So I had my virtual appointment with my new psych doctor. It went well. I ended up having to take an anxiety pill before hand, but I had also taken one before bed the night before that hadn't fully worn off, so by the end of the appointment, I was already super loopy and tired. But I made it through the whole thing without a panic attack.
That's some serious progress for me. I just kept reminding myself that I managed to make and receive phone calls without even flinching when my cat was sick/dying. I didn't even think about it because it was an emergency. I just needed to hang on to that feeling of urgency that pushed everything else out. It's a work in progress (because years ago, my son almost died of an anxiety attack because I was too panicked to call 911 and kept putting it off--I did eventually call, but it was a close call).
Anyway, after talking to her, she doubled the meds I'm on and said they're probably the ones causing the weight gain although they cause less weight than some others I could be on right now. So I guess that's something? She said if the weight gain becomes unmanageable and/or starts to affect my health in other ways, there are other meds I could take to help control it. So I guess there's that to look forward to. I'm going up from 20mg doses to 40mg for now then I'll call her back in a month or so to see how I'm feeling on that. If they seem to still be working, I can stay on the 40mg, but if I've gone up and then back down again, I can go up to 60mg. There are a lot of dosing options for this med I can try.
I also just got the results back for some more of the labs done including the iron one. My ferritin is low. No surprise. It's supposed to be somewhere between 13 and 150 ng/mL. Mine is 6.68. That's not even the lowest it's been. That goes to tests I had done in 2018 when it was 4.48 and my doctor started talking about blood infusions to get my iron up and was shocked I could manage to get out of bed, let alone take care of my family. I knew the sudden craving to chew ice again was a bad sign. Looks like I'll be heading back to the doctor in the next week or so to discuss that.
Still waiting to hear about the referral to sleep medicine to figure out the possible sleep apnea.
If I can figure out what combo of things is causing this constant fatigue, maybe I can live a normal life in my old age. Because I didn't get that in my younger years. My depression and fatigue were overwhelming and controlled ever aspect of my life. I don't even know what that kind of life would look like without being constantly tired all of the time.
Having low iron which is a form of anemia can cause fatigue for sure, it might be the cause of your problems
Your ferritin is far below the normal range, so that's definitely a concern too
@JustMegawatt Well, I got an email from the office saying that my tests all came back normal--no anemia, but my iron was low at the time. I'm interpreting this to mean there's no anemia at the moment, but if I were to continue without boosting my iron, it would only develop eventually. The problem is I have issues taking iron pills. After about three days, I end up with debilitating stomach cramps. My body just doesn't like them. I did pick some up when I got my prescriptions. I looked at all the ones the pharmacy had and chose one that was supposedly easy to digest, had vitamin C already in it, and was high potency. They were expensive, but hopefully they work. I took one with dinner and didn't feel sick, but like I said, it usually takes a few days of taking them before I start to get the cramps and feel sick. I guess I'll see how it goes.
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