I continue being very cold and now I know why. I have very low ferritin. THe discovery came up by chance: I went to get lots of labs hoping to see improvements thanks to 1) exercise 2) upping my Levoxyl. I indeed did see those improvements, so I am doing something right, but it is also the case that the ferritin is low. Hemoglobin is normal.

Ferritin is measured by a venipuncture, so it is infrequent. Hemoglobin is measured after a venipuncture, too, but it is also measured by a finger prick each time I donate blood, every 8 weeks. It has always been normal and sometimes even high-ish. So I had no idea I could run into this low, low ferritin.

The hematologist will see me in May. Asked me to repeat the labs a week before being seen. His nurse wrote to me that my feeling very cold could be due to low ferritin. Especially hands and feet. Indeed my fingers are very cold. I have never felt that cold outside of having chills. This is different from chills: it is more hands and feet and there is no feeling of general malaise.

The nurse also wrote that low ferritin could cause extreme fatigue. So this might be a contributing factor why I need so much sleep.

I think I will stop blood donations for now, at least until the hematologist sees me and my ferritin enters the normal range.

The thing is, I have been taking iron pills faithfully, and in the form of iron that is best digestible and free of side effects. Who knew I would end up anemic?

I will be sad if I have to stop donating blood, but I will ba happy if there is something that can be done to make me less sleepy during the day.

Going to bed now. 10:40 PM Thanks for reading my long update! I have turned the heater on, something I never do.