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Doctor Visit Results ..

July 23rd, 2016 at 01:45 am

So I finally heard back from my doctor about the bloodwork results. My lymphocytes had gone back into the normal range, but my platelets had not. She also said that my ferritan levels were on the low side. So she suggested two options - try taking iron supplements for two months and retest; or, go see a hematologist.

I decided to try the iron pills first. Reading about the symptoms of low iron, it sounds a lot like me. Extreme fatigue, brittle nails, etc.

The problem is though, I eat a lot of foods that are iron rich! My smoothie five days a week has strawberries, etc. in it. Spinach, raisins, pumpkin seeds, and on and on are most of my diet.(outside of my chocolate addiction ...)

So I don't get how I could have low iron.

Right now I'll try just about anything to get my energy back. So .. iron supplements it is. (taken with OJ for now - vitamin C helps the iron absorb better.)

The supplements are pretty cheap - got a 30 day supply for just a few dollars. So .. worth it.

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DH and I had our first date night (just us) Thursday night for July. Ordered out from Ming's and ate in the bedroom with the door shut - to keep the cats out. Smile

I had been supposed to cook, but just had no energy to do so. So DH suggested Ming's. Smile I'm going to do the CC roast on Sunday instead (when it's likely I'll have the most energy, after two days of not working.)

We still have most of our date night budget left - since DH's friend paid for our meal at the Chineese buffet on Sunday.

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DHs friend who we dogsat for and who had indicated he'd reimburse us for the meds we bought for his dog ... well, it looks like he isn't going to follow through on that. Ugh.

I bought the meds knowing full well that we might not be reimbursed, but of course I was hoping! $150 out the door.

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Our electric bill ... OMW! Somehow I missed the June bill (amoungst the many final bills, etc) - that was $99. Then the July bill - $149! Ouch!!!

We had our a/c set at 72 - DH agreed to let me put it up to 78. I couldn't sleep at all at 78. So put it down to 76. That seems ok so far.

Hopefully our next bill won't be so huge!

DH helpfully told me that big electricity bills should be expected in a house in the summer. Really hubby? I had no idea. Smile Doesn't mean I have to like it- or live with it! Big Grin

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Our checks for our joint account finally came today. We bought them from Walmart - enough to probably last us the rest of our lives. Smile (250 I think.)

It came in some weird packaging from someplace in New Braunfel's TX. At first I thought it was some kind of tourist brochure and almost tossed it without opening ... Glad I didn't do that!

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At work we now have 8 women and two men in administration. Smile One of our men who retired at 53 was replaced by a woman.

I really like her so far. In fact, she helped me out big time with a project I was working on.

We are changing our bus routes and our time schedules completely in October. My boss gave me a spreadsheet with all the time schedules on it for all the routes that one of the dispatchers had created.

The problem with it was 1. All the routes and times were on one sheet; and 2. All the times were written without a colon. i.e. 843P instead of 8:43P

So, the first problem was easily fixed. It was the second problem which caused me a great deal of frustration. How to insert a colon into umpteen cells without having to click on each one individually?

I tried every thing I knew how to do, plus what I could find on Google. Nada. Then TN saved the day by suggesting a V Lookup - and made one for me too!

From there, it was just a matter of around 4 hours of copying and pasting. Smile (There were a lot! of times needing colons ...)

7 Responses to “Doctor Visit Results ..”

  1. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1469245634

    Maybe low iron is due to being vegetarian, is there something you are supposed to replace meat with to get the same nutrients? Also with your house are there ways to block out the heat? Are your curtains thick enough? Can you research ways to reduce the need for air conditioning?

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1469253238

    You could be eating steak at every meal and still have an iron deficiency if your body isn't processing the iron correctly at the time. Sometimes it doesn't. The body can have a more difficult time retrieving iron from non-protein sources than protein sources. I'd lean towards beans and less towards leafy greens as a source of iron. I mean still eat the leafies for other reasons, but a cup of spinach is like 5% RDA of iron and a cup of beans is 28%. If you can locate duck eggs they are 15% per egg, plus omega 3's, while chicken eggs are very low. Dried apricots are really high, but fresh ones are low for some reason. I think I read something about pumpkin seeds not being as readily available even though they are extremely high in iron, but it might be another seed. Can't remember. You may have to supplement for a little while, but it probably won't be for more than 6 months or so. The body generally works these things out.

  3. Dido Says:
    1469273314

    The low ferritin with normal or perhaps borderline anemia is something I struggle with too. I have found some iron supplements are more effective than others--there is one in liquid form called Pure-Absorb that I like and have had good results with. A little bit more expensive but I'm more likely to take the liquid than the pill and getting results helps.

  4. Turtle Lover Says:
    1469281766

    I don't know about the iron stuff but I do hope you find something that works for you. Please forgive me for asking this in a comment as I don't have a blog of my own...
    but does anybody know about IMA SAVER? I think her last comment was on your post before your wedding and then i don't think I've seen anything since.
    I've been reading here for a long time. ... so I hope she is ok.
    thank you for letting me butt in on your comments.
    :-)

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1469282055

    VS - No, I don't think being vegetarian has anything to do with low iron. There's tons of vegetarian foods high in iron. We only have curtains on our front dining room windows - otherwise only blinds. And those blinds are mostly halfway open ... for the cats to see out. If they weren't open, they'd be ruined in short order by cats wanting to see out ..

    LR - That does seem like a likely possibility. That it is an absorption issue. I am thinking about focusing a bit more on beans than normal - especially lentils. I hope you're right, that the supplements will be a short lived thing .. hate adding yet another thing to my pill/medicine regimen.

    Dido - The pill isn't bothering me too much so far. I'll keep the liquid in mind though in case it does cause issues later (or doesn't seem to be helping.)

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1469282267

    TL - You're right. The last post of hers was on April 24 (thinking about me.) I hope she's ok too.

  7. My English Castle Says:
    1469454084

    Bean salads? I think I could eat them every day. Uh-oh about Ima. Where is she?

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