I am a horrible patient.
Though I'm married to a doctor and have a considerable knowledge of medical things, I suck when it comes to actually applying them to myself.
A couple of years ago, I went through nearly a year and a half of being sick pretty much all the time. At one point, I knew I just must have been dying since I felt so bad...so tired and in pain that it didn't seem feasible death wasn't imminent. I found out eventually that I had mono and that my thyroid had petered out and that I was pretty anemic. Time and rest took care of the mono, a daily dose of thyroid replacement took care of the hypothyroidism and a daily iron supplement should have knocked out the anemia...it would have if I'd ever taken it.
I've been pretty significantly anemic for sometime, for reasons I won't go into. It's varied on the severity, at some points nearly disappearing all together. Recently my doctor forced me to come into to see him (after I'd cancelled and put off appointments for more than a year). He basically wanted to talk to me about my bloodwork that I'd had done with my thyroid checkup, which I get every three months. He'd seen my iron levels still low for quite a while and this time they were lower...along with some other labs related to that which were at very, very low levels.
"You never took the iron did you?" he asked firmly.
All I could do was admit I hadn't...that I hated taking iron, it always messed with my stomach and I'd felt better...really I had. He stressed that I needed to take the supplement, threatened me with giving me iron IV and monthly bloodtests until he saw it coming up. Then he sent me home.
Dave asked me what he said. I told him I was a little anemic...told him one of the lab values (not the important one). He said it wasn't that low and we went on about our business. I put the lab results away, along with the doctor's order to get more bloodwork done. I know...I'm horrible. No, I didn't get any iron. That was about a month ago.
Yesterday I heard David call for me and when I came into the room he met me, my lab results in hand, and said, "Did you every do anything about this?" I admitted I hadn't. He looked at me and said, "You are very anemic...significantly in fact. These numbers here are extremely low...I'm surprised he didn't threaten you with hospitilization."
Ok, so I'm an idiot...and hard-headed to boot. Yes, I've felt pretty shitty...though manageably shitty...for months and months. Some days I'm so tired I feel like I can't put one foot in front of the other. I eat ice so obsessively that I've literally cracked fillings (symptom of iron deficient anemia called pica), my skin is so dry it literally tears open on my hands, my hair is falling out, my head hurts alot, my joints ache...I feel like I'm about 70 most of the time...and I'm FREEZING pretty much 90 percent of the time. All things that would have been eliminated more than a year ago if I'd just done what my doctor said.
So, after having my doctor husband sternly and seriously tell me that I could be doing harm to myself, I vowed (to my best friend the nurse too, hi Ange) that I'd take the damn iron. I went and got it today. I will need to take it for months I'm sure to replenish my basically empty stores. Bottom line, my red blood cells are so small...carrying such a small amount of oxgen to my organs that I easily could be doing damage to my body each day that I let this continue. Who knew? Well, I did really, but thought I could ignore it.
Along with the iron, which I MUST have, I've started some daily supplements that should help me feel better too. I know I'm vitamin deficient. My diets sucks. I don't get out of the house enough to get the Vitamin D I need...for sure. I don't drink enough dairy for my bones (older I get the less I can tolerate it apparently). There are many things my body needs that I'm concretely sure it hasn't had in a very long time.
I now am the proud owner of two pill caddys full of pills (and officially feel like I'm ready for the senior citizen discount). But I can take solace in the fact that David is doing this too...taking supplements and trying to be mindful of his health. We've both put on weight the past year and a half. We are HORRIBLY sedentary people, with as horrible habits regarding sleep and exercise. We feel we are aging exponentially and must do something to improve how we feel. We are taking measures, nothing too drastic, to address all of these things. Simple things like walking, biking, eating more regularly and more healthful and sleeping MORE. Things we desire to do, really, anyway...just need to resolve to actually keep it consistent.
A couple of years ago we were having a really hard time of it personally in our family. His work was very, very bad and it was killing him mentally and physically. We took the reigns and pulled our life back onto the road and out of the ditch and have been more than glad that we did. The quality of our life turned around 100 percent, seriously. So, we are happy and content. But we don't feel great. We feel tired and old and very, VERY out of shape. Not sick necessarily, just wearing down quickly.
If we can change our life so drastically and make such a vast improvement like we did with Dave's job and other areas of our life, then I know we can do this too. So, we're making that our top priority. I don't want to be a size 6 and be fully toned so that I can wear that bikini on the beach this year. I just want to be healthy and feel energetic and GOOD. I think that's easily obtainable. If I lose a bit of weight, great, but that's not my aim AT ALL.
I took my first dose of horse pills just a bit ago. It's gonna be difficult for me to do this. I don't have the best stomach unfortunately. But I will do it. And I hope, hope, HOPE, very soon I'll see some results.
Is anyone else cold?
