a short public service announcement
So the more astute of my friends have noticed that I walk with a limp. I have done, on and off, for about six months, and the reason why has just come to light. Which is also the reason why - somewhat circuitously - this is a public post.
My friends, let me talk to you about vitamin D deficiency. First of all, it sucks. It sucks a lot. Among its symptoms are "nondescript malaise" and "my god, why does everything HURT" and "what do I hate? ALL THE THINGS". In short, it is very easily confusable with other things, some of which are things I have and have had. (I am carefully not thinking about how I may have been medicated in the past for depression that I did not, at least before my medication's side-effects, have.) However, I'm very lucky! Partly because my GP is a Finnish cod-liver-oil evangelist. (She really is. My GP is great. When I went to see her she immediately said, "How're the migraines?" - after six months and god knows how many hundreds of other patients, and insisted on doing a quick check-in on that before moving to whatever-it-was.) And then she was like how she always is, which is, I like evidence-based medicine, let's just test you for everything; and then she went through a long list of things when the results came back and carefully explained them all, so I now know I have functioning kidneys and no diabetes (which I've always worried about) but - vitamin D deficiency. Not rickets - because I'm not young enough - and not osteomalacia - because I'm not quite that far gone - but to the point where I had dropped off the graph of normal. So, partly I am lucky because my Scandinavian GP worries about vitamin D deficiency more than most people ("You see," she said, sagely, "this is why my people engage in public nudity wherever possible") and partly because vitamin D deficiency is very easy to cure. Cod liver oil! (Ewwww.) But - cod liver oil. Easy, available in bulk, etc.
The slight drawback - it will take six months before the level builds up in my body to the bottom end of average. So - six months of hobbling, hurrah. But - on the other hand, six months of hobbling, and otherwise my body runs smoothly and calmly, so I shan't complain. (And despite feeling like crap, I have managed my job and commute and run around London chasing my lawyers, and mostly worked from home rather than take sick days, so I'm a little bit proud of self. Have crashed and burned a bit on writing this week, but I'm trying to be nice to self, also.)
And the thing is: vitamin D deficiency is very common. For people - even white people - living in northern Europe, it's actually very difficult to absorb enough of it from diet and sunlight to meet the required levels. (My GP also wants to run a study tracking vitamin D deficiency against climate change.) So this is the public service announcement she asked me to make: are you a brown person feeling crappy? You're probably vitamin D deficient! However, it's very easily curable.
Also: please be patient with me? I am not an exceptionally good correspondent at the moment.
raven is also at Dreamwidth: there is or are
comment(s). Comment there or here.
My friends, let me talk to you about vitamin D deficiency. First of all, it sucks. It sucks a lot. Among its symptoms are "nondescript malaise" and "my god, why does everything HURT" and "what do I hate? ALL THE THINGS". In short, it is very easily confusable with other things, some of which are things I have and have had. (I am carefully not thinking about how I may have been medicated in the past for depression that I did not, at least before my medication's side-effects, have.) However, I'm very lucky! Partly because my GP is a Finnish cod-liver-oil evangelist. (She really is. My GP is great. When I went to see her she immediately said, "How're the migraines?" - after six months and god knows how many hundreds of other patients, and insisted on doing a quick check-in on that before moving to whatever-it-was.) And then she was like how she always is, which is, I like evidence-based medicine, let's just test you for everything; and then she went through a long list of things when the results came back and carefully explained them all, so I now know I have functioning kidneys and no diabetes (which I've always worried about) but - vitamin D deficiency. Not rickets - because I'm not young enough - and not osteomalacia - because I'm not quite that far gone - but to the point where I had dropped off the graph of normal. So, partly I am lucky because my Scandinavian GP worries about vitamin D deficiency more than most people ("You see," she said, sagely, "this is why my people engage in public nudity wherever possible") and partly because vitamin D deficiency is very easy to cure. Cod liver oil! (Ewwww.) But - cod liver oil. Easy, available in bulk, etc.
The slight drawback - it will take six months before the level builds up in my body to the bottom end of average. So - six months of hobbling, hurrah. But - on the other hand, six months of hobbling, and otherwise my body runs smoothly and calmly, so I shan't complain. (And despite feeling like crap, I have managed my job and commute and run around London chasing my lawyers, and mostly worked from home rather than take sick days, so I'm a little bit proud of self. Have crashed and burned a bit on writing this week, but I'm trying to be nice to self, also.)
And the thing is: vitamin D deficiency is very common. For people - even white people - living in northern Europe, it's actually very difficult to absorb enough of it from diet and sunlight to meet the required levels. (My GP also wants to run a study tracking vitamin D deficiency against climate change.) So this is the public service announcement she asked me to make: are you a brown person feeling crappy? You're probably vitamin D deficient! However, it's very easily curable.
Also: please be patient with me? I am not an exceptionally good correspondent at the moment.
raven is also at Dreamwidth: there is or are
comment(s). Comment there or here.