So in January I visited my new doctor. Not surprisingly, she spotted my extreme anemia and did the one thing that probably made me get serious about following through with a plan. Instead of prescribing iron to take twice a day and asking me to make a follow-up appointment with her in three months, she gave me a scrip to get blood work done in three-months time. Whe'd get the results then we'd talk on the phone about next steps. Brilliant!
So I religiously took my iron for three months. I research iron absorption, veg vs. non-veg sources of iron and how they get aborbed, when to take it, what to take it with, etc. I missed one dose in three months, took it first thing in the morning with orange juice (then waited an hour before eating breakfast), took it last thing before bed (shooting for at least 2 hours after eating anything.) After three months, I had my blood work done and spoke to Dr. Font on the phone. There had been a small improvement, so she recommended that I continue oral iron for three more months. I said okay. In May, I experienced a bout of GI distress so severe I stayed home from work for three days in a row. In all, the episode of unpleasantness lasted more than three weeks. I saw a nurse practicioner at my doctor's office, who ordered all kinds of blood and stool tests (oh, joy!). The tests revealed two things: 1) My anemia had actually gotten a little worse, and 2) there was no apparent reason for my diarrhea. Dr. Font and I spoke over the phone again. She recommended that I see a hematologist for follow-up for the anemia. Enter the amazing Dr. Hartner. More in part 3. So when I was twenty-one, I drove from Stillwater ot Oklahoma City to a mall to donate blood so that I could have a chance to win tickets to a Heart concert. I had organized blood drives and donated in high school, so the donating blood was no big thing. Heart tickets WERE a big thing. [I had already had a torrid love affair with my high-school-best-friend-turned-freshman-college-roommate, but hadn't consciously figured out the whole lesbian thing yet.] I was surprised when the technician, after a finger stick, reported that I was anemic and wouldn't be allowed to donate. Shit. No blood, no chance to win the tickets.
On the drive back to Stillwater, I had some weird back pains on my left side. I was very uncomfortable and had no clue as to the problem. When I got back to my rented house near campus, I did what any normal college girl would do: I ordered pizza and drank beer with my [platonic] roommates. The pain worsened, and to shorten what I tend to make a very long story, by the end of the night I was diagnosed with a kidney stone and released from Stillwater General to go home and pee through a funnel. By the next day the stone still hadn't passed, so my mom came and got me with the intention of seeing her doctor the next day. The pain was so bad that she ended up driving me straight to the emergency room. To shortened this part of the story, these docs noted that besides the kidney stone, I was severely anemic and that maybe I had bone cancer, so they did a bone marrow biopsy. I will tell you that having a bone marrow biopsy will definitely take your mind off a kidney stone. Bottom line: No cancer. My anemia was chocked up to my being a menstruating college girl with a questionable diet. I was omnivorous at the time, but did not pay particular attention to eating balanced meals. We were all satisfied with that conclusion. The kidney stone was surgically removed (the operating room story is one for a different day), and since I was hooked up to all those IV's anyway, they gave me iron intravenously. Five days after I was admitted, I was released kidney stone free and with a replenished red blood cell count. I felt good and went about my business. No further follow-up for my anemia was ordered. For 25 years I had recurring diagnoses of severe anemia. In fact, I NEVER had a normal red blood cell count after high school. The conclusion was always: "You are menstruating, so of course you lose a lot of blood. Take supplements. Eat more liver." Then when I became vegetarian, the tone turned more to: "What do you expect will happen if you choose to eliminate meat from your diet." I bought all of it. I'd take supplements for a while, and since my anemia didn't seem to be causing me any specific problems, I'd figure I was better, not stick with any follow-up visits to doctors to just check that, and by each regular check-up (which for me were typically 5 years apart), my iron levels would be low again. At least that's what I thought was happening. Then in January, I started with a new primary care physician. That's where part 2 of the story will begin. |
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