What a Week

I cancelled my lab work for the second week in row. I'm still trying to shake this cold. The runny nose just seems to be hanging around. I had a bloody nose today at work and it was just lovely. Once I felt my nose start to drip I grabbed a tissue to wipe before it could drip  down to my mouth. To my surprise, blood was on the tissue after I wiped.  I rushed to the bathroom to clean myself up. Thankfully, the bleeding stopped with little effort on my part.

Today was the first Half-Day Friday at work. It's a new benefit that gives all office employees a half-day on the last Friday of every other month. After work, I tried calling my primary doctor about my nose, but he's on vacation and the receptionist recommended me to an urgent care. I don't feel like dropping money on an urgent care, so I'm just going to take extra care of my nose this weekend by using the expired ointment I have left over from the last time this bloody nose thing happened back in 2013. In 2013, the bloody nose was due to some infection that usually only occurs in infants; however, since I'm taking immune suppressants I might as well be an infant.  

I turned in my resume and cover letter and I scheduled my interview for the contracts/risk specialist position on Thursday, March 3rd @ 3pm. 3 is a lucky number right? I mean it's in my lucky number 13, so it must be. I am super motivated to practice my interview skills over the weekend so that I can shine my brightest on Thursday. Although I'm sure I'll have a nightmare over the weekend about getting a freakishly unstoppable bloody nose during the interview. Between practicing my interviewing skills I will be binge watching Fuller House on Netflix.

In other news, my credit card number was stolen yesterday. Thankfully, Chase caught the fraud right away. They caught it at the first fraudulent purchase on the same day the purchase was transacted. Chase is awesome at protecting me. It's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last. It's a pain to block the card and change my automatic bill payments that go on that card though. I was just thinking the other day that it had been a while since the last time it got stolen. 

From Bed to Work to Bed

I wake up, go to work, come home, and go to bed. That has been my routine this week as I fight a nasty bug that's been going around the office. No time to dream. No time to make plans. No time to live. No time to run. Things like showering and eating have taken a backseat. I've been so tired that I've been tempted to pull over at the rest stop on my way home to take a nap before I finish driving home. I finally mustered up enough energy to get a shower and now I'm about to head back to bed.

I have lab work scheduled for Saturday, but I'm probably going to cancel it because my upper respiratory infection will make the CBC test worse.  You know, that's the lab test that's going to tell me how much inflammation is in my body to know whether the increased Cimzia dose is working or not. So, I think I should wait until I'm healthier before I get the lab work done.

At my doctor's appointment on Friday I weighed in at 142lbs. That's 8lbs off my target weight. I started taking iron again this week as a last ditch effort to help my iron levels in my lab result and I'm already constipated, which means I've been "gaining weight." I hate that I'm going to postpone getting lab work because that means I'm going try to keep taking iron until I'm well enough to get the lab work done... so I won't be having a good poop for a while. Honestly, I don't know how long I'm going to last taking iron. Woah is me. I'm sick with a cold and I have no energy. Pity Party of One, your bed is now available.

Lab Results 10.30.15

I got my lab results back. Now, I just have to wait to hear back from my doctor about how much iron I should be taking and whether I should be doing anything else.

Test Name                    Value                    Reference Range
Iron, Serum                     18                       35 - 155 ug/DL
Iron Saturation                 5                        15 - 55 %
Hemoglobin                    9.2                      11.1 - 15.9 g/DL
C - Reactive Protein       11.7                     0.0 - 4.9 mg/L

I highlighted what I think are the most important values that were out of range on my results. Yes, I read my own lab results. I needed some help from Kim and Google on some of them though.

As expected my iron and hemoglobin levels are nowhere near where they should be. I'm not sure how worried I should be about this because I know my levels have been this low before.

The C-Reactive Protein test is interesting because it measures general levels of inflammation in my body. Crohn's must be hard at work inflaming everything. I'm surprised I'm not having more issues.