Mrs. Hyde

You may have noticed that I got my new blood work posted on "The Stats" page of the website.  However, you may also notice that it doesn't report my progress on the categories in which I had the most concern--blood platelets, hemoglobin, etc.  Although I specifically told the nurse we needed to check these things, she said she would ask the PA...and then apparently they decided together that this was unnecessary.  So, these things were not checked in my last blood draw.  I was not very happy about it.

So, I've been going forward unsure of whether or not I am still anemic.

But over the last few days I have begun to experience symptoms that have concerned me:  dizziness, confusion, extreme irritability (my husband refers to this as Mrs. Hyde), the inability to focus, and near-fainting.  My daughter has fainted a couple of times and has told me that first things go dark.  I've had things start going dark several times but have been able to fight through this.

This morning my husband and I were timing at our children's swim meet and I was really struggling to understand simple directions (even though I've timed many, many times) and fighting feelings of dizziness.

We decided together that it was time to add some more calories.  He stole a cranberry-grape juice from our kids' cooler and I drank it.

It was like candy!  That was my first experience of something sweet in 67 days.  I felt better within a few minutes.

So...juice has been added as an acceptable supplement to my diet.  I allowed myself two cups of it today--one in the morning and one in the evening.  This increased my caloric intake by about 175%.  I am also still taking vitamins including Iron and B12.

Hopefully these symptoms will now cease.  I'm wondering if they are simply caused by low blood sugar, especially now that I've reviewed those symptoms and seen how my body has responded to the juice.

I'm still moving forward, though, and hope that no additional alterations need to be made.

And they won't be, as long as Mrs. Hyde has made her last appearance.