The week before last, I had the flu. I was given Tamiflu by the doctor, and was feeling better by the third day. By the fifth day, I was feeling sick again. Tired, achy, cold nose, feet and hands (although this happens to me every year when it gets cold). Sick. The doctor decided to do some bloodwork on Tuesday.

I had a gastric bypass about seven years ago, and I’ve dealt with some nasty side effects since. It’s hard for me to get a good balance of things my body needs in, because I have to eat my protein first, so I take a bunch of supplements. I now have osteopenia and anemia, and take a b complex, biotin, ‘green’ pill, and five calcuim caplets every day. I’ve been taking isotonic vitamins (powdered for faster absorption) over the past years, but I get nauseous every time I take them, so there’s been an interesting Pavlovian response where I seem to ‘forget’ to take them. Almost every night. I used to take iron supplements every day too, but they weren’t doing anything, and my iron levels have gone down every year. I’ve been mostly in bed for the last year, but I thought that the fatigue was unrelated to my physical issues.

When the doctor got the bloodwork back and called me on Wednesday, he was alarmed at my iron numbers – it was nine point something. He happens to be one of the best General Practitioners in the NY/NJ/CT area, so I tend to take his words fairly seriously. He looked at my history, and saw that my iron levels had been dropping a whole point each year. He actually told me that if his levels were as low as mine, that he would have difficulty getting through a day at work. We needed to investigate the cause, outside the obvious side effect of the gastric bypass. His first concern was that there was some sort of internal bleeding, and told me I needed a colonoscopy. It just so happened I had one a few months ago, and was complimented at the health and beauty of my colon (:)) so that one was checked off. Next step, he said, was a hematologist. Immediately. Tomorrow. I was to call his recommended doctor (also rated amongst the top in the tri-state area) in the morning, and tell them that he said I needed to be fitted in.

And so it was. The appointment was made for Friday afternoon.

I was a bit anxious when I saw the hematologist, because my GP had made it so clear that this was urgent, but she was wonderful. She took two more vials of blood, one to be sent out to test ferritin levels (iron in the bone marrow) and such, and the other was a test that was done immediately in the office. My platelets are abnormally small (another sign of anemia), and she knows that the further blood tests will show that as well. Although I begged her to start treatment immediately (I’m just about falling asleep at the wheel), she said that the other blood tests needed to come back so that she could prove need of treatment to the insurance company, but once it was pre-certified, we could begin treatment immediately.

The treatment is iron infusion. It can work right away, or it could take up to four treatments before I start feeling better. It has dangerous side effects, the most serious is an anaphylactic reaction, which I’m already subject to with wasp stings, dust mites, and Sulfa class antibiotics.

I got a phone call from the hematologists’ office today, and missed the call *grrr*, so I’m going to call them first thing on Monday to set up a time to go in. Matt is nervous, and wants to be home, especially for the first appointment, in case something happens. The problem is that he leaves for Florida on Wednesday and won’t come back until Friday night, and I don’t think I can go another whole week like this. If I can be seen on Monday or Tuesday, I’m for sure taking the appointment.

Please send me some ‘fit her into the schedule’ energy!! Or, for that matter, any energy at all – I’m completely out:)