Do you remember how, in late March, DH and I went on a vacation to Arizona in which we hiked and hiked and did trails that were pretty much rock scrambles way more than flat, easily traversed surfaces?
I do! Mainly because my abilities then are a stark contrast to what I'm physically capable of now, a bit more than 7 months later. Over the course of the summer and fall, I've gotten increasingly shorter of breath, easily fatigued, and prone to random strange muscle cramps (like the muscle that connects your upper arm to the back of your elbow--the muscle that you never hear of cramping. Or the ones that are in your torso so that it feels like your ribs themselves are knotting up??)
In the beginning of the summer, we had several weeks of 'poor air quality' days. Which is a term I've never heard applied to Michigan, in all of my 51 years of life. Boy, did I feel those 'bad air' days. Couldn't walk 25 yards without starting to cough. Climbing one flight of stairs would elicit the same reaction.
Prior to that, I'd noticed that I was somewhat slower in doing tasks (such as stall cleaning), than I had been the previous summer. Not significantly, just maybe an extra 15-20 minutes over the course of ten stalls. But, I figured I was just, you know, getting older. Being over 50 now and all. And everyone was a little more short of breath and slowed down on the days you could practically taste the wildfire smoke in the air.
Except soon it wasn't just shortness of breath. Because even on days where the air was wonderfully normal, DH and I would be working outside on fencing (or another project) and I couldn't lift and carry things that were normally not a problem for me to pick up and tote around. Hold this heavy thing in position while DH fastened it? Forget it, and watch your toes, because I just dropped it. Hold this pair of pliers and untwist that wire? Nope, and why the hell am I randomly losing my grip and the pliers are just nose diving out of my hands?!? Why is working in the summer heat making me light headed? I've worked in 90+ degree temps wearing jeans and boots for decades during Michigan summers, why am I feeling spacy at barely 80 degrees and a tank top and shorts?
Went to the doctor in late June for a physical. Had bloodwork drawn. My A1c is just barely over normal (I'd been off the diabetes meds and handling it just fine via diet and watching my carbs for 2+ years). So that wasn't the reason for my weird body troubles.
My iron levels, well, they were 'low', the doctor said (which has been an issue for me off and on the last 12 years or so), and it was recommended I go back on an iron supplement. In hindsight, I wish I'd known then that 'low' was closer to 'this is bad' than 'meh, it's just a fraction of a percent lower than the normal human female'. I wouldn't have dinked around all summer trying to find an iron supplement.
Because this time, I couldn't get a prescription for the iron supplement I'd been on last time my iron was low; apparently because that strength of iron is now readily available over the counter. Didn't matter that that particular prescription iron was the only one I'd found that didn't affect my bowels in an excessively loose way. I tried a couple over the counter brands again, and had really negative results. Called the dr's office and they said sorry, try taking it every other day instead of daily. So I tried another brand, and another, and then for about a month I said "F*** it, I'm not taking any because I can't live on the toilet". So I didn't take any until I found yet another OTC brand, that I hadn't tried yet.
Then I finally got back in to see my doctor in October, told her of all the issues with fatigue and weird muscle cramps and loss of grip and shortness of breath and even light headedness that were still going on, some to a greater magnitude than they had been in June. She ordered more bloodwork, with a few 'new' tests.
Apparently my iron has dropped to a big red flag level. And looking at those new tests, some of which were never ordered before, prompted the Dr to order even more tests. WHY?!? IS HER IRON SO LOW?!? being the underlying theme.
Good news, all of the blood tests for cancer markers have come back normal. My white blood cells are normal. My 'ability to uptake iron' came back normal, whatever that means and however they figure that out from looking at blood. On the other hand, my red blood cells are 'microcytic' (smaller than they should be) and some have abnormal shapes, and there seems to be a higher percentage of 'immature' red blood cells than you should normally have. We still haven't figured out why. At least the doctor has submitted a request for me to be allowed to have the prescription iron again (the one that doesn't blow my gut up so I can actually leave the house), because I obviously must have some iron ingested on a daily basis. Haven't heard back yet if that's been approved. Meanwhile, I'm again trying yet another brand of over the counter iron in the strength I need (which doesn't come in 'gentle'). Also discussing the possibility of getting an iron infusion because it would be really bad if my iron continues to drop (it's that super low), and because I'm not just physically incapable of doing the majority of the things I normally do/need to do, this inability is beginning to really wear on me mentally. And I ain't taking anxiety/depression meds when it's the iron issue that is the underlying cause of my problems.
This is part of the reason our building project for the summer (fencing and horse stalls) has taken way longer than planned. And why my garden went to weeds right around the middle of July. Because I just physically cannot do the work. And why I told DD1 that I just couldn't babysit on a regular basis this school year (and have had to guiltily still tell her sorry, no, on a few 'emergency' babysitting type situations--when either she or Honorary Son ended up having to take a day off work because there was no babysitter available). If I push myself, I end up basically in bed for half of the following day because I am so worn out. Or I get horrible muscle cramps. Or so spacey that DH (and me too) is afraid I'm going to keel over. I haven't done nearly the work with my horse this summer that I'd planned on doing because of the days I haven't had the breath or the strength to safely work with her.
There's another test being done in a few weeks. I'm really hoping it will show us the root cause of this iron problem, and then we can know an appropriate way to fix it, even if it means a surgery or regular infusions of iron for the rest of my life. The band-aid approach--take an iron pill that's going to turn your gut contents to high pressured mush and here, if you're down in the dumps because you feel like an invalid we can add a mood stabilizer--that's been the method employed by doctors for the last dozen years and especially this summer obviously isn't resolving the source of the issue.
Fingers crossed that I'll be up to normal iron levels, and my normal 'balls to the wall' activity level, in early 2024.
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