It's the Iron
I recognize this draggy feeling I've been fighting with for about a week or so now. My iron levels must have started crashing again--a 3 month long period can do that to you. I've found the flier for the company that I bought my iron supplements from before and will soon be ordering more. In the meantime, I will be a lot more tired and not nearly as productive as before.
I've had iron issues for years now. When I went back to college as a single mom, I would leave my house at 6 AM, get home at 10 PM and eat next to nothing in between because we didn't have the money for me to buy meals at school and didn't have the food for me to pack them. And my kids needed what we had anyway. By the time I finished my A.A., I was exhausted and run down. My doctor did a blood test and discovered I wasn't just iron poor, I was iron empty. I was put on supplements in unbelievable amounts to get me back to where I needed to be, then the doctor took me off to see if my body would produce like it should on its own. It didn't and 3 months later I crashed...badly. Very, very badly. I had been on iron supplements since. I weaned myself off when my periods went MIA and, for 2 years, I was fine. Until this past week, when I ran out, I was taking a multivitamin chosen specifically for the fact that it had 100% of the daily required iron in it--I will need to take iron in some form for the rest of my life.
Obviously, I'm not fine now, and I now know how important iron is to a person's body. After my second crash, I had the flu for 2 months, my ADHD went completely haywire (before the second crash, I apparently had a management system in place--I'd figured it out when I was a kid and didn't even know I had ADHD until I was in my 30s), and there have been a number of other issues. Even my memory has been affected. And I will probably be taking extra iron for the rest of my life.
So, this is sort of my public service announcement, my soapbox, and my warning: if you are consistently dragging, tired all the time, getting sick a lot more than usual, have your iron levels checked. You need iron more than you realize and anemia can be a lot more serious than you know. Chronic anemia, which seems to be my problem, can drastically change the way you are able to function. A blood test doesn't take much and can save you a lot of grief. You don't want to let it go as long as I did and end up with a body that struggles to produce what it needs.
Once I get my supplements in, it will still take some time to get back to "normal" for me. So I might be a bit more scarce until my levels are back up--I just get too damn tired. I want to sleep all the time. I can barely focus sometimes--can't think.
So, if you're feeling any of those symptoms I mentioned, get checked. You really don't want to be here where I am now. It sucks.
~~~
most recent
whysper paid! :: journey A Few Quiet Weeks :: booklog Nine Princes In Amber
I've had iron issues for years now. When I went back to college as a single mom, I would leave my house at 6 AM, get home at 10 PM and eat next to nothing in between because we didn't have the money for me to buy meals at school and didn't have the food for me to pack them. And my kids needed what we had anyway. By the time I finished my A.A., I was exhausted and run down. My doctor did a blood test and discovered I wasn't just iron poor, I was iron empty. I was put on supplements in unbelievable amounts to get me back to where I needed to be, then the doctor took me off to see if my body would produce like it should on its own. It didn't and 3 months later I crashed...badly. Very, very badly. I had been on iron supplements since. I weaned myself off when my periods went MIA and, for 2 years, I was fine. Until this past week, when I ran out, I was taking a multivitamin chosen specifically for the fact that it had 100% of the daily required iron in it--I will need to take iron in some form for the rest of my life.
Obviously, I'm not fine now, and I now know how important iron is to a person's body. After my second crash, I had the flu for 2 months, my ADHD went completely haywire (before the second crash, I apparently had a management system in place--I'd figured it out when I was a kid and didn't even know I had ADHD until I was in my 30s), and there have been a number of other issues. Even my memory has been affected. And I will probably be taking extra iron for the rest of my life.
So, this is sort of my public service announcement, my soapbox, and my warning: if you are consistently dragging, tired all the time, getting sick a lot more than usual, have your iron levels checked. You need iron more than you realize and anemia can be a lot more serious than you know. Chronic anemia, which seems to be my problem, can drastically change the way you are able to function. A blood test doesn't take much and can save you a lot of grief. You don't want to let it go as long as I did and end up with a body that struggles to produce what it needs.
Once I get my supplements in, it will still take some time to get back to "normal" for me. So I might be a bit more scarce until my levels are back up--I just get too damn tired. I want to sleep all the time. I can barely focus sometimes--can't think.
So, if you're feeling any of those symptoms I mentioned, get checked. You really don't want to be here where I am now. It sucks.
~~~
most recent
whysper paid! :: journey A Few Quiet Weeks :: booklog Nine Princes In Amber