Lupus and Medicine: Anemic? Don't skimp on your iron

One little pill.

That's all it takes sometimes. 

I've told you I've been fighting an extra level of fatigue recently. 

I chalked it up to an earlier wake-up call because of Deirdre's new high school schedule. When I didn't adjust to getting up an hour earlier, I added a morning nap. You can read about me being resentful for the nap here, and learning to cope with it here. The path to living well with lupus is rarely a straight line! 

I also thought maybe it was just time to join the rest of the world in needing a cup of coffee to get through the day. But my skin didn't appreciate the increase in lattes and macchiatos, so that wasn't going to be the solution. 

But I never considered that the little iron pill I was taking (or some days, skipping) could be the culprit. When my doctor called to say my blood work showed I was anemic, I knew I'd been caught. 

Granted, I've been anemic most of my adult life - needing a blood transfusion at one point - so I've always been good about taking my medicines as directed. But lately, I've been forgetting. And I took waaaay too long to pick up a new OTC bottle of iron at the drugstore when I ran out a month or so ago. 

I know. It's awful.

My labs reflected it. 

My pillfold revealed it. (The lack of black pill is so OBVIOUS, too!)

And my body felt it. 

But I'm back at it - determined to go 7 for 7 every week of May with all my meds, including my daily dose of iron. 

This isn't my first lapse in OTC medicine management. It's just so tricky to remember the meds that aren't automatically renewed by the pharmacy! I searched OTC on my blog, and here's another post about my difficulty remembering to pick up a bottle of baby aspirin. 

It's a thing. But now it's going to be a success story:

Virginia Woman Turns Around Debilitating Fatigue with Iron Pill

(Subtitle: Never mind that she was already supposed to be taking it!