[Rapunzel]

I'm getting scared that maybe all I'm doing is trading one problem (si) for another one. I have had no energy at all since sometime in January, but figured it was just because I was working too much. The last few weeks I've been averaging like 55 hours per week between two jobs. It seems like I can never catch up on rest, and yet I keep staying up late at night to get things done that I can't finish during the day, talk to friends on the computer, and just have some time to myself. I didn't worry about it much, hoping that when things settled down I would be ok.

Then this week I have had the munchies all the time. I feel like I'm deficient on both chocolate and protein. I am a vegetarian, and I also keep skipping meals. I obsess if my weight gets 1-4 pounds above the ideal range for my height, and any more than that would really cause me to freak out. I'd like to lose 20 pounds and be at the bottom end of the range, but I don't think it's going to happen. This week, though, I feel like I'm out of control on my eating. I even ate dinner with the kids the last two days.

I expected work to slow down this week, and that I could catch up on rest. I'm also doing yoga or yogalates or something along those lines plus going for a run with the dogs every day if I have time, and stretching all the time. My muscles are all sore, and I don't think that the amount of exercise that I'm doing is enough different from usual to account for it. And I can't get warm, and I get dizzy, and my head wants to explode, and I can't concentrate on what I need to do at work (I'm at work now, but just about to go home and then straight to the other job). I thought maybe I was dehydrated too, since my lips are chapped and hurt, and the inside of my mouth too, but I've been trying to make sure to drink enough.

Last night I was talking to Angela and asked if she thought this was all something to worry about and she suggested that it could be anemia. When I looked it up, I have most of the symptoms, and I also read that most of the things that I eat (chocolate, dairy foods, vegetable, high fiber foods) tend to interfere with absorption of iron. They also don't have much iron in them either. I wasn't worrying about any of this until after thinking about it last night, and now I just want to curl up in a ball under my desk and sleep. I'm not sure if it's gotten worse or if I just gave up on thinking it will go away if I ever get a chance to slow down.

Well, that's a bunch for one post. Do any of you have thoughts on anemia? Will it work to start taking vitamins with iron in them? How long until it gets better? The sources I found last night seemed to be saying that once symptoms are showing up it could take 2-6 months to replenish the iron with supplementation. Yuck.

Thanks,
Rap

iron supplements can make you sick...
but theres one out there that is slow release, that wont make you very sick.. and i thnk it might be in a pink box... wish i knew the name for you, but i have a terrible memory.....
a family member of mine gets anemic because of fybroids and excessive periods.... but id say yes take some slow release iron supplements(with food) , eat a lot of things that have iron in it too....

and by the way , did you get a blood test to check for anemia?
another family member is vegetarian...
when he started this he was so protien deficient that he was weak and even fainted a few times.... but he now eats a lot of tofu products, pine nuts, etc... and hes got a tremendous amount of energy again.
sorry i dont know much about any of this personally, never had anemia, and im not vegetarian.

Here is a really interesting article on the topic. It was posted by Alexandra from Babble land. She and Larry are having a discussion of veg nutrition issues there. Anyhow, here is the article on iron, and other vits and minerals, and vegetarians:

http://www.veganhealth.org/shv/index_html#iron

If you have specific questions about nutrition, Larry_Hoover is the guy to ask. He checks the the drugs forum here. Be warned, he is a "face eater" and he'll try to convert you!

emmy

[Rapunzel]

I asked my boss about anemia yesterday. She's a Health Manager. She did give me a bit of a lecture when I told her about my eating habits (and now she is onto me about skipping meals and how working through lunch since I'm only there for 5 hours - 9-2 - is so convenient). Mostly she told me to take supplements and eat meals. Oh, and she offered to call in the dietician to talk to me.

Thanks for the information and suggestions. CCL, in the past I have not been particularly sensitive to things like iron supplements. I was anemic once when I was pregnant and had to take iron, but I didn't have any symptoms then, and I tolerated it just fine. I have some multivitamins specially designed for vegetarians, and they have 100% of the RDA of iron in them, but I stopped taking them about September, I think. Just out of orneryness. I started taking them again starting Wednesday night, and I went to bed at a fairly decent hour last night, and slept in this morning. I'm still in p.j.'s and it's almost noon, but I've been reading for a while, and just lounging around. I feel quite a bit better than yesterday, but I have to go get hay this afternoon. We'll see how that goes.

Emmy, that's a nice article. I told Angela I would make an appointment and do the blood test thing. I even like having blood drawn, but I'm afraid of just being told to eat meat, so I'm avoiding that. If I can't get it worked out on my own I might have to consider it again. I don't like doctors much.

I am wondering how long it should take to resolve the problem if I'm a good girl and take my vitamins.

Oh, and I got the new schedule for my residential treatment job yesterday. I had been trying to get at least alternate Sundays off. They gave me alternate Sunday mornings, but put me on every Sunday swing shift. I said I didn't want to work that much, but maybe could do alternate Sunday swing shifts. The schedule as it was had me working 44 hours one week and 51 on alternate weeks, with both jobs together. Well, the new schedule has me off of Sunday swing shift entirely, but I'm on Wednesday graveyards every week. And I have both jobs on Thursday, so unless I can change something I would work all night, have an hour to get to the other job, work 5 hours, have an hour to get back to the first one, and work until 10:30. GRRR. It would also be 46 and 53 hours per week. I can probably switch which day I work at Head Start so that I don't have to be running back and forth for 24 hours straight like that. At least I will have some Sundays off now.