In the mail today I got my lab results from last Thursday’s GI appointment. I have iron deficiency anemia. I’m happy to know why I’ve been so fatigued. It’s been pretty terrible the last week or so. I’ve been drinking a lot of tea to try and stay awake. Dr. S wants me to take a multivitamin if I’m not already. I do take one but I haven’t been good about taking my vitamins since my colonoscopy. It really threw off my whole schedule. So I really need to get better about that. And taking my probiotic.
Dr. S still recommends going gluten free which I’m really starting to look into. M is also willing to go on a gluten free diet which is awesome. I’m glad he’s being supportive with this. Although if he wants something with gluten in it we’ll make a special trip for it or whatever. I did get the Practical Paleo book by Diane Sanfilippo so I’m currently reading up on that. I’ll need to work on finding the best gluten free friendly stores in town. Although now I need to figure out what to do with all of the gluten things in my house.
My WBC count is still slightly high at 12.7 but that’s a lot better than the 18 it was at a few weeks ago. I’m figuring that number is high from the inflammation in my colon. Still no word on when I’ll be starting the Humira. Who knows how long it’ll take for that to go through the insurance.
Must be going around, huh? I’ve got the same issue. Are they not going to put you on iron supplements? Most multivitamins don’t have enough iron to really help with anemia.
If you ever want gluten-free suggestions, I can tell you what’s good and what’s gross. I don’t do paleo–was vegetarian for a long time before the UC and can’t bring myself to try eating meat again–but I’ve been gluten-free for around a year now. It’s not too hard once you get used to it, and I’ve found that more food companies are labeling things to make it easier to find gluten-free products.
Hopefully it won’t take long to get the Humira approved. My doctor’s office was able to get them to approve it in about two weeks, if I’m remembering right. You’ve been on enough other drugs that I can’t imagine they’d deny it.
It must be! As of right now no. My multivitamin is supposed to have 100% of your daily intake of it. I may get a supplement just to be safe. I’m tired of being fatigued all of the time. I feel so drained right now.
I will take all of the gluten free suggestions that you have! I’m still so new to all of it. Although I did see on Reddit that Canyon Bakehouse is supposed to have good gluten free bread. The Target in town is supposed to have it so I’ll probably be trying it soon. With the whole Paleo thing I don’t really feel like going diary free right now so I’ll kind of be doing my own version of it. I really need to get tested for a lactose intolerance to see if I am. I’m glad that companies are labeling foods for gluten. I wish that they would do that for fructose too!
I hope it doesn’t take long either. I took about a week and a half for the Cimzia to get denied so I’m hoping it’ll take about that long for me to know if the Humira is approved. I hope they don’t deny it either. The only other drug left is MP-6 I think.
Yes, Canyon Ranch is the best GF bread. Udi’s is decent, if you can’t find Canyon Ranch–where I live, the only place that carries it is Whole Foods, which is tough for me to get to. Don’t ever, ever buy any shelf-stable GF breads–so gross I took two bites and threw the whole rest of the loaf away.
The best GF pasta brand I’ve found is Tinkyada brown rice pasta, and sometimes I can even find it at Walmart. (The normal grocery stores and Whole Foods here carry it too.) Don’t buy the De Boles GF pasta. I got it on sale once, and it was gross. It turned into mush, but there were still crunchy bits.
If you don’t like to cook or you’re lazy like me, Amy’s makes a bunch of GF frozen dinners. I particularly like some of the Indian ones because there are some that are also dairy-free and corn-free. They always mark in big letters on the packaging what’s GF. The macaroni and cheese, rice bowls, and pizza are good too.
Good luck with the insurance approval. I hope you hear soon. If you can avoid 6-MP, do. I hate it, but it’s the only thing that’s been really effective for me so far. But it’s making me sick as hell. That being said, don’t avoid it if you’re out of any other options. It can really help, and most people don’t seem to have as many problems with it as I do.
Thanks for the suggestions for the GF stuff!
If I have to take MP-6 I definitely will. It sucks that you’re having such a rough time with it 🙁 I hope that you start to feel better soon.
Glad you were able to get an answer! They just diagnosed me with anemia as well but haven’t decided how to proceed yet. I hope the multivitamin works for you and you’re able to build up some reserves and get some energy. I went gluten free after my initial diagnosis. Against All Grain by Danielle Walker is a really good cookbook, and she has IBD too! Keep us posted on how it works for you!
Oh wow. It seems like everyone is getting anemia. I hope they get a game plan together for you soon. Thanks for the book recommendation! I’ll definitely be looking into it 🙂