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Does a Sonic cup of ice look exceptionally good to you??? Are you severely iron deprived with a form of Pica called Pagophagia??? Apparently I am \ud83d\ude42 !<\/p>\n
Last week I noted that I am relapsing with my fatigue and it has me discouraged and concerned.?? Here are some random observations:<\/p>\n
I was feeling great until I ate a slice of pizza one day about 3 weeks ago.?? Actually it was the very afternoon I wrote the Happy post that I, ironically, started??getting tired.?? I assumed it was because I had been on low carb for several weeks and my system rejected pizza carbs.?? However, when I got back on the wagon the energy didn’t return as expected.?? Shortly thereafter I started my cycle.?? I wasn’t surprised to be energy deprived that week – that is normal for me.?? The week after though I was VERY energy deprived.?? Sat and Sunday I felt better and today is a medium day.?? Also note that last week was my birthday and I had about 4 days of some carb cheating due to various dining out celebratory experiences :).<\/p>\n
So now I have mixed clues.?? Could be tied to carbs.?? Could be tied to cycle.?? Could be random.?? Could be both.?? Hmmmmm….<\/p>\n
Since Aunt Beck is having similar anemia issues, I have been brain storming and researching this because more and more I have to wonder if my anemia is the source of my fatigue symptoms.?? After she told her Dr.s that my iron was at THREE and they told her that was “critical” and then??she received iron transfusions for a ferratin of 9.7, I had to wonder if I should be getting infusions.?? I started reading about this online and come to find out, many women are getting infusions who don’t even have levels as low as mine.?? So would infusions help??? But more importantly, WHY don’t I have any iron??? Again, if it weren’t for fatigue issues, I probably wouldn’t research so much.<\/p>\n
This weekend I was reading a friends blog and noticed she had an iron infusion last year for anemia.?? I wrote her and she asked me two unusual questions.?? First, do I crave ice and second do I crave peppermint?<\/p>\n
I have had the day to think about this and here was my basic response to those questions:<\/p>\n
* I chew ice every day and always at night when I am watching TV.<\/p>\n
* I take on average at least 3 evening baths a week because I get cold eating so much ice.?? Then I take a cup of crushed ice to the bath with me:).<\/p>\n
* I order my ice with a bit of diet coke – not the other way around.??I ALWAYS order my drinks FULL of ice and sometimes ask for an extra 44 ouncer of JUST ice.<\/p>\n
* Sonic is the best place on earth to get ice and I like to keep bags of it in my freezer.<\/p>\n
* I bought an ice shaver in January and I use it regularly.<\/p>\n
* I have been worrying about my teeth because in the last several months I have been eating A LOT of ice.<\/p>\n
* I wonder if my crunching is bugging people.<\/p>\n
Do do I have an ice craving? :)?? I think the answer is a solid YES though I didn’t realize it until it was brought to my attention.??<\/p>\n
This craving is called pagophagia.?? It is a form of Pica.?? Pica is defined as an appetite for substances not fit for food such as clay or paper products.?? Pica for ice (pagophagia) is a very specific indicator for iron deficiency anemia.?? Who knew????? :)?? I read a case study online for a woman who had pagophagia.?? Her Hemoglobin was slightly low and her Ferratin was at 6.?? Sounds familiar.<\/p>\n
Here were my December numbers:<\/p>\n
Hemoglobin 10. 4 (normal 11.5 to 16)
\nHematacrit 32.0 (normal 35.0 to 48.0)
\nMCH 24.2 (normal 27 to 34)
\nMCV 75 (normal 78 to 100)
\nMPV 7.2 (normal 7.5-11.5)
\nRDW 17.4 (normal 11.5 to 14.5)<\/p>\n
I didn’t think the above sounded too bad until my Ferratin came back at THREE.?? I wish I would have received a copy of the iron panel because that is where the really crazy results were.?? The first set of tests above just demonstarted anemia.?? The Ferratin level demostrated my extreme low level of iron.?? From what I read, my iron has even been stripped from my bone marrow at this point.?? (And by the way, since I don’t have a copy of the test results, I am assuming the level three was Ferratin because he said my “iron level” – I need to confirm that though).<\/p>\n
As for the Peppermint…<\/p>\n
* I love peppermint and buy mint extracts regularly.
\n* I put the extracts in my low carb shakes and teas.
\n* I wear peppermint lotion and peppermint flavored lip gloss.
\n* I have a water bottle system that I filled with green mint leaves and turned the water green thus making it look like I was drinking algae.?? Most people would have been embarrassed by a green water tank – I just wanted the mint in my water.?? Jim wouldn’t touch the stuff and thought I was a little nuts. LOL<\/p>\n
I called Aunt Beck to tell her about these two things and she said “OH MY GOSH!?? THAT is why I have been eating 10 to 20 peppermints per day!”<\/p>\n
I don’t know why the Peppermint craving but I found several online sources that mention this association to low iron.??<\/p>\n
My friend also asked if I was weak and dizzy.?? She said her anemia got so bad she couldn’t walk across a room.?? Just last week I was laying in bed and told Jim the room was spinning on me.?? I have had bouts of dizziness off and on in the last year but nothing major.?? The fatigue and weakness….is it possible CFS\/FMS is not the cause and that severe anemia is??? Hmmmmmmmm…..<\/p>\n
The good news is, if that is the case, I just increase my iron intake and I should get gradually better.?? The bad news is, why the problem in the first place and how to solve it?<\/p>\n
According to my research, I have come up with the following possible causes:<\/p>\n
1.?? Celiac Disease – I have many symptoms of Celiac and I really HOPE this is not the case.?? I do NOT want to be on a gluten free diet the rest of my life.<\/p>\n
2.?? Bleeding ulcers or peptic ulcers – gastro bleeding.?? I think I would know if I was externally bleeding and I can’t tell that I am though I know I do have ulcer issues so this is a mystery question.?? This may be TMI, but I did have mystery blood in my urine several times that Dr.s could never explain and I didn’t have any infections.?? ????<\/p>\n
3.?? Cancer – think I would have more progressive symptoms if this were the case<\/p>\n
4.?? Too much cycle bleeding.?? I know what my Gyn will say on this one.?? He has been concerned of hemorraging for awhile which is why he wants the hysterectomy.?? Am I bleeding too much??? How would I know??? IF this is the source though, we are back at the square one issue where we started last year.?? Only a hysterectomy would long term solve this problem.?? Big sigh….<\/p>\n
I made another appointment with my Dr. for tomorrow afternoon.?? I have been on iron supplements for a couple of months and I want to be retested.?? My goal will be to (a) find out if anemia is the source of my fatigue and get referred to a hemotologist hoping infusions would make a difference (b) find the source so I can curb the whole issue.?? Please pray it isn’t Celiac!?? I really really really don’t want it to be Celiac and Celiac symptoms are suspiciously like FMS.<\/p>\n
I know this is not interesting info to anyone but it’s a pain to look up stuff in my garage files when I have questions and this is just an easier place for journaling about it for later recollection.?? Jim keeps strategically hanging things from the garage ceiling that block entrance to my filing cabinet.?? It drives me crazy but I best not complain this week because he has the garage completely rearranged to accomodate the laminate wood floor project.?? Gotta go.?? Ty just bit Tanner.?? Just another day in the life of….. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does a Sonic cup of ice look exceptionally good to you??? Are you severely iron deprived with a form of Pica called Pagophagia??? Apparently I am \ud83d\ude42 ! Last week I noted that I am relapsing with my fatigue and it has me discouraged and concerned.?? Here are some random observations: I was feeling great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mamas-diaries"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}