**ZZZZzzzzzzzzz. *Yawwwnnnn* That’s pretty much how I feel all the time
now. It’s actually really interesting that I feel tired more often now than I
did throughout my entire treatment last year. But I’m trying to keep up with my
daily walks as weather permits, and if I need a nap I will take one. Someone
who notoriously rebelled against naps, even during treatment, is now taking
them often. Apparently, my brain can take radiation better than my body losing
blood. Who knew? Ya know how I push to be your own advocate? I believe a part
of that is obtaining photocopies of your bloodwork and subsequent test results
in order to track your own progress, good or bad, so that you can self-monitor
what’s happening with yourself. Lets face it, Drs tend to glance at your tests,
and if nothing serious pops out at them at that visit they say, “things look
good.” Well, I saw my family Dr yesterday and again, “things look good.”
Riigghhtt. I got my copies, came home and compared my hemoglobin and my
ferritin levels from April until August to see what my continued blood loss is
doing to me. My counts have dropped drastically. In fact, my hemoglobin has
gone from 122 to 106, which is low as your counts should be between 120-160. I
probably won’t end up on anyone’s radar until it drops below 100, however that
probably isn’t a good thing, especially since my ferritin count (iron) has
depleted greatly since April. It’s supposed to sit between 10-291, and while
mine was a cushy 24 back in April, my latest bloodwork has said it’s down to 6.
Well, no wonder I’m tired all the time! I pushed my Dr to give me bloodwork
every 4 weeks so I can track my own progress, or I guess in my case it would be
regression? And now I’m looking for ways to bring my iron up naturally. He
wanted to throw iron pills at me yesterday, and I declined. Firstly, I know the
side effects of them, they aren’t pleasant. Secondly, I also prefer to explore
all natural options before I start using medications/supplements to solve an
issue. So I’m researching today how to get some good iron that will stick. My
understanding is that heme-iron which is obtained from animal vs plant based
products is what you want, but I’ll do a lot of research this weekend into how to obtain some
good iron. And I’m sure I’ll probably take a nap or two.
~Tara
~Tara
