For a long time now, I've been constantly exhausted to the point where I feel like I'm about to fall asleep and actually do fall asleep without realising it. As I'm sure you might be thinking: this isn't normal at all. Unfortunately for me, I somehow never realised this until I got some blood work done and my doctor sat me down and asked if I'd been feeling constantly exhausted, sleepy and having a hard time functioning due to being exhausted all the time.
When I responded affirmatively, she told me not only was this (obviously) not normal, but I was extremely anemic and needed to take iron pills.
So what's it like being anemic?
For the past almost ten years, I've noticed increasing exhaustion to the point where I was actually more tired when I would wake up in the morning than I was before I went to sleep. I know it'll sound dumb, but I just figured this was just part of being an adult and having a full-time job, it wasn't until my doctor told me I was anemic that I realised it wasn't normal.
I'm supposed to take my iron pills once a day, but due to having slight memory problems, I sometimes forget to take them. While this isn't the best scenario, it shows me what a big difference the little pills have. Normally, after two days without my iron pills, the crushing exhaustion becomes so noticeable, I remember to take my pills again. I think that shows just how anemic I am that the difference is so obvious after only two days (even if I take the pills for a few weeks).
But how exhausted do I get?
Off my pills, I constantly feel like I'm going to fall asleep and even if I'm at work, I can sometimes almost nod off before catching myself. I'm constantly yawning and wanting to sit down just so I can close my eyes for a little and rest. At home, if I sit down, there's always the chance I'll "blink" and wake up four hours later and the later it gets, the more likely this gets. I actually feel too tired to do most things including reading, writing, playing video games or anything and tend to want to lay down and take a nap. And like I previously mentioned: when I wake up the morning, I feel ten times more exhausted than when I went to sleep eight hours before and tend to overlseep. I actually have a Sonic Boom alarm clock and I can be so tired and exhausted that I sleep through my bed shaker! Not only that, but if I go on a road trip with my Darling (and sometimes just out to lunch or to the movies), it's happened more than a few times where I've fallen asleep and either woken up on my own or been woken up after we've parked to him asking if I'm feeling ok since I've been asleep for an hour or more!!
That's what it's like off my iron pills, but what's it like when I take my pills?
I'm able to wake up on time and often times, wake up before my alarm even goes off. When I wake up, I feel rested and alert and can get up and do things instead of barely being able to open my eyes and just laying there exhausted before drifting back off to sleep. Once I'm up, I'm up and don't feel drained and in need of a nap all day and I don't "blink" and wake up a few hours later. At work, I can focus on things and don't have to worry about falling asleep in the middle of the store and people comment on me looking better and that I'm not yawning all the time 😅! No joke, sometimes at work, my eyes will glaze over and my head will drop and I'll literally almost fall asleep before catching myself! Thankfully, once I've been taking iron, this quickly decreases until it's doesn't happen anymore.
I'm so grateful my doctor decided to do a blood test and found out something was wrong, and I only wish it'd happened sooner or that I'd realised something was off. If you or someone you know is feeling constantly exhausted and having a hard time functioning or waking up in the morning, consider talking to your doctor ♡
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