I posted recently about how I’m using AI to help me manage my understanding of the medical information I receive from my doctor visits and from my Apple watch. I have been sharing the sleep graphic my watch and the Health app provide me each morning. This morning, there seemed to be a bit of a disconnect between the awake time the graph showed and the analysis that ChatGPT provided me.

So I decided to add screenshots of both my sleeping heart rate and respiratory rate graphs as additional information for AI to analyze. What I got was a more thorough analysis and an explanation of what my Apple watch actually measures in determining my sleep pattern. I learned that it’s quite possible for the watch to assume I’m awake after I arise at, say, 0230, to urinate (a condition referred to as nocturia) and that I could actually be going in and out of light core sleep. This aligned well with how I felt during that period. As a result, I am now going to share all three graphs each morning.

For anyone who doesn’t follow this blog, it’s probably useful for me to point out that I am living (struggling might be a better word) with numerous comorbidities, the progress of which I’m keenly paying attention to. In no particular order of importance, these are: Bradycardia, for which I had a pacemaker implanted not quite three years ago; Atherosclerosis and Essential Hypertension, for which I take several daily medications; COPD, for which I have a daily inhaler and a rescue inhaler; Stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease, for which I have quit drinking alcohol entirely and watch my diet, and; Type II Diabetes with Proteinuria, which has been well controlled with diet.

I had been carrying the Hepatitis C virus for somewhere between 30 and 35 years with no symptoms until a couple of years ago when everything went haywire. I recently completed and 12 week regimen of Epclusa and currently am considered cured.

All to say, as I reach the culmination of my life I’m careful to do things that help me put off the inevitable for as long as possible. I still have 22 year-old and a 24 year-old daughters living with me and my wife, and I’d like to be around for at least a little while after their prefrontal cortices mature. At the same time, I’m constantly balancing the virtues of quantity of life against those of quality of life. I tend to think I’d rather enjoy the time I have left than miss out on some things because I’m worried it will shorten my already substantial length of time on this planet.