A New Year

Happy New Year! (a little late) When I last posted, I had no intention of letting 3 months go by before another post. Honestly, I’ve been having some snowballing health issues over the last few months and  I’ve been focusing on that.

This has felt so strange because I’ve always been pretty healthy. I’m not sure how to rest or slow down. I feel a little guilty and frustrated by my lack of energy lately.

So here’s the story. Since early last year, I’ve been feeling progressively more tired and just not able to keep up with everyday things. My mind has also been very “foggy” and I can’t seem to focus. I thought the tiredness was just what happens at 40, so I just kept pushing through. I had an appointment scheduled with my doctor for just a routine physical and long story short, I found out I am severely anemic. I’m not talking just a little iron deficient. I mean my numbers were ridiculously low. I had no idea!

 It explains SO much about how I have been feeling the past several months. My hair was coming out by the handful each time I washed it and I was freezing all the time, no matter how many layers I piled on. Don’t ask me how I didn’t have a clue something was wrong. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess!!

I’m taking iron supplements which have started to help. My hair loss has decreased greatly and I’m not craving uncooked oatmeal and uncooked pasta anymore. (yep, you read that correctly) I still don’t have a lot of energy, but I’m going to have to be patient. My arms feel like they weigh a ton when I try to do things like scrub the bathtub and I get short of breath when I mop or vacuum.

We had a lot of out of town company staying with us off and on from Thanksgiving through New Year’s and while I completely enjoyed having them here, I think I let myself get even more run down.   I didn’t feel like a very good host, but I did make sure everyone was fed well and had a comfy place to sleep!

I know this isn’t a super serious issue and I’m so thankful for that, but I’ll be dealing with the effects for a little while until I get my iron level built back up. I have some other issues going on that are the actual cause of the iron deficiency and I need to address those too.

I don’t want this post to be a downer. I’m really looking forward to getting all of this straightened out so I can feel like myself again! I’m going to use this down time to make plans and organize my thoughts for the upcoming year. Concentration has been so difficult lately, but if I focus on a little at a time, it works much better.

Just thought I’d pop in and update. I’ve enjoyed blogging again, I just haven’t been able to string coherent thoughts together lately.

Hope your New Year is off to a great start!