Feeling Low

About a month ago, a had a whole bunch of blood work taken. The nurse had called and said that my vitamin D levels were low and my doctor would like me to take supplements.

A couple weeks ago, I started feeling nauseated everyday. But two weeks of daily nausea was getting a little ridiculous (No, I am not pregnant!).

So on Thursday, I called Telehealth Ontario. It's a 24 hour health hotline and you get to talk to a nurse for advice. The nurse asked my a million questions then concluded the phone call with "I think you should see your doctor within the next couple of the days." Well that was a lot of help.

I already had a follow up appointment scheduled at the beginning of September, but she recommended I go sooner.

I called the doctor's office and was told to come in Saturday morning when he was doing the drop-in clinic. On Friday though, I was feeling a little better and decided not to go. But on Saturday morning, the nausea was back so I went in.

I explained my symptoms to the doctor. He asked me if I was still taking the vitamin D supplements. I told him I was but I didn't think it was making a difference. He said that my levels were pretty low so it's going to take a long time before I see a difference.

Then he flipped through the rest of my results. He said my iron was incredibly low and explained the numbers to me in order for me to get a perspective of how low.

41-100 the lab considers acceptable iron levels.
18 is considered iron deficient.
80 is where my doctor likes to see iron levels at.
My iron level is at 12.

Since my iron levels are so low, I am exhausted to the point of nausea. That explains my 12 hour nap last week (see previous post).

I had two options.
1. Take oral pills but it takes 3-6 months before there's a difference. T
2. Get needles in my butt, they hurt, my butt will be sore, and it may leave permanent marks on my skin however it will take only 2 weeks for it to make a difference.

Since I didn't want to feel crappy for another 3-6 months and my levels were that low, I picked the shots in the butt. So now I have to go to the doctor's office 2-3 times a week for the next 4-5 weeks so the nurse could prick me with a needle and I can live with a sore, polka-dotted butt. But at least I won't feel so tired and nauseated anymore.

Sheldon sees this as a good thing because it means we can eat lots of meat. I say that just because I have to eat more red meat doesn't mean we can afford for the whole family to eat steaks every night. Nice try, Sheldon, but you'll still have to eat your veggies too.