After Four Years, We Finally Have A Diagnosis

Four years ago I was 19 years old, working at a beach for the summer, and in the second stint of my relationship with my (now) wife (took three tries but we got it!) But, I was also suffering with an unexplained condition. I would get light headed very easily.

My blood pressure has always been fine, so my doctor at the time did some blood work. The results came back essentially normal, although my blood cell counts were in the lower portion of the ideal range. She said I was borderline anemic, but never gave any diagnosis. I was told to get some more protein in my diet, although I had been eating a lot of steak that summer already. Nothing seemed to change.

The following three years, I had two other doctors; the one I have now, and one woman I saw once in 2014. It was hard to settle down and talk about my issues with my docs changing yearly, so I turned to the Internet like I often do, (I still brought it up every time I saw a doctor though.) The one thing that made sense was that I had a nervous system issue. The majority of the symptoms were present, so I just assumed that was my problem. I started taking vitamin B-12 daily as it benefits the nervous system, and although it seemed to help a little, it never went away. Fast forward to about three weeks ago, and it started getting really bad and came with headaches too.

One particular Saturday at work it was so bad that I was even getting dizzy sitting down. I just wanted to go home, lay down, and close my eyes. After that day, I decided that I had had enough and that I wanted to get an appointment with someone. The problem was, I thought I may have a spine issue causing this because of other symptoms, but it turns out that wasn't the case. I do have spinal issues, but the lightheadedness and dizziness weren't connected. So, my doctor did some blood work, and today I got the results...

...my ferritin levels are very low. In other words, the simple cause of my issues is iron deficiency.

Four years it took to get diagnosed with something that simple. All I need to do now is take iron pills twice a day. Four long years of being on the verge of passing out, and a simple OTC will solve all my problems. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not a little irritated...

As I mentioned I also have spine issues. My posture is terrible and my doctor believes that is what's causing the other symptoms (which were getting bad headaches when laying on my back and getting really nauseous because of them.) So I start physical therapy August 10th. With the iron deficiency diagnosis and my starting physical therapy, I should be golden within a few months.

Now to just figure out how to deal with my chronic procrastination...(yes that's a real thing. Google it.)