Hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend!
We went away in Casper just for the night. We didn’t do a lot, but it was just nice to get away and chill in a different location to home.
When You Know Something Isn’t Right
I had my monthly bloods on Thursday, were I get my full blood count, my liver, my kindeys, and inflammation markers checked. While I was there, I decided to ask them if they could check my ferrtin stores and B12 levels too. I had a feeling both my iron and B12 had dropped. Something which I am very prone to and know too well when they have!
Recently, I have been feeling extra fatigued. I know I have been dropping my steroids. I know steroid withdrawal causes fatigue. But this fatigue and the amount I was suffering, felt different. And then there’s the pins and needles I’ve been getting, which I thought maybe was a side effect of my new treatment, as it started not along after starting my Belimumab. But as I looked into it, I realised that wasn’t a side effect. And there’s been the days where I’ve been feeling cold, struggling to keep warm, yet we’ve had some of the warmest days of the year recently. But I just thought, maybe because I’m tired. And there’s frequent mouth uclers, and the list goes on.
After weeks if suffering, and things feeling like they getting worse, I thought to myself, something isn’t right. This isn’t steroid withdrawals, something is going on in my body that shouldn’t be happened. And then it clicked! I bet my iron and B12 have gone too low!
Always Trust Yourself
I was right! Friday morning, my results were back. Both my iron and B12 have become too low, and medication had been prescribed, and sent to my pharmacy.
I have to say, I can not fault my doctors or my pharmacy! It just over 24 hours, I had my bloods takens, results back, prescription written, sent to my pharmacy, delivered to my home, and had taken my 1st dose. That’s one excellent service!
Same Repeated Problem
What’s so frustrating, this is repeated problem I frequently go through year after year! What will happen now is, I will take my tablets as told, and my Iron and B12 levels will get monitored in my regular blood test. Over the next few months, my levels will slowly get back into range. Once there in a good enough range, my tablets will stop. And then guess what, my levels will drop again, and back to were I am now. It’s sooooo annoying!
My Plan
I know on last weeks blog I talked about how I’m dropping my steroids. I think now, with my iron and B12 being low, I’m going to give my body a bit of break. Give it chance to recover from my both of deficiencies, let my adrenals glands rest a bit after reducing my steriods down from 10mg to 7mg, and get my body a bit stronger.
To be honest, I want a break too! I feel like I’m constantly in war with my body, day in, day out!
So my new plan is to spend the rest of August and the whole of September getting stronger again. It’s probably going to take the whole of August to get my iron and B12 levels up, because frustratingly it takes a while! Then come October, once I’ve enjoyed a lovely holiday in Casper, road tripping around the Outer hebrides, hopefully feeling good with the wolf, I will start to drop my steroids again, all being well.
I know the next journey of my steroid reduction is going to be harder, so I need to make sure my body is strong enough to handle it.
That’s it from me this weekend.
Until next time,
Goodbye for now
Emma
xox
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