anemia

All posts tagged anemia

Overdue Health Update – June 2022

Posted by ARadioGurl on June 21, 2022
Posted in: Daily Life, FMS, History. Tagged: , , .

Roller-coaster of a few years since my last blog update. Had a new roof put on my house in early 2021, had to get surgery for my dog’s right rear leg in 2020, and have been busy tinkering on my VW bus, the Benz, vintage computers, and antique radios. Health-wise I found a new set of doctors in early 2020, before the pandemic begun. I had hoped for a quick recovery from a number of issues, but it’s been a slow recovery and at times a fight.

I have severe allergies, very severe, far worse than I believed. Years of them being untreated have turned them into a primary flareup trigger and a source of migraines. After a year and one half of working with my primary to make sure my bloodwork was healthy (no more anemia or vitamin D issues, yay!) and experimenting with various allergy meds, I sought out a sinus/allergy specialist, started allergy treatment a month after my first appointment, sinus surgery a couple months later. Before beginning treatment I was seeing upwards of 25 migraine days a month, seeing relief only a couple of times a year, which coincide with low pollen/allergen months.

I saw major improvements after the sinus surgery, immediately I could breath better than I have in years, then, as the weeks went one I noticed less migraines, less flareups, less attacks. The allergy immunosuppression treatment itself is rough on me, causes my sinuses to become inflamed and, when allergens are high, sick, weak, foggy. I’m still early in the treatment, but I’ve seen a lot of improvements and overall feeling better. I should see significant improvements over the following year, especially once other health issues are resolved.

Due to the immunosuppression treatment I put house and fleet repairs on hold. Being sick for 5-6 days a week took up the time I was spending working on repairs and maintenance. Stopped working outside when I couldn’t be outside for more than 10 minutes before headaches would begin and lymph nodes would swell, going out to the garage caused similar issues, then I noticed that drywall dust was making me extremely sick. I can mostly handling being outside now, the garage itself doesn’t both me as long as I’m not out in it all day, but it may be some months before I can handle drywall dust again.

I’m fighting an infection, have been for years. Heat makes it flareup, painfully, but it would often turn dormant, sometimes for months, usually weeks at a time, making it hard to find the right treatment. Many treatments would turn it dormant, some worsened it, but eventually one that worked was found. There are side effects, heat sensitivity, headaches, exhaustion, chills, they come and go, but overall they are lessening as the infection clears up. No clue how long before it’s completely clear, but it’s been a long battle.

Things are rough right now, this past year has been rough, but improving week by week. The infection should continue to clear up over the following months, and I should see significant improvements with my allergies. Partner has been helping with a lot of the yard work and house maintenance, but I’m really looking forward to when I can go outside and not worry about headaches or the infection flaring up. Anemia is under control, vitamin deficiencies are under control, bloodwork is looking great, I’m ready to move on.

Anemia Hell

Posted by ARadioGurl on April 4, 2018
Posted in: Daily Life, FMS. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

Anemia is hell, or at least the kind I have is. After the hurricane hit Florida last September I started getting sick and never fully recovered. December and January I pushed myself hard with energy drinks, due to traveling and house repairs. I started having headaches every morning that never went away, my heart-rate was constantly high, I was constantly cold and I couldn’t do chores or even cook dinner for myself. Worst part, doctors would blame my issues on my fibro and I believed them at first.

Eventually I blamed the issues on mold. I had found serious mold in my kitchen in January and had to gut the sink area and build a new countertop. When the shitbirds were squatting in my house, the sink had leaked, possible for a couple of years, causing the particle board of the cabinets and drywall behind them to become moldy. After that I gutted part of my office/lab where I had an ant issue, found a small bit of mold, not enough to make a person sick though.

Exposure to that mold would make me sick for a day or two, so it made sense that mold was causing my health issues. I was wrong, as I remained sick and wasn’t getting better. The house was smelling good again, my sinuses were clearing, but I was not in good shape.

With my health was going to hell I quit energy drinks, quitting caffeine helped before. Even after the caffeine detox I started passing out every day. Usually around lunch time or shortly after color would drain out of my skin, I would become extremely chilled, then have trouble remaining conscious. At the worst it caused mental issues, confusion, word slurring, there were a few times that I started babbling pure gibberish. The mental impairment was scary, I could barely function. That coupled with the fatigue attacks causing me to pass out made me realize that I was becoming anemic again.

Everything about being anemic is horrible. I’m not sure what is worse, the weak immune system, infections, lack of sleep, fevers, the exhaustion, or the headaches, but I think it’s that I could only function during the day. By 5pm the fevers would have taken me out of commission, rarely would I feel better before the next morning. Sleep was nearly impossible, five or six hour was normal and upon rising I would have horrible headaches. If I tried to exercise, the headaches would worsen. These weren’t the only major issues I had.

Wounds, from minor to major would become infected, even if I cleaned and treated them. The infections made them itch so badly I couldn’t sleep. Wounds would take a minimum of 3-4 weeks to heal, then leave scars. In addition this was the first time in a few years that I had reoccurring sinus infections.

The anemia really made it seem like my body was falling apart. But once I realized what was happening, I bumped up my B12 and made sure my folate intake was healthy. It has been nearly two months since I was at my worst and I am recovering.

The headaches have gone away, I’m passing out less and less often. My cold tolerance is returning and I’ve mostly kicked the sinus infections. I still get tired easily, prone to low grade fevers (possibly due to fibro), evenings can be hard, but I’m sleeping more also. My heart rate is slowly trending down and my wounds are healing. One of the best parts is that wounds no longer become infected, they just heal with normal amounts of scarring.

Two and one half months left for initial recovery.

Anemia Recovery Again – Recovering Well

Posted by ARadioGurl on May 27, 2017
Posted in: Daily Life. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

After the anemia attacks the other week I reanalyzed my supplements and found that I was getting upwards of 80% of my B12 per day, some days far less than that. I had purchased a smaller dosage of sublingual B12 than I should have, this dosage was healthy for a normal person who can absorb B12 without issue. Because of the somewhat low dose my B12 levels slowly depleted over the months until it became too low again. We have doubled the dosage and I am in recovery.

I have not experienced a full crash since my dosage was doubled. While I still become fatigued and foggy in the evenings, it’s happening later and the duration is shorter. At the beginning of the week I would start to fade by 4pm, as of yesterday I didn’t fade until 6pm. Early in the week I would feel heavily fatigued for a few hours, then start to feel normal again, yesterday I started to feel normal after an hour. Before the treatment bump I was experiencing nearly non-stop fibro flares, bad ones.  A week later there is still some minor flaring, the usual aches and pains of fibro, I’m back to where I was a month or two ago.

Whenever my B12 gets bumped back up to healthy issues I have trouble sleeping for the first week or two. At first I’ll struggle to get 6 hours of sleep, but each night I should see an improvement and soon I’ll be back to my 7-8 hours a night. B12 treatment also has a small weight gain side effect, but it should be easy to prevent thanks to the healthier diet I’m on combined with regular exercise.

Anemia – A Year Later

Posted by ARadioGurl on May 18, 2017
Posted in: Daily Life, FMS. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

A little over a year ago I began treatment for B12 anemia, aka pernicious or megaloblastic anemia. At beginning I saw many substantial improvements, especially with fatigue. At the time I even stated that it had stopped my crashes, but that wasn’t true. The seemingly random crashes went from regular to rare. If I don’t push myself too hard I may not see an anemia attack for weeks, but with the return of the summer heat combined with my morning power walks, I’ve had a few more attacks than I’m used to. The most recent attack happened yesterday, triggering a full flareup.

During my lunch break I climbed up on the roof to work on patching it before the rainy season. The weather was nice with a good breeze, so I didn’t experience overheating like I did last time I was up there. I was able to get my work accomplished in about 30 minutes and came down feeling decent. A couple of hours later I was at a doctor appointment and informed her of my morning power walk and the roof work that day. She commented on how energetic and perky I seemed, to which I responded that while I was feeling good at that time, I could feel my body starting to get weak. A couple of hours later, at dinner, I took all my supplements, including extra B12 to help fight the attack, but before I knew it, I was chilled and passing out.

I’m not exactly sure how to describe the feeling of the anemia attack. My body starts to feel off, motor controls may be okay, but everything feels heavy and tired, but usually not painful. As the attack worsens muscles get weaker and I start to feel a chill, not long after this my eyes get heavy and hard to keep open. Bad attacks, like yesterday evening’s, are rare, but they can trigger painful fibro flareups. When the flare began I could still get around the house and was planning on cooking an easy dinner, but the pain started to get worse making it hard for me to use my right hand/arm for anything. The pain kept on worsening, evolving from simple aches to more powerful pain spikes throughout my legs and arms, and extreme stiffness in my shoulders. That’s when I turn the intensity of my Quell up as much as I can handle.

With the Quell turned up as much as it can, I’ll start to huddle under blankets, trying to warm myself from this increasing chill. The blankets help, keeping breezes off me, as even a gentle warm breeze may trigger shaking. At this point the pain may be bad, but is usually manageable and I’ll pass out. This is what happened last night. As the air conditioner blew cool air throughout the house, I covered myself with blankets, turned the Quell up, and passed out for an hour.

Upon waking back up I will often find myself warm, unless it’s a particularly bad incident. Yesterday’s was one of these bad ones. Waking up was a struggle, I would pass back out for seconds then re-awaken. The chill had lessened, but I still chilled easily. My head felt like it was in a balloon and my muscles were hard to move. Took over a half hour before I could move from the couch without assistance (it’s why I keep crutches around the house). Once I was able to move, I could feel my body tiring again, but it was after 8pm and I was good enough to get ready for bed. I knew it was bad when I couldn’t get a new trash bag into the trash barrel, I gave up after a few tries.

Thanks to, what doctors and research tells me is the fibro, I barely slept for the first 5-6 hours in bed. I feel asleep for good around 4am waking up shortly before 8am. I felt meh when I woke up, I was still in a flareup. Shoulder muscles were stiff, walking wasn’t easy, and motor skills were definite reduced. I tried to put a trash bag in the trash barrel, then gave up. I wasn’t surprised when I had a second attack after lunch today, I didn’t try to stop it, I let myself pass out. I woke up an hour later and was able to resume work.

Even though I get foggy during some of these attacks, only the worst stop me from being able to work. It is far easier for me to type out a string of bash commands or code a routine than it is to come up with words during conversations. Even right now as I type this blog entry, if I try to talk to someone else in the room my speech is slow, my mind easily blanks, and I forget words. One of the reasons I was happy to go into software engineering was because it is easier for me to code than to hold conversations. I’m fortunate to have a career that I can maintain throughout these health issues.

I would be happier if these anemia attacks completely stopped, but they may not, it’s possible that there can be permanent damage. I used to experience anemia attacks like this when I was an undergrad 15+ years ago, rare but they would occur. I experienced them periodically throughout my 20s, maybe one a month. When the fibro became strong I started experiencing them weekly, the B12 treatments stopped that until recently. I’ve been told it can take a year to fully recover from anemia, even longer or never especially if there was any nerve damage. It’s time to double check my anemia treatment, get my blood tested again, make sure none of my other vitamins have gone wonky.