My name is Christel
and in this video, I’ll be talking about what it feels like to have anemia.
So I’ll be going over what my worst symptoms were when they started
and when they finally went away.
I was diagnosed with mild iron-deficient anemia in the fall of 2020
and that was just during a standard medical checkup
but by June 2021 it had snowballed into moderate anemia
and I felt like absolute crap.
For all of this to really make sense let me take you through my story.
After a routine blood draw in the fall of 2020, I was diagnosed with mild anemia.
I wasn't aware that I was anemic, I didn't notice any symptoms
and all I was advised to do was to take some iron supplements
and eat iron-rich food such as, you know, shellfish, spinach, red meat
I did know the underlying issue which was that I had really heavy periods,
so my doctor wasn't really worried and neither was I
Then in November of 2020, my monthly bleeding turned into daily bleeding due
to a very pesky aggressive fibroid and I was working with my gynecologist to fix
that, but overall just went on living my life
By February of 2021, I was starting to feel symptoms of anemia. I was feeling
very fatigued and I went and I saw my primary care physician, so my doctor,
and he did a blood draw and my hemoglobin came back at 10.5
Hemoglobin is a protein that's responsible for transporting oxygen
around in the blood, so basically when your hemoglobin is low, you're low on oxygen,
and the normal range for a woman is 11.6 to 15.2, so at 10.5 I was now below that.
I was still given a mild anemia diagnosis and was sent home again with the,
you know prescription of eating iron-rich food and taking iron supplements,
but that was it
Then in the spring or early summer of 2021, I really started to feel
the symptoms of anemia.
So one of the worst was I was constantly dizzy or lightheaded.
It got to the point that if I would tilt my head to kiss my husband, my husband's tall,
I would get dizzy.
Just moving my head I couldn't do that too fast or I felt lightheaded,
I felt like I was about to pass out.
Exercise also became extremely challenging. I love the gym, I’m a gym rat
and I had to dial back my workouts, I couldn't physically get through them.
Also, I really like to lift weights, which is a little challenging
when every time you pick up something, do a few sets, you're about to pass out
I got to a point where I would do my set, and I would sit down on the floor
really quickly right after because I was afraid I would just pass out
Even the smallest things would make me short of breath,
so something like walking up a short hill or even taking the stairs
would make my heart race, I would be short of breath. Even, ultimately,
even having a conversation with somebody, just talking,
would make me short of breath
My memory would also start to suffer, I'd be in situations, I couldn't remember words,
I couldn't remember my phone number at one point, I had to look it up,
that was really annoying,
it's hard really hard to work as well when you can't put together a sentence
that makes sense, and then finally my nails got super brittle
and they still are, and you know I’m just recovering from the anemia now,
so I do expect it to take a while before my nails come back, but that's a small thing
I was still resisting going back to the doctor despite all of these symptoms, because
you know I'd been there a few months before and all I was prescribed
was iron-rich food and iron supplements,
and I also had this mentality that this was just something I had to power through,
in hindsight not my smartest move, I know that, I wasn't really listening to my body,
I kept telling myself this is just going to go away,
this is just part of being a human, but ultimately I did go and see my doctor
I saw my doctor in the end of June 2021 and when I walked in the office
and I was explaining my symptoms to him, quite frankly he was a little bit shaken,
mainly because I wasn't, I wasn't, able to carry out a full sentence
without really being short of breath so he could hear it, he could see it
So he did a full blood draw, he also tested my heart,
and all sort of other tests to see, is it was only the anemia, that was going on or
is it something else, and my blood work came back
and now my hemoglobin was down to 8.2, and again the normal range for a female
is 11.6 up to 15.2, so now I was way down. It wasn't so bad that
it was an emergency, yet, but now it's classified as moderate anemia
and my doctor referred me to a hematologist, which is a blood doctor
Since my anemia was due to iron deficiency
the hematologist prescribed me iron infusions,
so that's iron in an IV format, he basically said there is no amount of oral iron
supplementation or food that'll get you back into range
not in the time frame that we have at least, so I was prescribed that.
I got two infusions, a week apart, and it went crazy fast
So just in that one week, my hemoglobin went from 8 up to 10
and that was already after the first infusion.
I received my second infusion end of July and by end of August,
my hemoglobin was back into a normal range and I started to feel really, really good
I will say it did take a few weeks after the second infusion
before all the symptoms went away
and I still once in a while would have a little bit of a setback and I would feel
short of breath again, but overall end of August I would say all my symptoms
were resolved. My nails
are still brittle, and they keep breaking, but I feel healthy, I feel like myself again, I can
go for walks, I can go for hikes, I can even go for runs without being short of breath,
more than normal at least, and I just, I feel really good,
and the dizziness has gone away so that's amazing
I still need to fix that underlying issue of that pesky fibroid
and I am scheduled for surgery, but right now my bleeding is managed
with hormones, so that means my bleeding is managed and I got the iron IV
meaning all of that together, was able to push up my hemoglobin and thereby
my oxygen levels
Thank you for listening to my story, if you have any of those symptoms or you
think you have anemia please go see your doctor
If anything learn from my mistakes, don't endure
months of anemia symptoms without seeking medical attention
Thank you so much for watching