Monday, September 7, 2009

Blah

Once again I'm in the position of feeling that I need to justify why I haven't been blogging much. Not just to you, but to myself as well, since I generally love this exercise and look forward to writing new posts. I could blame it on the fact that the last two weeks have been filled with the beginning of kindergarten for Number One Daughter as well as her 6th birthday, or the fact that production on the October issue started last week. But I've had time even with all of that and I haven't done it.

Because I feel like shit.

It's been about 3 weeks since I mentioned that my anemia had returned, or at least the group of symptoms that I associate with it: fatigue, headaches, insomnia, nausea, and worst of all, brain fog. I have been eating red meat and turkey every day, taking iron supplements, eating iron fortified cereals — and I still feel like ass. In the past it has always just taken a few days to feel a difference, but now it feels as though nothing is working. Sometimes I feel shaky, sometimes ill, and last night, about 10 minutes after eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I felt as though I had been drained, and I just wanted to go to bed. Food is supposed to give you energy, right? Not take it away.

And the anemia just doesn't make sense to me. I'm not usually a big red meat eater, but I eats tons of legumes, spinach, nuts and good old breakfast cereal. In fact, I probably eat more iron-rich foods now than I ever have in my life. So why am I still anemic?

Of course the answer is "See a doctor" and I actually do have an appointment for the 24th. But have I mentioned that I hate doctors? I had one doctor years ago, a crazy lesbian doctor who had crazy affairs all over town and I was only privvy to this because one of her friends was my co-worker, who would always take things like this absolutely seriously, and would investigate and treat until we were both happy. Other doctors? "MITTELSCHMERZ!"

So, until then, I wait.

5 comments:

Diana said...

I had these same symptoms and had blood work done to find out I was anemic AND have hypothyroid. They both have basically the same symptoms. One tiny pill in the morning for the thyroid and my iron tab after I eat and I am feeling lots better. Good luck!

Anne-Lise at Rag, Tag, Bobtail said...

Hope you will soon be feeling better - have missed your comments on life :)

Paulette said...

I hope you feel better soon. I am all too familiar with the food supposed to make you feel better but instead you feel worse. Turns out I was gluten intolerant. I didn't even know how bad I felt until I felt better, which was almost immediately after I stopped eating gluten. The brain fog lifted, my constantly rumbling stomach quieted down, the low level of anxiety I'd lived with went away, and I thought to myself, "Huh...is this how good normal people feel? Wow."

Hope the doctor can help you get to the bottom of it.

pwl said...

I haven't had those symptoms myself, but anemia is apparently one of the symptoms of a B-12 deficiency. I know doctors can be pain (sometimes literally) - but it's better to find out what the problem is than to worry about what it *could* be.

{cyberhugs}

Anonymous said...

From someone (me) who knows how shitty it is to be anemic and how rotten it makes you feel - I hope you feel better soon. Great blog, I've laughed myself silly and it is nice to escape from the fluffy bunny quilting world for a few minutes!