Full Blown Iron Overload

After MONTHS now without a visit to the Hematologist or a Therapeutic Phlebotomy; I'm very ILL again.

I am suffering from: severe fatigue and weakness, cold white digits, joint & muscle pain, intermittent shortness of breath, brain fog, vertigo, choking, uncontrolled diabetes, easy bruising & bleeding, and all the other lovely stuff of Iron Overload.

I think the 'brain fog' is the most disturbing to me. (Though the joint and muscle pain are also bad.) Brain Fog is also the most frightening, though my experience tells me this particular symptom will totally disappear with treatment. Often I briefly can't think of how I usually perform a task, have to stop and cogitate on it. Or I can't remember a word, or how to spell it. Not a good thing for a writer!

I believe I'm as ill now as I was just before the 'final' diagnosis of Hereditary Hemochromatosis was made. The difference being, NOW I know what is wrong and how much treatment will change all this; therefore I have a better physical, social, and emotional tolerance for it.

Still, the days are just kinda blurring into each other. (What a waste of life! And I resent it big time!) Each one just a little sicker & less functional than the one before.

I'm probably spending 3/4 of my time now either lying in bed or just sitting. The other 1/4 of my time I spend DECIDING what I need to do next, then PLANNING out how I am gonna get the task accomplished. It's amazing how complicated things like taking a shower, or cooking something can be (by the way, can NOT do both these things in the same day!).

If someone were to actually follow me around for a day, they'd be 'shocked & stunned'. They'd want to put me in a hospital, mental institution or at least hire me a full-time help!

It's a really 'good' day if I can:
1) get dressed & brush my hair
2) take care of the kitties
3) do ONE 'major' chore ie shower, cook, etc.
4) do ONE 'elective' chore ie get mail & empty trash, load dishwasher, do a load of laundry.
5) do ONE 'fun' item ie water plants, do some writing, etc.

I'd be absolutely hysterical if the NEW wheelchair wasn't arriving SOON (maybe the end of this very week, but definitely by the next!).

Of course, it will probably take 6 - 8 weekly visits (at $10 each for transportation!) to the Hematologist to get my Hemoglobin/Hematicrit back down to normal. And from past experience, I will start feeling 'gradually' better (just as I got gradually so ill), as soon as this process starts.

But at least, I'll be on the 'up' side of this thing (again)! And when that happens, one of the FIRST things I must do is to find a person & the bucks to have old wheelchair 'fixed' AND buy a new rolling walker, so that I'm NEVER, NEVER, EVER in this position again!!!

And so goes the 'current' days of my life...