain of salt…er, potassium.😉. I do notice though that I am more short of breath when my weight is up one or two pounds.

I know what you mean! Most of the time “Heart Failure” seems like just some new, made up name, label, or construct. That’s especially the case with this HFpEF! What do you do when you get concerned and when? Thanks!

@mikeydc2008
Apple Watch has a “vitals” feature that provides a summary of your heart rate, res-spirit or y rate, wrist temperature (supposedly indicative of your body temperature), VO2 (not working well yet), and sleep duration. It creates baselines for each vital then you can see if you are in-range in any of them after you wake up.

I’ve had a couple nights that have outliers. My temperature was 3.5 degrees higher than my baseline, respiratory rate was high out of range, and heart rate was at the top part of my normal range. Like you, my habits are consistent and I assume inflammation somewhere is causing it.

@altilla’s observation of weight related to breathing is interesting, worth paying attention to.

Do you notice body sensations or symptoms?

@altilla Do you get concerned if or when you weigh 3 or more lbs. overnight? What do you do when it happens? How about if or when you lose that much overnight? If you do not think in terms of overnight, what is your timeframe? Thank you for your help!

@jlharsh — Yes, I get congestion in my chest at night. I also get this feeling of blood, water, oxygen movement across my forehead! Weird, I know! All this clears by morning.

How do you use your Apple Watch measurements with your Weight and Blood Pressure readings?

What do make of your respiratory rate going up to higher than normal at night (while your heart rate and temperature also go up)? Do you wake up at night?

@jlharsh Why do you think you have inflammation?

@mikeydc2008 I haven’t had a lot of instances where I have had a three pound variance. Perhaps that is because I really look hard at what I ate, drank, and did the day before when I have a two pound swing and try to correct. I have found that there is a sweet spot of activity each day as well. Unfortunately it varies so I can say just do this much each day. I am learning to listen to my body better. But if I do too much or too little I will have bad breathing that night and the next day.

@mikeydc2008
I sleep with my head elevated and that helps breathing at night. I actually slept in a recliner until a few months ago. After waking a couple days ago my watch notified me my breathing disturbances had gone up the last 30 days and suggested talking to my doctor.

What a good question about Apple Watch measurements side by side with my weight and blood pressure. I log on Sundays: blood pressure, Herat rate, heart rate variability (also from watch), and oxygen percent. The same night my watch recorded high breathing and temperature was when my log show 11 point drop in diastolic pressure, dip in HRV, and 2-3% drop in oxygen. That was 30 days ago and since those numbers have gradually increased.

I bring up immflamuation because just before this 30 day time period I took an antibiotic prescribed by my dentist, partway through had some significant ankle pain followed by lower body swelling still hanging around.

Does any of this help?