The Struggle After The Struggle.

Here’s to being fully healed from my pelvic stress fracture and complete fracture! It took a full 4 months and now at 22-weeks I have no pain or discomfort in my injury site. I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to wake up and not be worried about my injury pain. Now I am able to do all daily activity and exercise without pain in my left hip/groin. It’s such a grateful feeling. It felt like I was never going to get to that point. Patience and perseverance paid off.

I started back running on the anti-gravity treadmill at the beginning of February. I was slowly building up my time, days of running, and distance. Everything was going well. Near the middle and end of February I was able to add in outside running at 100% body weight. And then my first full week of running outside happened the week of March 5^th. Runs felt great even though I was slow and out of shape. I felt happy to be doing what I had missed for so long.

Then recently I started to notice I wasn’t feeling quite right on some of my runs. I felt like my effort was more labored than it should be. I kept telling myself, “Oh it’s just because you are getting back into shape. This is normal.” Then it happened. I was running one of my standard routes that I have done a bazillion times. As I was running up the slight hill my legs felt like they were completely gassed and in a lactic acid state and my heart started feeling like it was beating out of my chest. I had to stop at the top and regroup. This feeling was a Red Flag to me. I knew from the past and having been anemic off and on that these were anemia signs and symptoms. I decided right then that I had to get my blood checked as soon as possible. And it occurred to me that I had stopped taking my iron supplement since my injury. In retrospect it was a very dumb move on my part.

Luckily, I work in a hospital so they were able to poke my finger the next day and take a quick test of what my Hemoglobin was. It came back reading 8.4 g/dL. Crud…that’s just what I suspected, however a lot lower than I would have expected. I had just had my Hemoglobin checked on Jan 22 and found it was at a healthy range at 14.3 g/dL. So, this sudden drop definitely worried me. I scheduled a doctor’s appointment for the following day.

I just received my results this past Friday and sure enough I am in a state of anemia. My blood values are terrible and this is why I am feeling so terrible. I’ve never experienced all the side effects of anemia before because I had gradually developed it. This time it was happened so drastically that I was not able to physically adjust. I now have episodes of faintness, weakness, constant heart palpations, deep fatigue, and my mind is not sharp. I am managing it as best as I can. Here are changes I have made.

1.     Eating red meat at least 2-3 times a week.

a.     A Challenge for me as I haven’t eaten red meat for years.

2.     Using a cast-iron skillet.

3.     Changing my diet to include more iron rich foods (Cream Of Wheat (45% daily value), spinach, black beans, fortified foods, etc).

4.     Taking an iron supplement twice a day (per doctor’s recommendation)

a.     Ferrous Sulfate (325 mg) + Vitamin C

I am willing to do what it takes to get myself 100% healthy once again. So if you are one to have problems with anemia and having low iron, I urge you to stay on track with your diet and supplements. Don’t be foolish like me. I am paying the price now and it is not fun by any means. When every run feels like the end of a 100-mile race that you blew up on and you are death marching it in…it is not something you want to have to experience on a normal basis. So take it from me and stay healthy and happy!! J