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Monday, May 23, 2011

Anemia Shanemia!


Well, I got mixed news from the Doc today as a result of my blood tests taken last march. My white blood count moved up slightly from 3.7 to 3.9, and my neutrofils were normal. Those are the first responders that move to inflammation sites or bacterial infections. That is the good news. The bad news is that my Red blood cell results show mild anemia for the first time. So, the Doc will start with the basic response to anemia....iron supplementation. I have been supplementing with vitamin D at 5000 IU a day, and that has brought my D level back into the normal range. I sure hope that supplementing with iron will help the anemia. If not, I gotta start to wonder if this is the beginning of the aplastic anemia cycle that my mom suffered with. There have been advances in the treatment for this condition which reduce the need for constant transfusions. But, the treatment for this is not particularly pleasant. I asked the doctor to give me EPO so I could be like Lance "I'm not a doper" Armstrong. He didn't, damn it! So, we will do the iron for 6 weeks and then in July, do another blood test, and see where we go from there! I am happy to have my bride home, but she brought me a nice virus from Virginia. So, this week that was slated to be a recovery week is now gonna be a sick week. That will give me just 8 weeks to pull everything together for a final push to the New Mexico senior games.

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