I started my journey about 7 months ago, and while the help doctors and the internet have provided me for getting to a better and healthier me and getting my illness under control, I wish I had real world advice and people's experience to have helped me, so here's mine.
Anemia;
A condition in which your blood has a lower than usual number of red blood cells or lacks hemoglobin. Hemo what? Hemoglobin is the main part of our red blood cells and it's what binds to oxygen and carries it throughout or bodies.
Symptoms;
I had each and everyone of these, along with easy bruising and numb / tingling hands due to my b12 deficiency. Many I do still have even though my levels are now within a "healthy" level and have stayed there for about two months.
Types of Anemia;
My life so far;
I for the first time this started don't have a doctors appointment for three months. For the past seven months I've either been at doctors or getting lab work done about once a week. I was diagnosed with both Iron-Deficiency Anemia and Pernicious Anemia. It's been a long journey, something as easy as vitamin deficiencies seems like an easy thing to cure but it wears you down so much and there's so much trial and error to determine what works for an individual patient. It was a huge reason my relationship ended, I was so worn down I couldn't clean, taking a shower was a huge task that knocked out all my energy, I was getting depressed due to the illness and my anxiety was getting out of control and my ex simply couldn't handle it all.
For a long time I was getting migraines daily to the point where I would throw up. My hands started going numb due to my B12 deficiency which was terrifying. There is a huge chunk of time that I really don't even remember because my body was so worn down.
Iron deficiency anemia is the most common. Especially in women due to losing blood from our periods, my doctors were confused by my low levels though because I'm on birth control that causes me to never have periods because mine are so miserable. I'm not regularly losing blood so it doesn't totally make sense.
Pernicious Anemia is very similar to vitamin deficiency anemia only your body is missing the intrinsic factor that makes it possible to absorb the vitamin from food and / or vitamins in pill form, mine is caused by my b12 deficiency.
The foods a person eat play a huge role in anemia, I'm not a fan of red meat but I force myself to eat steak at least two nights a week because red meat is my biggest intake of iron, as well as spinach, but it has to be raw. When you cook your vegetables they loss almost all the vitamins they provide your body with. I also HATE seafood but it provides us when our biggest source of b12 so if anyone could provide me with some awesome recipes that would be wonderful!
Anemia isn't something that will ever go away for me, if I miss my vitamins a couple days I can feel it. I almost always look like I've been beaten because I bruise so easy, and I'm out of breath by the time I get to the stairs at work. But I'm gaining control of it, I'm feeling about 75% better at this point, my migraines are down to about once a week and I have more energy most days. Things are looking up and I'm excited to see where I'm at in September but I try to remember that this will be my life from here on out.
My body has a hard time absorbing my vitamins in general, I'm on double what a normal patient is on iron wise and because I'm missing the intrinsic factor to absorb b12 I have to get injections...every two weeks, also double the normal amount because of the difficulty my body has absorbing it. I recently just learned to give myself injections. It's been a real trip let me tell you haha!
A condition in which your blood has a lower than usual number of red blood cells or lacks hemoglobin. Hemo what? Hemoglobin is the main part of our red blood cells and it's what binds to oxygen and carries it throughout or bodies.
Symptoms;
- Fatigue
- Unusually rapid heartbeat
- Shortness of Breath
- Headaches / Migraines
- Dizziness
- Pale Skin
- Leg Cramps
- Insomnia
I had each and everyone of these, along with easy bruising and numb / tingling hands due to my b12 deficiency. Many I do still have even though my levels are now within a "healthy" level and have stayed there for about two months.
Types of Anemia;
- Iron-Deficiency Anemia
- Vitamin-Deficiency Anemia
- Pernicious Anemia
- Aplastic Anemia
- Hemolytic Anemia
- Sickle Cell Anemia
- Anemia caused by other diseases
My life so far;
I for the first time this started don't have a doctors appointment for three months. For the past seven months I've either been at doctors or getting lab work done about once a week. I was diagnosed with both Iron-Deficiency Anemia and Pernicious Anemia. It's been a long journey, something as easy as vitamin deficiencies seems like an easy thing to cure but it wears you down so much and there's so much trial and error to determine what works for an individual patient. It was a huge reason my relationship ended, I was so worn down I couldn't clean, taking a shower was a huge task that knocked out all my energy, I was getting depressed due to the illness and my anxiety was getting out of control and my ex simply couldn't handle it all.
For a long time I was getting migraines daily to the point where I would throw up. My hands started going numb due to my B12 deficiency which was terrifying. There is a huge chunk of time that I really don't even remember because my body was so worn down.
Iron deficiency anemia is the most common. Especially in women due to losing blood from our periods, my doctors were confused by my low levels though because I'm on birth control that causes me to never have periods because mine are so miserable. I'm not regularly losing blood so it doesn't totally make sense.
Pernicious Anemia is very similar to vitamin deficiency anemia only your body is missing the intrinsic factor that makes it possible to absorb the vitamin from food and / or vitamins in pill form, mine is caused by my b12 deficiency.
The foods a person eat play a huge role in anemia, I'm not a fan of red meat but I force myself to eat steak at least two nights a week because red meat is my biggest intake of iron, as well as spinach, but it has to be raw. When you cook your vegetables they loss almost all the vitamins they provide your body with. I also HATE seafood but it provides us when our biggest source of b12 so if anyone could provide me with some awesome recipes that would be wonderful!
Anemia isn't something that will ever go away for me, if I miss my vitamins a couple days I can feel it. I almost always look like I've been beaten because I bruise so easy, and I'm out of breath by the time I get to the stairs at work. But I'm gaining control of it, I'm feeling about 75% better at this point, my migraines are down to about once a week and I have more energy most days. Things are looking up and I'm excited to see where I'm at in September but I try to remember that this will be my life from here on out.
My body has a hard time absorbing my vitamins in general, I'm on double what a normal patient is on iron wise and because I'm missing the intrinsic factor to absorb b12 I have to get injections...every two weeks, also double the normal amount because of the difficulty my body has absorbing it. I recently just learned to give myself injections. It's been a real trip let me tell you haha!