Day 73

I went in for my blood work this morning. The entire process of taking a number, checking in, waiting without an appointment, having blood drawn, having and EKG done, and peeing a cup lasted about 50 minutes--MUCH more reasonable than 4 hours at my last medical event. Can you tell I'm still bitter?

I suspect that I'm anemic again. Having been so tired for the last month and a half, I was getting a little worried. Usually when you start and exercise program, like I did 10 weeks ago, your body is in shock, is really tired, but then after 2-3 weeks you're supposed to start becoming conditioned to the increased work, gaining cardiovascular strength, etc. All that happened to me is I became more and MORE tired, tired to the point where I was sleeping those 3 hours naps in the middle of the day. Increasing my potassium after a workout, drinking lots of water, sleeping 8 hours a night--every suggestion I took to heart and did without any results.

Years and years ago, I was anemic. It was diagnosed through a routine physical exam from which I had no symptoms. I took iron supplements for about 6 months and then my levels were fine for about 10 years. I was even a regular blood donor--every 56 days--up until last October when my little blood drop didn't fall fast enough. See when you donate blood, you have to have just a smidgen over the normal amounts of iron in order for them to take a litre from you. At that time I was just in the normal limits. The nurses said I didn't have anything to worry about, I just couldn't give blood that day. Then holidays came around and things happened so we took a hiatus from giving blood, not thinking anything of it. Then I start this whole exercise thing and I am more tired than I have ever been. I start getting dizzy, lightheaded, sleeping 16 hours a day, unable to do my school work because I can't concentrate which stresses me out even more, started getting headaches again about a week ago. Something was not right. Then I started taking iron supplements and almost if by magic, I feel my energy returning. Fingers crossed there is a real connection between them. I'll get my lab results back sometime next week. It'll be interesting to see what happens!

Meals
1/2 dish chicken tikka masala (l/o)
approx 1 cup saffron rice
1 naan bread
4 cups of water

1 cup blueberries
1 cup strawberries
1 BabyBel Light cheese wheel
6 graham crackers
100 calorie Dairy Milk chocolate bar
2 cups of water

5 pieces of frozen pizza
4 cups of water

Exercise
None

Notes:
-I hope everyone else in the world has those days where no, you do not have one more minute in the day to exercise. I keep saying it because I'm not really choosing not to exercise; I just have NO time this week.