Iron deficiency - spectacular ways to avoid blogging.

Well that explains a lot. Including why I don't seem to find time for blogging at the moment.  I just found out 'officially' that I have Iron Deficiency Anemia.  Which is a rather spectacular way of saying I'm not getting enough dietary Iron and its causing havoc with my whole system.  It does not mean that I am a bad wife / mother / housekeeper for not doing enough ironing, although I do have a 'no iron' motto in my house, it was not meant to refer to the dietary kind!

Way back in early April I visited my doctor. "I think I'm low in Iron." I told him.  At this point, what I'm learning now in hindsight, I should have stuck to my guns and listened to my body. It would have saved me months of feeling less than wonderful.  Instead I listened to a lovely, calm rational explanation from a man quoting a text book about why I should not be low in Iron.  Including reassuring me that my recent blood test results that showed a healthy haemoglobin level.

One of the things that can happen when you exercise (and breastfeed) is that your Iron stores get depleted. Or you don't absorb it as well. Something happens, I've read it on the net :)   Increasing exercise can equate to decreased Iron. Which is fine if you treat it straight away.

If you don't, the symptoms you can suffer with (and I did) include:

• fatigue
• mental fatigue (vague, memory loss)
• dizziness
• poor concentration
• hair loss
• irritability
• headache
• irregular heart rhythms

from the following websites - 
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/iron-deficiency-anemia-topic-overview
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/ida/signs.html
http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/condition_info_details.asp?disease_id=274 

So although it is still possible, given my family history, that I'm menopausal, all of the symptoms above may also be related only to my Iron deficiency.   Which was only picked up after a second doctor sent me for an "Iron Studies" blood test (also known as Anemia Studies).  This brilliant site explains the difference nicely, stating that Serum Iron has little clinical value. What looks on the surface to be reasonable levels of Iron, when investigated fully, showed me as being anemic due to low Iron. So today I started a pharmacy only supplement of super-powered Iron tablets. I'm hoping these make a big difference to how I feel day to day. 

I'm impatient now for the extra steak and the supplements to kick in and give me a pick-me-up, but tonight's bloggy message is to believe in yourself, listen to your body and intuition and don't give up when faced with a setback in what you believe. I could have spent my winter (or part of it) in glorious European summertime, watching Bruce Springsteen perform if I had acted on my instinct and started taking Iron supplements in April instead of waiting for doctors to finally order a fully investigative set of tests and for those results to prove to them what I knew four months ago!

I've got my fingers crossed that restoring a healthy Iron level brings me back to normal energy levels, and moods.