My job is not having it.

I’ve been anaemic for going on 2 years now. My symptoms are the same as many – the worst being severe brain fog, weird dissociative feelings, fatigue, and crushing anxiety. I also have body aches, my hair falling out and is brittle, and my nails, headaches.

I went in for infusions because my iron, ferritin, and haemoglobin were very low. Also, I went in for bloodwork, and they scheduled me for 3 infusions – 1 per week. I tried long ago to take oral iron (a very low dose), and it made me very nauseous – I can’t imagine what a higher dose would be like. And like I said – this has been going on for 2 years, and I’ve had ALL of the diagnostic tests to find the source, but nothing has been found.

Challenges with Blood Draws

To make matters worse, I am a very hard stick. If they try for a vein in my arm, I am guaranteed at least 4 sticks before they get something – sometimes as high as 6. So now I’ve been telling them to go for my hands – this hurts a little but is maybe less painful than 6 sticks and some digging around. Having an IV in your hand also makes typing hard, so there have been times when it just hurt too bad, and I just waited for it to be over.

The kicker is that my job needs it. I’ve been told that I’m missing too much work doing these infusions, and I had a short hospital stay for it, which caused my boss to threaten to “part ways” if I didn’t “stop being sick”. We have an open paid time off program, meaning I still need to define sick time to take, or vacation for that matter, so they can pick and choose what I can take time off for.

I have stopped doing the infusions, even though this week’s bloodwork came back bad again. I’m going to try the iron pills, but I feel like I know how that will go. So I’m considering just not doing anything about it and just waiting until I need a blood transfusion because, as messed up as this sounds, that would be one appointment as opposed to 3.

I’m so tired, and I’m so sick of it.

There is so much that I need and want to do, but my energy levels are so low that everything feels like a monumental task. It fucking sucks. I’m trying to stay positive and not let it get to me too much, trying to be nice to myself and take breaks when needed. But ultimately, I’m just so frustrated that I must cope with this, and I wish I could fix it all. The fatigue, brain fog, and lack of concentration are making me feel so miserable. It’s pulling me away from the things I love and am passionate about pursuing. It is so much harder to stay focused on my plans. Everything feels like it sucks so bad right now.

I’m going to try to take my iron every day. I have been taking it every other day mainly because the first time I tried daily dosing, I felt extremely bad on the second consecutive day, but I believe that was due to other reasons not caused by the iron cap. I’ll take it daily for the next week and see if and how that changes anything.

Current Treatment Plan

Right now, supplementing is my only option. I will talk to my doctor about what I am experiencing and discuss the possibility of an infusion, but supplements are going to be my main treatment at the moment. Also, I take Feramax 150mg w/ 1000mg VitC.

I hope things start to improve by the one-month mark. I have felt the worst of my symptoms for the past two weeks since I started supplementing. I’m getting sick and tired of feeling so awful all the time, so I hope the struggle will be worth it in the end. It’ll just take time to get there, making it all the more frustrating.

I’ll return for another blood test in three months to see if there have been any changes in my ferritin. I have been taking my iron caps every other day, seeing that this schedule can help maintain iron absorption. I’ll have to wait and see if it’s doing me any good.

Q&A

I collect different sicknesses like they’re Pokemon.

I  want to know if anyone else has gone through this type of thing because I feel like I will go insane.

So, I have a bunch of chronic disorders. I’m a very sick girl. That is fine with me because they are treated very well now. There’s one little problem, though. I KEEP GETTING SOMETHING NEW! It’s like every single year, it’s another issue. And now that is even happening with my anaemia. I’ve had iron deficiency anaemia multiple times in the past and got many iron infusions to correct it. I still take iron pills and folate. I began feeling so many symptoms recently that are related to anaemia, so I called my haematologist. He did some labs, and to my surprise, my iron and all other iron-related labs were fine. However, my CBC showed that I now have macrocytic anaemia. What the hell!!!!!! How did I collect something new again!!!!! And I’m also having issues with my heart, which is definitely… something.

Is there anyone who has a life like this? Constantly getting different ailments like every year? Please tell me at least one of you has had the experience of thinking everything is fine, and then BOOM! Some anaemia or deficiency is back.

Answer:

Hey Op, sorry this is happening to you. Same for me; that’s why I stopped going to the doctor for a while, only to worsen my sickness.

Just a quick story. A year ago, my health benefits from the company I was working with were about to end because I resigned, so I wanted to get the most out of it and went for a checkup. I’ve always known I was anaemic because of my heavy bleeding, so I went to the doctor and was asked to get blood work + transvaginal ultrasound. I did that and got the results, but I didn’t go back. Fast forward to now, my health card is about to expire again, so I decided to return to her and show her last year’s results.

I was asked to retake both tests and returned with the new results. She compared the 2 results, showing how I now have severe anaemia secondary to blood loss and how fast my endometrium thickened compared to last year. She wanted me to be admitted to the hospital asap to get a blood transfusion in preparation for a biopsy.

Anyway, since the past year, I have had other things going on with my body, from my stomach, heart, and possibly bone, because of the medication I’m taking. LIKE, CHILL!!!! It’s so tiring to go to the hospital every week, so expensive as well with all the medication. It’s just tiring overall, + the mental stress ???? Ugh. Hugs to you!!!