Anemic Again

I can't remember if I have mentioned it, but I have been having problems with my asthma. After the adoption physical I made an appointment to talk to my new Doctor about the asthma and to review the new patient blood work she ordered.

Of course, in my usual style of procrastination, I didn't' get my blood work done until yesterday, just in time for my two week follow up appointment for my asthma.

At the last appointment, she had put me on Symbicort to treat my asthma. I was diagnosed with mild asthma about 8 years ago, but suspect I have probably had it all my life. Until recently it has been controlled by the occasional (couple times a month) use of a rescue inhaler. For the last four months I have been using my inhaler at least once a day and often more than that.

It started after our new cat, James, was diagnosed with a skin condition and had to be dipped in a mixture of lime and sulfur once a week for about 5 weeks. The stench of the dip felt like it was burning my lungs and likely irritated them to the point that they are having a hard time healing themselves. It was getting better since the dips stopped, but it was taking so long and was starting to really worry me. The Symbicort is a long lasting medication that will reduce inflammation and allow my lungs to heal. The point of this part of the story is that I am now on Symbicort for the next six months and we will decide what to do from there.

Now back to the actual point of this post. My blood work somehow managed to get back in time for today's appointment. My cholesterol and all associated things are very good. My thyroid is actually being over medicated still, so that level is being dropped again. The only real problem is that I am anemic again.

I was first diagnosed with anemia about 2 years ago, shortly after we moved back to Florida. It was kind of a shock because I had never been told I was anemic before and anyone who has been through infertility testing knows that they check for everything. The nurse practitioner who gave me the results sent me for a colonoscopy (that was fun) which came back normal. My follow up appointment was with another nurse practitioner who announced in a cheerful voice that the colonoscopy was unnecessary since she could tell from the blood work that the anemia was not from blood loss, but because my red blood cells were small and pale. I really wish someone had caught that before I had a giant tube shoved up you know where.

I took prenatals to correct the condition since we were trying to get knocked up anyway and never thought much more about it until now. Now I am mildly anemic again and the Doctor has ordered more blood work to confirm it is an iron deficiency. Hopefully with will be the problem and a simple pill will fix me right up.

All in all, it was a pretty good appointment and I am still relatively healthy and in no immediate danger of keeling over from anything that we know of.

Wow, that was long and boring. Sorry to anyone read to the end of this one.