Even though I have been exercising regularly, the fatigue attacks continued to occur. At seemingly random intervals I would suddenly become extremely fatigued and chilled. Naps would occasionally help, sometimes letting me warm up. For the longest time I assumed this was because of fibro and it would either improve or never change. Then I had bloodwork done and received the results.
Initial glance at the results and everything looks fairly healthy. Started to look at the results over the past six years and at the values that are at the upper and lower end of ‘healthy’, and I started to see a pattern. Based on my current results my red blood cells were not forming correctly, a slight megaloblastic anemia. This was confirmed this with my doctors.
Many people with fibromyalgia have a B12 deficiency, usually managed with supplements or injections. When I was last tested for B12 I was taking vitamins and a B Complex supplement, which kept my levels high enough to be healthy.
I eventually stopped taking those vitamins and supplements, letting my body detox of everything. At the time my digestive issues were bad, supplements such as B complex would upset my stomach. I had been on so many prescription pills and supplements that I wanted to start fresh, give my liver a chance to recover, stop taking pills that upset my stomach.
Over time I added basic supplements such as Vitamin D, turmeric, quercetin, and magnesium back into my diet. Last fall I added supplements suggested by one of my Doctors. Since I was doing better than I had been in years, I never considered that I was missing a key vitamin. I started looking over my supplements and dietary intake. B12 was missing from all my current supplements and my diet was not high in it. There were days where I would get sufficient amounts of B12, but most days I barely took in more than half what I needed, some days almost none. My body would deplete its store of B12 I would have anemic episodes.
The day I started taking a B12 supplement my body stopped crashing. I’m feeling better, but being anemic damages the body, I’m not sure how long it will take to fully recover. Since I wasn’t completely deficient, hopefully only weeks, but even if it takes months, I’m getting stronger.