Barb’s Health Update

post by the bloggohusband

Quick update on Barb’s health status, after another slew of doctor’s appointments (with more coming up next week):

Anemia — This is not actually a major problem for Barb right now. A blood test from the PCP on Wednesday showed that her red blood cell and hemoglobin counts were basically ok — just a bit low. In fact, the heavy load of iron supplements she has been taking has probably had more of a negative impact than the anemia has (at least that’s our hypothesis, after Barb found she felt much worse in the mornings, after taking her first iron pill). So, she’s scaling way back on her iron intake, trading three iron tablets/day for one multi-vitamin w/iron. Hopefully, this will help.

Gastro-intestinal issues — Next step, more testing and then (probably) bio-feedback to re-train Barb’s muscles. This, at least, is the advice of the colorectal surgeon we saw today, who saw nothing wrong with Barb that could be solved surgically, but felt that she was not using some of her muscles as effectively as she should be. He hypothesized that perhaps this was because of her ECT treatments the past two years, but we feel that this is more of a guess on his part, and that he’s really not sure what the cause is. Regardless, it’s a relief to know that Barb (apparently) doesn’t need surgery.

Stress — This is probably the biggest problem Barb faces right now. Between all the health issues, the financial concerns we have, my new job/travel, and some other issues (which she’ll probably blog about soon), it’s been a very stressful, uncertain, and difficult past couple of weeks, and that’s probably contributed to her feelings of fatigue, headache, and just general illness. Hopefully, things are turning around — or will soon — but it’s been tough lately (which is why I’m posting, and not Barb).