Iron Deficiency Anemia - that is my tentative diagnosis by the Hematologist. He said that while my iron saturation level was normal, my ferritin level was low. I guess my GP just didn't realize, huh?
So, I went in - figuring for the worst since the GP had already ruled out the simple stuff. And I was still blown away - by getting the simple answer. :)
He said it looks like a clear-cut case of Iron Deficiency Anemia and is treating me as such. He also ran some blood work. A complete metabolic panel and two tests to check for Celiac's disease - even though he doesn't think that is it since I am not malnourished. I haven't heard anything about the bloodwork results, so must not be bad news.
Oh, and my Ferritin level was a 2. Yes a TWO. Normal is 20-290. Guess I was a little low. ;)
So, on 4/15/08, I am going for an iron "infusion" by IV. It will take 3-4 hours to complete and I am not to drive myself because they give you benadryl first and I may get loopy/tired. So, my Mom is taking me. DH will be out of town at school for work.
Then 3 weeks later, I will have more blood drawn to see if the iron "infusion" worked and then meet with the Hematologist again a week after that to review everything and see if we are good or need to do more testing. Right now, we have no "reason" for me being iron deficient. I don't know what the plan is for that right now. We'll see. I'm just so thrilled and relieved that it is the simple kind of anemia!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Ah, the dress...
The dress.... oh the dress... :) I never did give an update on the dress, did I?
So, here goes. The modesty piece was put in and while it did alter the dress, it still looked great and there were no issues.
I am not sure how to do a picture in a blog, but I'm going to give it a try. Here is a picture of my DD in the dress (with the modesty piece):
But, the story doesn't end there. Does it ever just end where it is supposed to? lol :)
So, the day of the dance comes. We are prepared. Nails have been done, toes have been done. Hair appointment is scheduled. Dress, shoes, purse, jewelry, silicone sticky-bra, new make-up... everything has been purchased and is sitting - waiting. :) We get up early and head to the salon. DD is excited, she has a photo picked out of how she wants her hair done. We are there for about an hour and a half and the style comes out looking fantastic - exactly what she wanted. She is thrilled. I am thrilled. We are excited about the dance!
We get home and she doesn't feel well - her tummy hurts. I chalk it up to nerves and not eating much so far. She eats and proceeds to get ready to go. We get to her BFF's house. Take ass-loads of photos! FINALLY... it is time to head off to the dance. Because she was voted onto the dance court, we were allowed to go too - to be able to see her court announcement. :)
She rode with her date, DH and I drove ourselves. All was well. We (DH & I) are sitting in the "visitors" area waiting for the announcement of the court. Dance guests are milling around - visiting with each other. DD comes up to me - not looking very happy. Tells me she is going to throw up. We head to the bathroom... put a cool wet cloth on her face. She is bent over the sink trying to get "this" to pass. Her friends are in and out of the bathroom trying to cheer her up. Everyone thinks it is nerves (because she is on the court). I am concerned now that it isn't nerves and the flu that has been going around. Teachers come in to check on her. More friends.
The court announcement line up is in place. DD mus decide... does she go out or what? She gathers herself (she had been crying) and gets in line for the court announcement. I tell her that if she feels she is going to throw up - RUN! RUN out of there and get to the bathroom. DO NOT puke in front of everyone.
She puts on a smiling face, is announced. Walks out, waits in line with her date while the rest of the court is announced. Photos are taken. She is smiling - looking lovely.
Photos are done. She is back in the bathroom crying that she just wants to go home. Her friends are around her - everyone is feeling bad. The teacher feels bad. DD feels bad - bad for her date who is going to be left behind. Bad for me that I spent all that money and she isn't staying for the dance. Bad for herself that she is going to be missing out on all of the evening's fun.
We (DH & I) scoot her out the door quickly. She made a quick announcement and apology to the friends at her table and grabbed her stuff and we were out of there. Stopped once in the middle of the foyer - I got behind her and pushed her outside so that she wouldn't barf in front of anyone. She managed to hold it. We got into the van. She was crying on the way home. We ended up having to stop so that she could barf on the side of the road. I held her hair - DH held her dress out of the way. When we got home, she collapsed in front of the toilet with her gown still on. :(
I got her undressed and into comfy clothes (sweats and t-shirt) and into bed. Sent text messages to her date and BFF that she indeed was sick and it wasn't nerves - and an apology because she felt so bad leaving them there.
She spent the next 2 days in bed. Sick. :( Poor kid. (sigh)
So, here goes. The modesty piece was put in and while it did alter the dress, it still looked great and there were no issues.
I am not sure how to do a picture in a blog, but I'm going to give it a try. Here is a picture of my DD in the dress (with the modesty piece):
But, the story doesn't end there. Does it ever just end where it is supposed to? lol :)
So, the day of the dance comes. We are prepared. Nails have been done, toes have been done. Hair appointment is scheduled. Dress, shoes, purse, jewelry, silicone sticky-bra, new make-up... everything has been purchased and is sitting - waiting. :) We get up early and head to the salon. DD is excited, she has a photo picked out of how she wants her hair done. We are there for about an hour and a half and the style comes out looking fantastic - exactly what she wanted. She is thrilled. I am thrilled. We are excited about the dance!
We get home and she doesn't feel well - her tummy hurts. I chalk it up to nerves and not eating much so far. She eats and proceeds to get ready to go. We get to her BFF's house. Take ass-loads of photos! FINALLY... it is time to head off to the dance. Because she was voted onto the dance court, we were allowed to go too - to be able to see her court announcement. :)
She rode with her date, DH and I drove ourselves. All was well. We (DH & I) are sitting in the "visitors" area waiting for the announcement of the court. Dance guests are milling around - visiting with each other. DD comes up to me - not looking very happy. Tells me she is going to throw up. We head to the bathroom... put a cool wet cloth on her face. She is bent over the sink trying to get "this" to pass. Her friends are in and out of the bathroom trying to cheer her up. Everyone thinks it is nerves (because she is on the court). I am concerned now that it isn't nerves and the flu that has been going around. Teachers come in to check on her. More friends.
The court announcement line up is in place. DD mus decide... does she go out or what? She gathers herself (she had been crying) and gets in line for the court announcement. I tell her that if she feels she is going to throw up - RUN! RUN out of there and get to the bathroom. DO NOT puke in front of everyone.
She puts on a smiling face, is announced. Walks out, waits in line with her date while the rest of the court is announced. Photos are taken. She is smiling - looking lovely.
Photos are done. She is back in the bathroom crying that she just wants to go home. Her friends are around her - everyone is feeling bad. The teacher feels bad. DD feels bad - bad for her date who is going to be left behind. Bad for me that I spent all that money and she isn't staying for the dance. Bad for herself that she is going to be missing out on all of the evening's fun.
We (DH & I) scoot her out the door quickly. She made a quick announcement and apology to the friends at her table and grabbed her stuff and we were out of there. Stopped once in the middle of the foyer - I got behind her and pushed her outside so that she wouldn't barf in front of anyone. She managed to hold it. We got into the van. She was crying on the way home. We ended up having to stop so that she could barf on the side of the road. I held her hair - DH held her dress out of the way. When we got home, she collapsed in front of the toilet with her gown still on. :(
I got her undressed and into comfy clothes (sweats and t-shirt) and into bed. Sent text messages to her date and BFF that she indeed was sick and it wasn't nerves - and an apology because she felt so bad leaving them there.
She spent the next 2 days in bed. Sick. :( Poor kid. (sigh)
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Anemia
Well, I haven't been here posting in a while now. I guess that there just really wasn't all that much to say, so I didn't say anything.
Now, I am here for my own theraputic reasons. I've heard from many others that blogging is theraputic. So, for anyone who happens to still come and check out my dormant blog, this one is for me.
After losing so much weight (almost 40 pounds) and learning how to eat healthy - and doing a good job at it, I got what I called 'the back-ended flu' from my boss before he left for his Hawaii trip. The last week of February, I got the diarreah along with fever, stomach ache... normal flu-like symptoms without vomitting. All kinds of nasty crud was going around at the time - my kids were sick (several times). My intestinal issues (diarreah, gas, grumbles) lasted 3 weeks and I decided it was worth a trip to the doctor's office. She didn't think it was real serious (or should I leave out the word "real"?) but decided it was a good opportunity to do some bloodwork and see how things looked.
She tested my cholesterol, sugar, liver function, kidney function, a CBC and I'm not sure what else, but I had to fast for 12 hours and so I ended up waiting a couple weeks-ish until it was a Saturday when I remembered to not eat for a long enough period of time. :) That Saturday - was last Saturday (3/29/08). I went and had my two tubes drawn, knowing that all would turn out great and confirm that my healthy new choice of living was doing good things for my body.
On Monday morning, the doctor called me. Yes, the doctor herself. She called me to tell me that I am/was severely anemic. Normal hemoglobin levels are 12-16. Mine was 8.5. She told me that when hemoglobin level gets in the 8-9 range, doctors consider giving a blood transfusion. She told me the cause of the anemia was probably due to low iron and that she wanted to check my blood to be sure before she gave me a prescription for iron supplements. So, Monday before noon - I went back to the lab to have my iron checked.
The nurse took me back to the room and proceeded to draw SIX tubes of blood. SIX!!! I thought I was just getting my iron level checked. My doctor ordered TEN additional blood tests. And one of them had to be done at the lab - the one to check to see how fast my blood clots. So, after leaving six tubes of blood behind at that lab, I headed to the hospital to have my finger pricked for the TENTH test.
Tuesday morning, I call the doctor's office and find out that they have not been faxed my results. I called the lab and had them "resend" them. The doctor would be reviewing the results at lunchtime and call me. At 12:30, the doctor calls (yes, the doctor herself again) and tells me that - surprisingly - my iron level is fine. AND my hemoglobin level has dropped from 8.5 to 8.1. She is now thinking that my anemia must be a hereditary form - and that test result wasn't in yet - so we would have to wait a couple days for that test result to come in.
I'm almost 40 years old and have never had my hemoglobin checked? I'm almost 40 years old and have had low hemoglobin all my life and NO ONE has ever mentioned it? Not while I was pregnant? That didn't seem right to me. So, I spent two hours calling around getting authorizations to get my labwork results from doctors I've seen. The hospital came through for me and faxed me over 18 pages of labwork results for tests I've had done from 1998 - 2004. I look over the results. Not anywhere in that 6 year period did I have a hemoglobin result come back low. Not even once. I faxed over those 18 pages along with a note to my doctor that it wasn't looking likely that the results of that hereditary test was going to come back and give that answer.
About an hour or so later, the doctor (herself) called and said that based on what I sent her, she agreed... not hereditary. So, she told me that she was arranging for me to get a blood transfusion the next morning (WHAT???????????) and that she was calling a Hematologist to get me in asap. And that she wanted to me do a stool kit to check for internal bleeding (WHAT?) She called me back a short time later to give me times for both appointments.
So, Wednesday morning comes and I head to the hospital. Before I can get my blood transfusion, I have to have another blood draw to make sure my blood is low. Test comes back at 8.3. Got to hospital at 10:00 and at 11:30, they hook up unit #1 and start transfusing. When it was finished, I got a second unit. When that was done, we waited about 20 minutes-ish and then I had to have my blood drawn again to make sure the count increased. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait for those results before leaving! I was discharged at 3:40pm. Long day. (sigh) And the result of that last draw showed an increase from 8.3 to 10.4. :) Good news.
Now, I am here for my own theraputic reasons. I've heard from many others that blogging is theraputic. So, for anyone who happens to still come and check out my dormant blog, this one is for me.
After losing so much weight (almost 40 pounds) and learning how to eat healthy - and doing a good job at it, I got what I called 'the back-ended flu' from my boss before he left for his Hawaii trip. The last week of February, I got the diarreah along with fever, stomach ache... normal flu-like symptoms without vomitting. All kinds of nasty crud was going around at the time - my kids were sick (several times). My intestinal issues (diarreah, gas, grumbles) lasted 3 weeks and I decided it was worth a trip to the doctor's office. She didn't think it was real serious (or should I leave out the word "real"?) but decided it was a good opportunity to do some bloodwork and see how things looked.
She tested my cholesterol, sugar, liver function, kidney function, a CBC and I'm not sure what else, but I had to fast for 12 hours and so I ended up waiting a couple weeks-ish until it was a Saturday when I remembered to not eat for a long enough period of time. :) That Saturday - was last Saturday (3/29/08). I went and had my two tubes drawn, knowing that all would turn out great and confirm that my healthy new choice of living was doing good things for my body.
On Monday morning, the doctor called me. Yes, the doctor herself. She called me to tell me that I am/was severely anemic. Normal hemoglobin levels are 12-16. Mine was 8.5. She told me that when hemoglobin level gets in the 8-9 range, doctors consider giving a blood transfusion. She told me the cause of the anemia was probably due to low iron and that she wanted to check my blood to be sure before she gave me a prescription for iron supplements. So, Monday before noon - I went back to the lab to have my iron checked.
The nurse took me back to the room and proceeded to draw SIX tubes of blood. SIX!!! I thought I was just getting my iron level checked. My doctor ordered TEN additional blood tests. And one of them had to be done at the lab - the one to check to see how fast my blood clots. So, after leaving six tubes of blood behind at that lab, I headed to the hospital to have my finger pricked for the TENTH test.
Tuesday morning, I call the doctor's office and find out that they have not been faxed my results. I called the lab and had them "resend" them. The doctor would be reviewing the results at lunchtime and call me. At 12:30, the doctor calls (yes, the doctor herself again) and tells me that - surprisingly - my iron level is fine. AND my hemoglobin level has dropped from 8.5 to 8.1. She is now thinking that my anemia must be a hereditary form - and that test result wasn't in yet - so we would have to wait a couple days for that test result to come in.
I'm almost 40 years old and have never had my hemoglobin checked? I'm almost 40 years old and have had low hemoglobin all my life and NO ONE has ever mentioned it? Not while I was pregnant? That didn't seem right to me. So, I spent two hours calling around getting authorizations to get my labwork results from doctors I've seen. The hospital came through for me and faxed me over 18 pages of labwork results for tests I've had done from 1998 - 2004. I look over the results. Not anywhere in that 6 year period did I have a hemoglobin result come back low. Not even once. I faxed over those 18 pages along with a note to my doctor that it wasn't looking likely that the results of that hereditary test was going to come back and give that answer.
About an hour or so later, the doctor (herself) called and said that based on what I sent her, she agreed... not hereditary. So, she told me that she was arranging for me to get a blood transfusion the next morning (WHAT???????????) and that she was calling a Hematologist to get me in asap. And that she wanted to me do a stool kit to check for internal bleeding (WHAT?) She called me back a short time later to give me times for both appointments.
So, Wednesday morning comes and I head to the hospital. Before I can get my blood transfusion, I have to have another blood draw to make sure my blood is low. Test comes back at 8.3. Got to hospital at 10:00 and at 11:30, they hook up unit #1 and start transfusing. When it was finished, I got a second unit. When that was done, we waited about 20 minutes-ish and then I had to have my blood drawn again to make sure the count increased. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait for those results before leaving! I was discharged at 3:40pm. Long day. (sigh) And the result of that last draw showed an increase from 8.3 to 10.4. :) Good news.
Now my job is to complete the stool kit I've been given. Yipee. Yahoo. Fun, fun, fun. And to write down all of my questions that I have for the Hematologist.
From all of the "research" I've done online, my last chance for a "semi-simple" answer is for them to find blood in the stool and have it be something like a bleeding ulcer. If there is no internal bleeding, they I am more-than-likely looking at some blood disorder, blood disease or cancer. Let's hope whatever it is, it is treatable if not curable. :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)