I’ve been kind of…sickly. It took me a while to be certain that it wasn’t simply the demands of motherhood wearing me down, or maybe an uptick in my congenital laziness, but eventually I determined that I was truly not myself. Alas, I’ve had little luck convincing medical professionals of this fact.
Each appointment—I’ve seen four different doctors, now—has reminded me of the two years I spent attempting to get my infertility properly diagnosed, and how LITTLE I miss that time. I’d almost forgotten how draining, how demoralizing it is to wait weeks for an appointment, only to spend 15 minutes with a doctor who won’t listen to you, or refuses to order appropriate tests, or WILL order appropriate tests, but is using woefully outdated reference ranges. After my last medical excursion, I sat in my car, near tears, and watched as my doctor SCURRIED OUT OF THE BUILDING TO HER PRIUS AND DROVE AWAY. No wonder she’d been in such a hurry to get rid of me; I was the last patient of the day. Her final words had been that I might want to make an appointment with my psychiatrist, because fatigue is a telltale sign of depression. “Perhaps your antidepressant dosage needs to be adjusted,” she’d said. My antidepressant was prescribed for anxiety, not depression, but the fact that I am on one seems to give doctors a ready psychological explanation for any symptom I have. I wanted to tell her that actually I WAS feeling a little depressed, because of unhelpful appointments like this one, but I was too tired to do so. As I drove home, I wondered for the dozenth time whether it wouldn’t be faster for me to go to medical school so that I could order my own damn lab work.
The two tests she did run were to check for anemia and vitamin D deficiency, and a few days ago I got the results. My clinic’s minimum acceptable level for vitamin D is 30, and many consider even that too low. My level? A whopping 18.
I’m like a prisoner, without the sodomy and ample alone-time. It’s a miracle I don’t have rickets to add to my growing collection—see shingles, recent bout of—of Olde Tyme/elderly diseases. I shudder to think what the result might be were I tested for scurvy.
I rarely left the house during quarantine last year, but even if I had, here in Minnesota we get vitamin D from the sun only May through September. Since quarantine ended, I haven’t exactly made up for lost time. I leave only to drive to another indoor location, where I sit and write. Under the circumstances, it come as no surprise that my vitamin D level is roughly that of a Twilight character.
I’ve been instructed to take one 50,000 IU capsule of vitamin D per week, for eight weeks. To give you an idea of how much that is, the recommended daily allowance for vitamin D (which is, incidentally, a hormone) is currently 200 IU, though there has been talk of raising it to 1,000. It’s only been 24 hours since my first pill (FIFTY THOUSAND!), and so far nothing has changed except that my stomach feels as though I’ve swallowed a hot coal. I’m watching carefully for signs of toxicity—for instance, right now I have to pee. Didn’t I just go half an hour ago? Are my kidneys shutting down, or did I drink too much coffee? It’s too soon to tell.
I wish my doctor would write me a prescription for a vacation somewhere warm and flush with D-laden rays of sunshine—maybe Greece, or The Breakers, the resort I used to visit with my mother when they had promotions in the off season. Didn’t doctors used to prescribe relocation to sunnier climes? Has that gone out of fashion? And if so, could it come back in again?
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Oooohhh — me too! My doc just called me and my vitamin D level is 20. And I’m supposed to take the same whopping dose you are. I thought the dose was a mistake, but if you’re taking it too, well, safety in numbers… A little googling informs me that vitamin D deficiency causes depression, insulin resistance, bone loss, stroke, uh, seemingly whatever ails us. So bottoms up! Hope we’re both “cured” soon.
I’m sorry, Alexa. I’m in your same shoes, an embarassing lack of vitamin D in my blood too. My dr. offered me the mega pill but I declined, not wishing to endure the heartburn it can bring on. Instead, she prescribed taking 2000 IUs per day. You can buy vitamin D in 1000 IU pill form, so it’s not so bad.
Oh dear. Per the outdated reference ranges (and at the risk of offering assvice), I trust someone ordered thyroid tests and hope that they used the updated 0.3 — 3.0 range for TSH? If you want more info., please let me know (sorry, but I went for several years, including dealing with infertility, before someone diagnosed my thyroid problem. And when I say “someone,” I mean a carefully screened/selected (by me!) thyroid specialist, as opposed to the, you know, 4 reproductive endocrinologists who ignored that gland in my neck …).
Here’s hoping the hot coal effect wears off and that you feel … perkier, soon.
You’d think, what with the old timey diseases, that someone would prescribe you time at the seaside to take the waters. Think of the cute bathing costumes! Squeee!
Actually I have the opposite problem. My doctor keeps testing all my levels, wanting me to take B vitamins and change my diet and all I want is a lousy little Xanax scrip. Cripey!
Hope the dose does the trick. If not perhaps a trip to the east coast? BRACING SALT AIR WE HAS.
Lucky me. My doctor told me to take 2,000 IU a day, which you can get over the counter. (A year ago, it was hard to find the 1,000s. And now? They’re everywhere, and you can buy 2,000s too.) I feel stunningly healthy all of a sudden, not being told I need 50,000 IU. My god, how big is that pill? Is it like a Golf Ball of Wellness?
I’m halfway through my high dose treatment. I’m unable to be in the sun due to side effects of other meds, and thank God my doctor tested me because after nearly 10 years of this my level was a whopping 13. So I’m on the 50000 for at least 12 weeks, possibly 6 months and then will take a supplement for the rest of my life.
It took a few weeks, and a lot of other things happened at the same time, but I do feel better. In fact, starting it (and fish oil soon after) has coincided with my starting to sleep normally for the first time in my life. I’ve had no side effects at all, although I do find it hard to remember to take it weekly.
OrangeXW, the pill is actually tiny. I thought the same thing when I was told I needed to take it, but it’s actually about as big as an aspirin would be if it were football shaped.
I am fortunate enough to have a doctor who listens when I say “I don’t feel right and this is not depression”, despite my being bipolar. That’s how this was diagnosed; he did bloodwork for everything he could think of that might make me tired. It wasn’t until my level was bad that we all realized “duh, if you can’t go outside for the entire summer for more than 30 seconds, you’re gonna be short”.
If you are deficient, should you have the baby checked?
What’s vitamin deficiency hypochondria? Vitachondria. You’re going to be all glowy and vitaminny. I want me some o’dat.
It took time, but it definitely helped me. I wasn’t that bad, so I’m on the 5,000 a week. No heartburn, but then again I take it before bed.
If I didn’t love winter… or my husband so much, perhaps I would live somewhere sunnier.
I haven’t been tested but am taking a supplement, in addition to my regular vitamin, of my own volition. In the Pacific NW, we get our share of gloomy days so I imagine the majority of the population is deficient. I’m just trying to head things off at the pass.
Hope you get “back to normal” soon!
I have to say that when I first moved to Minneapolis from western Michigan, I was shocked at how much sun we actually got during the winter. It may be below zero for fifteen days straight in January, but it’s sunny out. I don’t know if you don’t get D from winter sun (maybe the angles are all wrong? I really don’t know), but I do know that we have sunny days in the winter to brag about!!
Holy shit, another one! I have met more moms of preemies and infertile women and women with hormone problems who are D-deficient than I can describe.
It really is like a bloody epidemic. I’ve taken a basic 400 iu supplement for years because I am lactose intolerant and wear sunscreen all the time and thought I was fine, little miss overconfident.
And then….they did my blood levels. They were AWFUL. Likely still are because no one will give me those mega dose pills. They all keep telling me to just take 4,000 iu every day and slow and steady they will build up, but I forget sometimes and it’s really useless. My OB had me on a huge dose while pregnant, to try to prevent premature labour (Just a theory so far, but he’s studying it) but I was still low post pregnancy and I am still trying to take more. I’d much prefer a high dose pill.
You will feel wonderful soon, and I echo dora above, get the baby on a supplement everyday if she isn’t already. If you were deficient while pregnant and breastfeeding, she may not have gotten much. (Julius is on one now for that reason.) Then you all have had to stay in due to worry about RSV, so you might need even more.
Ever since a bunch of articles in the Globe and Mail came out about vitamin D deficiency in northern countries, it’s been all the talk up in Canada. And ever since then my RE and my OB would go on and on about how folic and D interact and it was huge. And I really thought they were just jumping on the bandwagon until I started to read about the sheer number of infertiles who also have low D.
I’m beginning to wonder if there is a more widespread problem than any of us think….
Have you had your thyroid checked? Mine was a lazy SOB and now I take medication, it improved my mood and my energy level.
I’ve had the same issues with dealing with doctors. It’s like as soon as you walk out, the problem for them is gone, so they want you out as quickly as possible. Really, unless I can diagnose myself before I get there, they can’t help me.
I think if they didn’t get paid unless they solved your problem, there would be no scurrying to the prius.
Come to Australia. It’s so warm here right now, spring has sprung. I even have a scary murderer living in my roof, so you’l feel right at home.
You’ll.
YOU’LL.
Now that looks wrong. You’ll? I should have just wrote ‘you will’. My brian broke.
Clearly you need a spa trip to Florida that largely consists of being therapeutically wheeled out onto sunny, wooden oceanside balconies by nurses in starched white uniforms, where you can then sip freshly squeezed and blended fruit juices. Hurry up, health care reform!!!
P.S. Hope you feel better soon!
De-lurking to say: Don’t be afraid of the mega-dose. I was at 15, and did the 8 weeks of 50,000 IU (with the same “is this a joke?” reaction at first). I didn’t have any side effects, and now that the eight weeks are over I’m just taking the OTC supplements. (I also didn’t have any miracle cessation of tiredness, but I have a complicating factor in the form of hypothyroidism.)
Anyway, just wanted to say that your kidneys are not going to shut down, not after 8 weeks anyway. :)
Oh, I totally prescribe a month in sunny climes for you! And I wish I could come with. After the bummer of a summer we had in New England, I don’t feel like I rebuilt my own stores of sunshine.
The first thing I thought of was your thyroid. Mine stopped working ages ago, but once I got it fixed, my life was shockingly PERKY! I had ENERGY! And all kinds of other things.
I force vitamin D drops down my kid’s gullet, and when I do, I drop one in my mouth, too. Figure we can’t possibly be on the same dose, but what can it hurt? Meh.
Oh. Reading this post made me tear up a little (it’s the lupron, damn it. everything’s the lupron), because you just nailed it, that almost desperate feeling of WHY AM I PAYING YOU PEOPLE TO DIAGNOSE ME WHEN YOU CAN’T EVEN LET ME FINISH A SENTENCE???
I seriously want to write an article for a medical journal titled “Occam’s Razor Is Dangerous!” because I am so damn sick of speaking to a physician for ten seconds and being instantly (and 75% of the time) incorrectly diagnosed. Just because it is the first and most obvious diagnosis given these symptoms does not mean it is an appropriate diagnosis.
I (by total luck) found the first doctor in my life who actually listens to and believes me, and now, I almost want to cry when she says that whatever issue I’m having needs to be dealt with by a specialist, because I dread the prospect of meeting with/feeling out a new doctor, hoping that he or she will actually hear what I’m saying and take me seriously. And luckily, most of the time, she uses very, very good specialists, probably because good doctors tend to be able to easily recognize other good doctors. But that doesn’t stop me from getting a little freaked when she recommends someone new.
I’m going through a bit of it right now with my RE. I read books regarding infertility, and I get a little grumpy when I read the inevitable chapter on how to choose your RE, because my insurance only covers services at this one exact clinic. So like it or not, I am now dealing with something very similar (feeling like I’m not being heard and that this is affecting my diagnosis), and I can’t even fire her, unless I want to quit treatments altogether and wait a few years (when my eggs will be *even better!*) to save up enough to pay out of pocket. Ah, well. Whatever.
So yeah. Long ass comment just to say that I hear you, and I get it, and it pisses me off, too. And that there needs to be something done about this, because it’s bullshit, frankly. I hope the ball of coal in your stomach does the trick…
Why is everyone suddenly deficient? Seriously, I hear people talking about this all the time. My own mother tried to convince me that I was going to have a heart attack any day.
I’m just taking the two 1,000 mg per day, no real effects for me yet, and I’ve been doing it for months. I was taking Calcium/Magnesium/zinc/D + multivitamins and omega3 for two years, and that didn’t help. I also spent a lot of time outside this summer with my son, and that didn’t help either.
My mom suffers from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) as she lives far north. She has a special light that she uses during the winter, 15-20 minutes per day while she watches TV or reads. I have no idea if your body will produce vitamin D from using it, but it does help the depression she gets in the winter.
My Ob/Gyn also tested me for vitamin D and I too was low. She prescribed mega vitamin D and calcium. Shortly thereafter I saw my internist and she said that testing for vitamin D deficiency/worrying about vitamin D was sort of the trendy thing to do. She seemed to feel that a lower level of vitamin D was not a huge deal. But I’ve been taking the pills for about 6 months and I guess I feel slightly less tired. Sorry to say that it hasn’t made a gigantic difference.
Hopefully you’ll feel better soon. You could always come visit here in Arizona. It’s September and we are still in the low 100s and little rain. Maybe I should send some of it your way.
My doctor told me that they are now testing ALL women for vitamin D deficiency because they’ve been finding it to be so prevalent. I too was extremely deficient and given a similar once-a-week prescription as you were, but I threw it out and just took the regular old daily vitamin D from the vitamin store. Note: I have not had my follow up test so that may have been a Bad Idea.
Delurking for the medical conversation. I have depression/anxiety, fibromyalgia, a genetic blood disorder, you name it. Anyway, a couple years ago I was like you, completely exhausted. Initially my doctor just blamed it on my combination of conditions. I ended up getting tested by my hematologist for an iron deficiency to see if I was anemic. My levels were less than half of what they should be, nearly at the point requiring immediate transfusion. The nurses who gave me the iron infusions I was prescribed were shocked I could walk around and function in daily life with such low levels.
Long story short, I feel your pain. Doctors all too often just look for existing syndromes to explain away new symptoms without doing any testing. I hope you feel better once your levels come up!
I didn’t realize Vitamin D deficiency was such a common thing. Interesting!
I’m sorry you have had such bad luck with doctors. Good for you for continuing to look for good doctors instead of just accepting the suck.
I love the comment for Baby of the Week today.
From what I’ve read, Vitamin D deficiency is way more common now than it used to be because we’re all wearing sun screen all the time! People used to get enough Vitamin D from the sun just going about their normal lives, but now we focus so much on avoiding skin cancer that we’ve caused another problem. At least this one isn’t too hard to fix. Alexa, I hope you feel better soon!
There is a Vitamin D supplement up here in Canada I really like called Ddrops (google it). It is Vitamin D in oil, and you can put a drop of it every day into your food or water. I don’t know if it is available in the US or not, but it is much nicer than a lot of those pills, which have sugars and gelatin and things! It is just Vitamin D and oil. Maybe there is a similar product in the US if Ddrops isn’t available? I hope you get better soon – I have watched a sister and my mother in law struggle with chronic health conditions. Doctors are absolutely HORRIBLE in those situations and it is so frustrating.
HI Alexa,
Don’t worry about the dose you’re on – definitely will not be toxic, especially given your deficiency status. I would also recommend taking some essential fatty acids. A good quality fish oil that has been processed for removal of heavy metals and conversion to DHA and EPA would be good. These components (DHA and EPA) are important for producing good prostaglandins and reducing inflammatory ones.
Feel better soon.
hey, i just had shingles too! i couldn’t figure out why, and still really can’t. i mean, i had a lot of visitors this summer, which kind of takes it out of introvert me, but still. i take calcium with vitamin D…perhaps i should look into the dosages. hope you feel better soon!!!
i worry about this sometimes. i am occasionally really really tired even when i get enough sleep. ever since i was diagnosed with skin cancer last year, i have have not been in the sun. i also worry about my bones, since calcium can only be absorbed with the help of vit d. this is something i have to discuss with my dermatologist next week. thanks for the reminder.
i hope you feel better soon.
I’d never heard of so many women with vitamin D deficiency until I read the comments on this post. Although, it’s probably not as common in Virginia. I’d be interested to know what my Vitamin D levels are. I’m not outside much and I’m always tired, but that’s because I’m in Law School with a toddler. But I do sit by the window a lot. If that counts.
NGS–I lived in West Michigan for five years, after a childhood spent in Iowa. And I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, at how little sunshine we got, especially in the winter. It sucked.
Alexa–this is very interesting information for me. Now I’m curious about my Vit. D levels. And I hope the pill is a magic pill, a patented cure-all, if you will.
I live in sunny Tampa, FL and am out in the sun every single day w/ my 3 yr old. We go to the beach a lot and usually visit a park at least 3 times a week. Yet, w/ all of that time in the sun I was still low in my vit D. I am not taking a super dose but did have to add extra into my diet. I am not convinced that the sun gives us what we need for vit D. I hope you feel better soon!
I ended up in a puddle of tears at my doctor’s office this time last year, and she gave me a scrip for an anti-depressant and instructions for a Vitamin D test. I thought yours looked not so bad, and when I looked up my results, I remembered why. Mine came back at 6. So I tossed the anti-depressants and she put me on 10,000 units of D daily for 6 months. I retested much improved and now take 5,000 daily (indefinitely). I still hate morning, but at least I no longer collapse insensible on the couch every evening. And no more puddle of tears!
I had a doctor ignore me–and it almost killed me kid. These days I’m pretty sure there’s a note in my file that reads, “difficult bitch.”
I know it’s not PC to suggest these things, but when I feel my body aching for the son I go to a tanning bed. I know, I know–they’re the devil incarnate, but I feel better after and I only go a couple of times every couple of years.
The vast number of misspelling up there upsets me. The SUN–the way I wrote it makes it look like a religious yearning.
“They” now feel most people in this country are deficient in D. My GP told me to take 1000 IUs a day to maintain normal levels, and because D is so important for proper immune functioning (the better to fight off HINI…). Between northern climes and sunscreen and hats, how could any Sensible Citizen get enough D?
Even down here at latitude 35 we have to get our sunshine D from 10:00 – 2:00. I am mildly deficient, but part of my prescription is to lie out in the middle of the day for twelve minutes with as much of me exposed as I can manage.
I figure my face, neck and arms have had their lifetime dose of skin damage, but I do try to get out on the roof and roll up whatever I can so I can soak up the D-making rays. And I know that people in the next building can probably see me, but they’ll just assume I’m a tan-a-holic and that maybe seems kinda normal for L.A.?
Me too, and I live in sunny Colorado. TOO sunny I burn red like a lobster within 5 minutes. So I stay pale like a ghost and drop vitamin D like a heroin junky.
Oh, doctors. Doctors!
I was sick for six weeks, terrible time swallowing. I had 5 ulcers in my mouth, seemed like another 5 in my esophogus, stomach riddled with them. Doctors kept telling me to see a shrink for depression.
I literally wept with the last doctor who kept on trying to figure out if my husband was beating me. I said “I’m so tired of being sick, I’m eating 10 oranges a day trying to get better, drinking more orange juice than I ever had in my life.” She said “Why don’t you try stopping that.”
You guessed it, 3 orange-free days later and I was miraculously healed. Apparently I don’t respond well to acidic foods. In fact, as an expirement I tried two oranges a day and got an ulcer on day 5. I would be more appreciative of the doctor if her recommendation of stopping the orange juice wasn’t said with such a dismissive “get the crazy woman out of my office” tone.
I have a friend who has been in constant pai for two years, and has seen 7 doctors. Ends up she has a gall stone the size of a small marble. All 7 doctors proscribed a psychiatrist.
And as an “et tu brutus” moment? Everytime I get sick my husband asks if it’s stress or hormones. Then 3 days later he gets the same illness and acts as if he is going to die.
I am reading your archives to see what I missed and guess what I read in a Dec 05 entry today? “Who lives in that apartment? Oh, we never go up there, that’s Old Lady Alexa’s place—they say she hasn’t seen sunlight in 50 years…” Back then, you were planting the seeds for this entry…
I had the same idea as 18. Jonniker: thyroid has a great influence on energy level and moods, and even a little hypothyroidism can make you feel depressed. An endocrinologist would be the right address.
in England SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is recognised and you can actually get light boxes (not like a sunbed) that you look into and I think they stimulate Vitamin D production (i need to check that) to counteract depression induced by lack of sunlight. Also as someone who has worked in cosmetics for over 10 years, I can tell you that I personally don’t believe in wearing sunblock on my face as a daily routine unless I am somewhere really tropically sunny. They say you should expose your face and hands and as much as possible to good sunlight for at least 15 minutes a day. Vitamin D is a cancer-fighting vitamin, and there are theories, as yet scientifically unproven that suggest that the surge in cancers such as breast, is Anglo-Saxon societies could be in part due to the obsession over the last decade with slathering on high factor sunblock on our faces when we don’t really require it, as we spend so much time sitting in offices and out of the sun. I hope you feel better soon. Thinking of you.
Oh Jefair, I am sooo glad that my husband isn’t the only one who does this…
“And as an “et tu brutus” moment? Everytime I get sick my husband asks if it’s stress or hormones. Then 3 days later he gets the same illness and acts as if he is going to die.”
It’s always worse for him and I am supposed to coo over him for days despite his indifference when I was ill. Glad I’m not alone. :-)
Hi Alexa — I just wanted to second Dora’s comment. If you’re deficient, you might want to get Simone checked too.
Here’s an interesting blog post about vitamin D, written by a doctor who contributes to /Slate/ on the link between nutrition and autism, among other topics…
http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog/not-getting-enough-vitamin-d
Hope you feel better soon!
I too have a disease which sunlight helps: psoriasis.
A trip to the beach does wonders, but, sadly, insurance won’t cover that!
I hope you feel better soon.
Come to Austin! It’s not sunny Acapulco, but it’s warm and the Tex-Mex food will do you some good!
And I’ll take you to BookPeople and fawn over Simone and my 20-month old daughter will hold her hand while they read books.
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