Hmmm..well why am I not surprised of the date the last time I made an appearance here. Rather felt that an update was required, especially as since then thing have got rather - *ahem* - interesting... Hopefully my experiences might help others though.
Immediately after that last post I spent a weekend with someone who I would at the time have referred to as a friend, but now probably an acquaintance. I was aware that she'd been having some very similar problems to those that I'd been having, so felt that a chat with her might prove to be really helpful for me bearing in mind she'd been dealing with things longer. Let's just say "not exactly" as essentially she told me that from what I was telling her she was FAR worse than I was and thoroughly left me feeling (rather as that first GP had) that I was making a terrible fuss about nothing... now I realise now that this was rather silly, but basically I convinced myself that she must be right and that I should shut up moaning...
Next few months things got steadily worse - any sort of normal life became incredibly difficult, and I gradually albeit without realising it got lower and lower on energy as well - and that in turn left me feeling even more fed up with the whole thing as it felt that all the efforts I was making to get fitter were utterly pointless - somehow I kept going though - and as it turns out it was a rather good job that I did...
At the beginning of October I started really struggling - energy levels dropped even further, more bleeding (and a lot of it) and by 2 weeks into the month things reached a bit of a head, and I reached the stage where I actually missed my first days work as a result of it - I simply didn't have the energy to get there. Struggled in the next day, and the next but half way through that morning had to call my OH to come and get me as I felt so dreadful, was struggling to breath and my heart felt like it was beating very oddly. Rang 111 when we got home who said I needed to get an urgent Dr visit or at least a phone consult - rang surgery, not a chance, rang 111 again and spoke to someone different who pretty much said "oh well just get an appointment when you can" but OH was extremely unhappy with that bearing in mind how much urgency the first one had placed on things and eventually he persuaded me to go to the hospital...
Blood test and a release to home with a GP's appointment for the following morning, only to be followed an hour later by a phone call asking whether I could get back to the hospital... Turned out that waiting for the following day to the GP might have turned out a bit badly, especially for MrEH who would almost certainly have made the discovery when he woke up that I'd died in the night - and being told that really was terrifying. Severe Anaemia - HG level down at 45 which is a long way below the "dangerous" level, ferritin level through the floor. 5 blood transfusions later and I was "reset" back to normal, and finally had a diagnosis for the cause of at least some of my problems - Fibroids! Also got told some home truths - that level of the situation I was in was one, and another was that my efforts to improve fitness were almost certainly what had saved me from significant heart damage - again quite scary. (within 5 minutes of being taken to the "Majors area" cubicle on return to the hospital I was hooked up to the EGC machine and they were amazed that it showed normal...)
Released from hospital after 4 days - iron tablets, and I've had a first course of a drug which should shrink the fibroids too - so far the signs from the latest scan are positive so I'm hoping for the nod to get another course...
I was lucky - in fact I was very lucky indeed, I know that now. There's still work to do - the iron tablets continue for the foreseeable - but I really did have a lucky escape, and partly because I was SO terrified by the idea of having a blood test. If you don't have the needle phobia then you won't understand how that was even possible - anyone who does will get it though. Oddly although the idea of injections is still a no for me, I'm absolutely fine with having blood taken although it does need to come from my hand not my arm as my arm didn't react well!
