The past 4 months I have had debilitating fatigue. Not the I'm tired and feel crappy fatigue, the don't leave your house for days at a time fatigue. The you can hardly make a first and your shaky fatigue. Brain fog so bad I didn't trust myself to drive some days. After 3 months of not getting better I broke down and ran labs for everything Full CBC, lipids, kidneys, vitamins, thyroid, liver, hormones, the works. Everything came back normal...... Except my Crit was 53 so I did what I usually do and donated blood like I did a couple moths prior. After reviewing the blood panel with my Dr. he had no concerns of anemia or iron deficiency as my Hemoglobin was on the high end of normal and CBC was fine.
In desperation I order a comprehensive Iron/anemic panel myself of privatemdlabs.com
Well holy fucking shit.... Ferritin 13. Iron Saturation 8% Total Iron 31. For reference this isn't just kinda low, its really low. I immediately starting supplementing with Oral Iron and eating more iron rich foods. After two weeks and not much improvement today I had an Iron Transfusion. Dr wants me to re-test levels in a month.
I share this as a caution. Its easily overlooked when trying to find out why fatigue is hitting you so hard. If you donate blood don't just run a CBC get a comprehensive iron analysis as well that tests your ferritin.
I still feel wrecked. Too weak and shaky to train with barbells, too tired to work more than a couple hours a day, I've lost my whole summer. The kicker of it all is I donated blood while trying to figure out what was wrong.
Take care of you health my friends, its the greatest asset you have.
In desperation I order a comprehensive Iron/anemic panel myself of privatemdlabs.com
Well holy fucking shit.... Ferritin 13. Iron Saturation 8% Total Iron 31. For reference this isn't just kinda low, its really low. I immediately starting supplementing with Oral Iron and eating more iron rich foods. After two weeks and not much improvement today I had an Iron Transfusion. Dr wants me to re-test levels in a month.
I share this as a caution. Its easily overlooked when trying to find out why fatigue is hitting you so hard. If you donate blood don't just run a CBC get a comprehensive iron analysis as well that tests your ferritin.
I still feel wrecked. Too weak and shaky to train with barbells, too tired to work more than a couple hours a day, I've lost my whole summer. The kicker of it all is I donated blood while trying to figure out what was wrong.
Take care of you health my friends, its the greatest asset you have.