Sunday, November 15, 2009

Got Iron?

I think I might have found out what's going on with me and I believe the culprit is iron deficiency.
When I had my 24 week checkup, I asked them if they would check my iron levels, but they said they did this at 26 weeks. In retrospect, maybe I should have pushed and had them do it that week. But, I figured, I was at a high risk specialist, they are the experts and know what they are doing, right?
Over a month ago, I had bought some liquid, organic iron supplement from Whole Paycheck because I wanted to make sure I was getting enough. But, even though it said it was a non-constipating formula, that same week, for the first time in my pregnancy I started suffering the effects of "what happens when you can't poo".
Puffer no like that effect.

I thought well hell--I don't even know if I'm lacking in iron. Why am I putting myself through hard-to-poo hell if maybe everything is OK??
So, I haven't really taken much of it in weeks. Plus, it tastes like complete pukey-gag.

However, I seem to be exhibiting ALL of the classic signs of pregnancy anemia: fatigue, dizziness, lack of energy, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. And it's been a little scary.

So, it's back to the pukey-gag supplement and we had steak fajitas for dinner last night and....I have my 26 week check this Wednesday, so the iron will be checked (as well as the GD test--YIKES!) and then we'll know.
Until then, hopefully the extra boost of iron will help me to feel better. I hope!

6 comments:

giggleblue said...

have you tried floradix? nasty as hell, but effective. i would chase it with orange juice.

additionally, a dha supplement or fish oil may help with the constipation. i took nordic naturals pregnancy dha the entire pregnancy and everything came out okay.

Hanen said...

Sounds very familiar! I just got a result back from my doctor telling me I'm slightly anemic, and have been taking taking a ferrous sulfate liquid with meals ever since. Thankfully no nasty side effects (apart from that weird taste) but then I have been eating heaps of fruit & veg with it just to try and make sure I'm getting the vitamin c to help absorbtion. Yay fibre.

Suddenly I'm feeling like a human being again rather than a limp, grumpy ragdoll. Woo hoo! And I thought it was just end of semester busy-ness (probably a bit of that too).

Hope all your results come back good and that you are feeling a bit more sparky soon.

Anonymous said...

I failed my 27-week hematocrit levels. Just 30% and they wanted to see 36%+. The answer was Slow FE tablets, taken with a vitamin C product and no milk. After just five days on the tablets, I feel notably different, and I didn't even know I was feeling crappy.

Push for the monitoring that makes sense to you, and I second the suggestion of adding an omega-3 supplement to aid with constipation.

Good luck, you!

AdventuresInBabyMaking said...

Have you been checked for thalassemia? V (and her Drs) thought she was anemic her entire life, but before she started ttc, she had a genetic test and discovered that she's a carrier for thalassemia (alpha). I think it's way more common in Asian women, but I guess you never know. I guess that's a longshot, but who knows right?

By the way, I have a KILLER recipe for fajitas. Let me know if you want the recipe before you make it next time.

Anonymous said...

If you aren't already, also be sure to consume plenty of probiotics. I regularly drank kefir when I was pregnant, and it helped counteract the stopping-up effects of the iron. When I neglected the kefir or yogurt, there was definitely an unpleasant difference.

I hope you begin feeling better!

Kate said...

Also remember that if you're taking a supplement it may very well mask the anemia when you get checked. If you really want to know, you might lay off the supplement a bit before you get tested.