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who won’t listen to you, or refuses to order appropriate tests, or WILL order appropriate tests, but is using woefully outdated reference ranges.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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I believe the appropriate old-tyme cure would be to “take to the waters,” no? Therapeutic baths? Oh wait. Maybe…leeches? ;-)
Hope you’re feeling better soon!
Forgive me if I’ve harped on this before, but malabsorption issues can indicate the presence of celiac disease, which has been implicated in depression, infertility, and a host of other things. Anyone with low vit D levels or anemia should get tested for celiac disease. I recommend finding a gastroenterologist, because many internists are not familiar enough with the variety of celiac presentations or with the antibody test to order & interpret it correctly.
Good luck, I hope you’re feeling better soon.
Yes, I too have fought against the doctors in an effort to get them to understand that I am not simply *sad,* and that zoloft won’t necessarily cure what’s going on internally. I did end up on a low dose of an anti-depressant because I felt that I could benefit from taking it, and partially because I thought that if I was already on one, the docs couldn’t just throw that out as a treatment option without considering other avenues.
One terribly rude doctor actually managed to test me for something that may be useful–my ferritin level. I scoffed when I saw that she had ordered that blood test since I donate blood regularly without ever once having been turned away for anemia. I even had a pediatrician tell me I had enough iron for two girls my age! (I’ll take credit where ever I can find it these days).
I had my results discussed by another doctor (due to the first one’s ‘tude), and he said that my ferritin level was 30. The “normal” range for ferritin is 11-307 (which seems like an obscenely large range, but hey! I’m no doctor! ugh), so I’m falling towards the end of normal.
Second doctor recommended that I take an iron supplement, but allow me to provide a warning–when the doctor writes on his little pad to take 325 mg. of IRON two times a day, what he *really* means is 325 mg. of FERROUS SULFATE (or the like) two times a day.
I questioned a pharmacist when I picked up the supplement and realized that each pill was only 65 mg. of iron, and I’d be taking ten of them a day. The pharmacist was quick to point out that what the supplement’s dosage said was 65 mg. of ELEMENTAL IRON, and what doctor had meant for me to take was 650 mg. of ferrous sulfate. As the pharmacist said, “Oh yes, 650 mg. of iron would be poisonous!”
So, don’t ever just take a doctor at his/her word if the dosage/prescription/advice seems suspect, and DO NOT hesitate to question it or do some googling because as we know, some of these doctors have very important Priuses (Priux?)they need to drive.
“I’m like a prisoner, without the sodomy and ample alone-time.”
*snerk*
Watch out for pellagra, dearest.
Pack up Simone and come visit me in FL. :) We have sunshine year round for the most part. FL babies don’t even get Vitamin D drops when they are born (usually).
I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. I agree with the others…get your thyroid checked too..especially T4…if that’s low, you can feel like sh*t. Another connection to low vit D levels apparently is breast cancer! So keep on taking those pills girl! Feel better soon..
Oh man, can I relate to your woes! I spent years telling doctors I was tired- they said, “Oh, you’re overweight, over 40 and depressed”. I knew they were wrong. The only thing depressing me was that I wasn’t myself and had no energy. After being told over and over it was depression, being sent to a sleep clinic, etc. I was finally diagnosed with hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis and a vitamin D deficiency (which is the most frequent vitamin deficiency in americans, btw). Hang in there, and keep fighting for answers!
Maybe get one of those “sunshine” lamps for the upcoming winter months?
Oh how I can relate to your frustration with doctors!! I spent years trying to convince doctors I had a thyroid problem to no avail. Since my TSH was within normal limits everyone said I was fine even though I had several symptoms of hypo-thyrodism. When I started having fertility issues, I did more research and learned hypo-thyroidism is associated with miscarriage and IVF failure. That was enough for me, so I took matters in my own hands and ordered my own damn blood work at http://www.healthcheckusa.com!! Low and behold, my thyroid antibodies (thyroid peroxidase antibody) were over 400 when they should be near zero!! My Free T3 and Free T4 were low but within normal limits at the time, so the RE didn’t change my infertility treatments, but the OB watched my thyroid levels very closely (at my insistence of course) during pregnancy.
Next time the doctors won’t help, I highly recommend ordering your own tests at http://www.healthcheckusa.com or another site like it. Even if the tests don’t show anything abnormal, the peace of mind can be worth the price!!
I live in Texas – sun and hot as hell capital of the world and I’m on 50K units of Vitamin D too! And thyroid medicine and an occasional Xanax, none of which have changed my life for more than a few hours at a time. Still hoping for something that makes me feel like a normal human being. Hope you feel better!!
There has been some recent research suggesting that many of us in northern climes may be Vitamin D deficient. Our son’s Pedi has put him on extra Vit D, and after suggested we do so too, we’ve been supplementing.
It makes me feel like IMPLODING WITH RAGE (or possibly I mean exploding? I think imploding sounds more ragey) when I think about all the times a pregnant/postpartum woman gets told via ads, doctors, nurses, etc., that if she feels even a WEE TIDGE depressed she should SEEK HELP, there IS HELP, don’t try to GO IT ALONE, we are HERE TO HELP!!—and then, in my experience and yours, we ask for help (using our LAST RESERVES to do so), and we get the most astonishing NO HELP. It is so discouraging, if “discouraging” meant something much more like going under for the third time.
OMG: “like a prisoner, without the sodomy and ample alone-time”?? SO FUNNY.
Do you have gout? Or housemaid’s knee? Maybe you ARE depressed. You need a vacation by yourself or with your spouse. Somewhere warm. Toddlers are depressing. They’re incapable of being reasoned with and they can’t do anything for themselves. Plus, they have no common sense and seem bent on destroying themselves.
Hey, Alexa. The same thing happened to me this spring. The mega doses of Vitamin D worked to get me to an acceptable level, but now I take a daily, over-the-counter dose of 1,000 IU to maintain my D levels through the non-sunny months. (Which are many, here in Ohio.) The pharmacist okayed the level, saying it was the max you could take each day. I feel a bit better, but would rather have the tropical vacation you described. :)
EEEK! did you see
Fertility and Sterility
Volume 94, Issue 4, September 2010, Pages 1314-1319
Replete vitamin D stores predict reproductive success following in vitro fertilization
“Conclusion(s)
Our findings that women with higher vitamin D level in their serum and FF are significantly more likely to achieve CP following IVF–embryo transfer are novel. A potential for benefit of vitamin D supplementation on treatment success in infertile patients undergoing IVF is suggested”
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