Med update

Today was doctor day. For someone who's already tired, those appointments really wear me out! I came home and napped for a good three hours or so.

The new worry: lupus. As I was telling a couple of friends earlier, it's like they're determined to diagnose me with something chronic and painful and eventually fatal. Can they diagnose tired and frustrated? Because that's what I am.

The basics of the CBC: My white count was down from 16.0 to 14.9 (but still high -- the "normal range" caps out at 10.9). Granulocytes were still too high. Hemocrit percentage -- that's the percent of blood that's red blood cells -- had made it within normal range, but just barely. Platelets were up even more than last time. All of that, along with some other boring results you don't care about, can be attributed to anemia.

The weird thing is that my iron count is high. Normal range is 250 to 450; mine is 487. But, hey, I learn something new every day. The level of my ferritin, which is a protein that stores iron in the body, is on the low end of the normal range. That also points to anemia. Basically, my body isn't absorbing the iron that's there.

For the anemia, I've been given ferrous sulfate -- iron pills -- twice a day. And for low B12, also known as pernicious anemia, I've been given B12 supplements. I'll know the lupus results in about a week, and I've got to go in for a recheck in three months.

One of my blood proteins, albumin, is low, and they want to keep an eye on it. He said there wasn't much I could do, but mentioned it can be caused by malnutrition. Maybe there's a undeniable, important reason I should start eating food again -- especially veggies -- even when I don't have time or I'm worried. I've lost two more pounds since Monday. Rah.

(Aside: Recognize the term albumin? Egg whites!)

You know, I've reached that point where I'm telling other people I don't care, which is sort of true, I guess. I'm tired and apathetic. I think the iron and B12 will give me more energy. But waiting for all these results while feeling like crap is a tiring job in and of itself, which means my 9 to 5 is nearly unbearable. Fortunately, I haven't had any migraines or asthma attacks in the past couple of weeks -- knock on wood. Any more medical yuckiness and I might go crazy.

Vacation (Destin!) is just around the corner. I'm looking forward to putting all this aside for a bit and being a beach bum for a week. :-)

Distract me with corny jokes/comments in the interim, please.