An Apple a Day...

So to sum it up, things went well at the doctor appointment. But I have to go in and have some lab work done.

Here's what we know so far: I’m anemic (big shocker there). They're going to check iron levels to see how bad things are (they were very low last time and I've been taking major iron doses ever since).

Because of my Mediterranean heritage, I'll be tested for Thalassemia (another form of anemia common in people of Mediterranean decent). And because Michael and I are starting to get ready for future baby, they'll also test to see if I’m a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis. If I am, then they’ll test Michael to see if he is, and then we’ll have a good idea what our changes of giving birth to a child with Cystic Fibrosis would be. Our doctor wants us to have this information BEFORE we make the decision to have Michael's vasectomy reversed. Which I think is a great thing.

Michael will have to endure some testing too. Basically, if a man has had a vasectomy for x amount of years, the body can start to recognize the sperm as an intrusion in the body and start producing antibodies (much like when you get a regular cold and your body starts to fight it off). Because it’s been over eight years for Michael, he'll endure some tests that will determine if his body has started to produce the antibody. If it has, then we won’t bother paying for a reversal, but rather, we’ll just extract sperm and do artificial insemination (if the sperm is okay).

If we end up exploring the artificial insemination route and that doesn’t end up working, we could explore the option of In Vitro Fertilization (if/when we have the budget to pay for it). But I don’t feel like it’ll come to that. My guess is that we’ll either end up doing the reversal or the artificial insemination. The tests will tell.

Other than that I talked to her a little bit about The CRAZY I had been dealing with, and the restless leg syndrome that has been driving me insane (which my doc mentioned could be related to the anemia). The RLS keeps me up at night and I haven’t been sleeping well for months. Doc wants to try and combat that first because she said if we could get me to a point that I’m sleeping, I’ll probably feel much better and won’t be dealing with the Crazy. I didn’t know how closely the two were related, but it makes sense. If you’re not sleeping then you’re cranky as shit and everything seems harder and/or worse. So we’ll see how that goes. For now, I’m on major iron doses and if that doesn’t stop the RLS, we’ll be adding additional medication.

So yeah, I'll post again once I've completed my labs and have the results. I know you are all fascinated to know my medical history :)