TL;DR Opener to this post – I was recently diagnosed with Iron Deficiency Anemia. I am working with several doctors to determine the cause and to resolve the situation. At the current time we have no reason to believe that there is any major underlying cause for this situation, but I’ve been getting a lot of lab work and tests done to make sure of that. Fatigue and low energy are two of the symptoms Iron Deficiency Anemia, and the emotional weight/uncertainty adds to the mix, so if we’ve seemed flaky, distant, canceled plans, or otherwise seemed preoccupied lately it’s probably got more to do with this than anything else and I’m sorry.
OK, so…Disclaimer out of the way to (hopefully) avoid seeming overly dramatic…
I give blood as often as I can. So much so that people who I’ve made friends recently have commented on the number of blood donor shirts I have (which is especially amusing to me because I don’t keep most of the shirts I get and I generally only wear them when I’m working out. The latest campaign at OneBlood has been super hero themed, though, and some of the shirts have been really cool). A few years ago, I started having issues with my Iron Levels being too low when I went in to give blood. Nothing startling, and they are usually able to get me into the acceptable range by warming up my hands, but I’ve had a few occasions when they have had to turn me away. My Primary Care physician was aware of it, and we’ve been monitoring the situation along with my regular lab work (I was already seeing her three times a year with lab work because of my Type II Diabetes). I was also taking Iron supplements, mainly so that I could keep giving blood.
In June of last years my Iron levels were high. In March of this year, they were incredibly high. I also have had very low blood pressure for a while and some circulatory issues, so my doctor suggested I stop taking the Iron supplements follow up with a heart specialist and a hematologist to have some routine tests done and see if anything else was going on.
The heart stuff was fine. More than fine, really. The doctor said that most people would envy the blood pressure levels I have and suggested that I should eat more salty snacks. No problems there. My tests there revealed two small cysts/lesions that he wanted me to have looked at via ultrasound (one on my thyroid, and one on my liver), but both he and my PCP have assured me that those are very common and not generally a cause for concern. The tests are a “you have insurance and it’s better to be safe than sorry” situation.
Now, the hematologist? See, the first thing I found out when I made the appointment was that hematologists seem to almost exclusive practice out of cancer centers. So that was fun. Nothing quite like sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of folks who are being treated for cancer to get the blood flowing. My PCP had ordered an upper GI for me last year because I, like my father before me, have GERD and it’s been several decades since I’d had a scan to see if I’d developed any complications from it (I have not). She also had me take a mail-order colon cancer test (the second one I’ve had since the low iron issues started), which again came back fine, so I wasn’t overly concerned with the cancer thing. Still, it was unnerving.
In any case, lab work and subsequent appointments with that doctor determined that Iron Overload was not my issue, and that my Ferritin levels indicated I had what he characterized as a “severe” Iron Deficiency. He asked me not to give blood for six months, told me to start taking Iron supplements again with the goal of seeing if I could tolerate two pills a day, and suggested that I get another Upper GI and a Lower GI just to be absolutely sure there wasn’t some kind of severe underlying medical condition.
Now what he thinks is happening is that this is all a result of my regular blood donations. Other than the tests and getting back on Iron, there’s nothing else to really be done at the moment. If I go back and see him at the end of summer and my Ferritin levels are still too low he’s going to administer a series of IV’s to resolve the situation. If not, and nothing came of the other tests, he’ll work with me to figure out how often I can donate blood and what my Iron supplementation routine should be.
In the meantime, I’m tired. Really tired. I’ve got some other situations I’ve been dealing with as well, including severe leg cramps, chest pains, numbness and tingling, and other circulatory issues that I had just assumed were the result of my Blood Glucose levels being too high. Which, fun thing to find out, can be the result of…IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA. My BG numbers have been steadily increasing over the last few years despite the fact that my diet, for the most part, hasn’t really changed…so naturally I chalked all my symptoms up to that. Oh, and the fatigue thing? So a symptom of high BG levels is frequent urination, so on top of being constantly tired I also wake up regularly (pretty much every two hours to the minute) to use the restroom…which adds to my fatigue.
I haven’t spoken “publicly” about all this for a variety of reasons, one of the main ones being that despite the fact that I am absolutely one of those people who gets a comfort out of sharing details about my life online, I’m also a person who finds thinks a lot of people exaggerate or dramatize health/mental issues to garner likes/popularity/sympathy and I think that’s really gross. Social media is rife with people being performative and I’m just not interested in being part of that. But I also recognize that I’ve made vague references to my health concerns on a few occasions lately and that some of this has bled over into our social interactions, so I wanted to at least put this out there to explain why maybe we’ve just not been as accessible or otherwise socially apt lately.
This is all against the backdrop of major personal issues that, while not directly impacting us are going to have long-lasting impacts on my extended family. These issues have been taking up a considerable amount of what little mental stamina I have, and they really came to a head back in late November/early December of last year.
Generally speaking, though? I’m “fine.” I’m tired. I’m dealing with some health issues that have the potential to be Very Serious but are much more likely to be easily solvable through supplements, diet, and exercise. I’ve had to focus very much on keeping my head on straight for a while now, so my interest in or ability to deal with static in our lives that isn’t related to these situations is virtually non-existent. I recently read about “fork theory”, which is like “spoon theory” but different in a way that resonates very strongly with me. On any given day I can deal with a certain number of forks being stuck into me before I’m “done.” The number of forks I can tolerate these days is minimal at best.