Iron Deficiency Anemia

Howdy!

A lot of people have been concerned and asking questions about why I eat ice, and why I have to get iron infusions, and why don't I just change my diet, and why don't I just take iron orally, and why don't I do this that or the other to keep my iron levels up....

Well the simple answer is, none of it works. But before I get ahead of myself let me explain what iron deficiency anemia is and why I have it.

What is Iron Deficiency Anemia?

This is when the blood does not have adequate healthy red blood cells, and red blood cells carry oxygen to the body.

As the name implies, iron deficiency anemia is due to insufficient iron. When your body does not have enough iron your bloody can't produce enough of a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen, and as a result of iron deficiency anemia may leave you tired and short of breath.

Why do I have it?

The reason I personally have iron deficiency anemia is because when I am bleeding due to all of my other medical problems with my uterus, I'll lose it so much blood that might body can't replenish itself as quickly as I am depleting it. So in other words I bleed to so much that it makes me sick.

In the past, this has gotten so bad to the point of needing blood transfusions. I had one at age 15 and again at age 22. My doctors try to prevent these incidences from happening by giving me IV iron, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

My symptoms:

- Extreme Fatigue: Sometimes I can't walk more than a few steps without feeling like passing out.
- Weakness: I simply can't hold things that are heavy and its as if my arms and legs are asleep.
- Pale Skin: self explanatory.
-  Shortness of Breath: I will have to stop and catch my breath after walking out to my car to get something and coming back inside.
- Lightheadedness and dizziness: I feel like I need to sit down in order to be aware of my surroundings.
- Cold hands and feet: I am really just cold ALL the time!
- Unusual cravings of non-food items such as ICE: I always have a big cup of ice with me, it doesn't matter if it is freezing outside, I feel the CONSTANT need to eat ice.
Poor Appetite: I can miss a few meals and not notice... this is probably the worse one, because if you are lightheaded and feel like passing out and your not eating it can be even worse for your body.

Diagnosis:

The way I was diagnosed was by many blood tests.

Treatment:

Most people can control their iron levels with either a change in their diet or by taking iron pills orally, however sadly for me, these are not options. The reason why is because as I stated before, I deplete my iron supply faster than I can inn take it. Even if I am taking iron orally leading up to the bleeding, it isn't enough to counter act what I am loosing. For example, leading up to my surgery my doctor had me on iron for about a month and a half, when they did my blood work for my surgery my levels where okay. After my surgery, and recovery, I had started bleeding and needed to get tested again, so the drew blood. my iron level was at a 4ng/mL! A 4ng/mL! "Low" is considered to be between 12ng/mL and 18ng/mL, this is measured as nanograms per millilter, and "normal" is between 18ng/mL to 150ng/mL. When my doctor got these results she said she was surprised that I was walking, and that I had not passed out yet.

So, I get IV Iron. Basically I have to go in 3 times a in one week and get a unit of iron pumped into my arm. This takes about 2hrs per treatment and makes me feel like poop! I get horrible headaches, chest pain, shortness of breath, upset stomach, nausea, and constipation. Sometimes getting the iron makes me feel worse than I did before I had it, but after a few days my body regulates itself and I am able to feel better. However, I am supposed to start getting iron treatments once a month again. So this means I go in the times in one week, every 3 weeks. Which is time consuming, and EXPENSIVE! But ya gotta do what ya gotta do to be healthy! Right?!?

So, that is why I eat ice, all the time, I am sorry if it is annoying, trust me I don't like it either, but I can't help it! The nurse at my last infusion asked me if I needed anything to drink then she realized I had a cup and she asked what was in it, I responded with ice, and she laughed and asked if I wanted a refill! It's a real thing y'all I promise! And if the people at the Cancer Center are the only ones who get it, that's fine by me!

I think that that wraps up this post. I am sure I forgot something so if you have any questions about this, or anything else let me know!

Again thank you for your love and support on this journey!

As always if you ever need to contact me please feel free to via email teasha.adams@gmail.com or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/teasha.adams91 and of course you can leave a comment down below.

Remember that when life gets hard, keep moving forward and...

Always Smile!

Post Surgery Updates and Results

Howdy!

I have been getting a lot of questions the last few weeks about how I am doing, how the surgery went, and what the results of the surgery were. I am going to attempt to answer these questions as well as I can, but please understand that I am still processing this information and so if it come all jumbled up that is why. Also, this will be a long post and it will have detail, so if you don't wanna know, just like before, stop reading now.

How am I feeling?

If I am being honest I am feeling pretty terrible. The surgery itself wasn't too horrible, I felt pretty good the day of, and then a two days later I was in pain and I was feeling light headed and it was not good. As a result, I pretty much just slept for a week straight. I was only eating oatmeal and soup, becuase I was not having regular bowel movements. I started having bleeding problems and was loosing blood about a week and a half after surgery and this started to worry me. It was not only blood clots but it was extremely painful and paralyzing. I spoke to the doctor and he wanted me to just take it easy and wait to see him a few days later.

How did the surgery go?

Up until this past Wednesday, Dec. 14th, I did not know how the surgery has gone. Obviously, it had gone well enough for me to be released to go home, but other than that I had no idea until I had my post-op appointment. That being said, the surgery took a bit longer than expected, it was supposed to only be an hour and it wound up being 3 hours. But according to the doctor, it all went well, however it did not fix any problems, but it did answer questions.

What were the results of the surgery?

Now here is the fun part, they found quite a few different things that were weren't Necessarily expecting. I will say what was found and then explain what it is, In then I will explain how it's supposed to be treated. The order of there are what we are least worried about to most worried about. Two of the three are found inside the uterus and the third is found on the outside, which I will explain better below, but just remember 1 is slightly worried and 3 is very worried.

1. Uterine polyps: These happen when the cells in the lining of the uterus becomes overgrown and can be the size of a sesame seed to the size of a golf ball. These polyps can cause multiple problems, for me they are the following;

Irregular menstrual bleeding: basically this means that I have frequent and unpredictable periods of the variable link and heaviness.

Bleeding between menstrual periods: and This means that I pretty much pleaded whenever enter however long, Which means that I don't actually have a quote on quote period, which are excessively heavy and painful.

 The doctor found quite a few polyps and was able to remove them, however they are most likely to return base on how many I had and the severity of them. The polyps are estrogen-sensitive, which means the grow in response to circulating estrogen. He said that now that he knows they are there it will be easier to treat and keep on eye on.

2. Endometriosis: This is an often painful disorder in which tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus grows on the outside of your uterus. Endometriosis most commonly involves your ovaries Fallopian tubes in the tissue lining your pelvis. This tissue is hormone based, this means that just like when the tissue in your uterus sheds, the displaced tissue continues to act as it normally would --  it thickens, breaks down, and pleads with each menstrual cycle.  Because this displays tissue has no way to exit your body it becomes trapped.

For me, the endometriosis was on my ovaries, pelvic tissue, and intestines. This explains the immense amount of pain I am in every time I am bleeding. Endometriosis also causes many other problems such as, pain with bowel movements, excessive bleeding, and infertility. Since my case is on the more severe case we have to also keep an eye on this, which is harder to do since it is in my abdomen. The doctor was able to burn most of the endometriosis off and out of the pelvic cavity, however this is a chronic illness and will come back.

3. The third and final thing that they found doesn't really have a medical name like the others. When inside the uterus, they found a large mass of abnormal mutated cells, they was it was explained to me was that the cells have mutated 6 times with in the mass, so basically it is a six layered cake of mutated cells. The doctor did a biopsy of the tissue and sent it to pathology. When I saw him he explained to me that he has never seen this in a patient my age, the youngest person he's ever seen and was 49. He asked for my consent to send my case to other doctors to see if he could get a better opinion of what to do next. Because with his older patients, He would just do a full hysterectomy and call it good. However since I am so young, he doesn't necessarily want to do this because it will mess with my hormones. So right now I am kind of playing the waiting game. My doctor told me what he thinks are the options, however he wanted to see you play other doctors had in mind to see if they could have better options. Since once again this tissue and the cell growth is it based on on The lining of the uterus and hormones, we have to do something or it will continue to grow. These are the options I have as of right now: 

    1. a medication that will put me in a menopausal State so that the lining of the uterus will stop    growing.

    2. A D&C ( dilation and curettage) This  would be be burning the lining of the uterus is that it would no longer grow. 

   3.  Hysterectomy. This is the complete removal of the uterus.

 Nothing has been decided yet, and I won’t be deciding anything until after the first of the year.  This tissue is very complex and it is high-risk. The more it grows the worse it will become, so we HAVE to be on top of this and make sure that it is under control.

 I know many of you are now very concerned about me and what is going to happen, But please don’t be. I am somewhat at peace with this. The day I found out about all of this, I was angry. The doctor said this surgery should have been done five years ago, and all of this would’ve been avoided. No other doctor wanted to treat my problems because of my age, And look at where it led to, But it is okay.

 I know that Heavenly Father is in control, and that His plan is greater than mine.  He has this under control, and as long as I am holding onto my hope and my testimony nothing can shake me.

 As for the game plan right now, I went and saw my hematologist, blood doctor, and I have to once again get iron infusions. My levels of hemoglobin and iron have dropped far below where my doctor is comfortable so we have to get those numbers up, And then I will not feel so faint and lightheaded. This should help me out quite a bit and after we get that fixed we will move on and if make a larger game plan. My next infusion is on Tuesday and I will post to Facebook/Instagram how that goes.

 I know many of you have have questions comments and concerns, but please know that I am still wrapping my head around all of this so keep that in mind when he you message text or comment to me. 

 I appreciate everyone’s love and and support and prayers. They have been greatly needed and I know that they have helped me be at peace.

 That is all for now I will post more, when I know more. Love y’all!

 Always smile!

Teasha

Medical Update and Surgery Info.

Howdy!

I am going to start this post off with a disclaimer...

If you find talk of women issues such as period, vaginas, uterus, and all of that gross and intolerable, stop reading now. This post will contain nothing but the above listed items.

I will give you a second to leave.

Good bye!


For those of you still with me I am going to start this update with first explaining all of my medical problems that have lead up to where I am today, so if you already know about it just scroll down till you find the new update part of this post.

Now sit back and relax and enjoy the wild ride.

So the wonderful part about being a girl is that once a month we have what is known to a normal body as a period.

This is when the uterus prepares itself for a baby, but sheds when no such baby is detected.

Here is a video that explains it for those who need it:

So that is how it works for a normal girl, however, this is not how it has ever worked for me. 

Since day one I have had what is called "dysfunctional uterine bleeding". This means I have irregular uterine bleeding that occurs in the absence up recognizable Celtic pathology, general medical disease,  order pregnancy. It reflects a disruption in the normal cyclic pattern of ovulatory hormonal stimulation to the lining of the uterus. The bleeding is unpredictable in many ways. It may be excessively heavy or light and may be prolonged, Frequent, Or random.

In other words, my periods are not really periods. My uterus bleeds when ever and for how ever long it chooses. It is normally quite heavy, I use both pads and tampons and tend to change them about every hour. It is also very painful, so much so that I call into work because it get too bad. The longest I have ever gone without bleeding is a year, and the longest I have bled for is about a year as well. 

As you can imagine this is quite annoying and there isn't much I can do to prevent it. I have been on a number of birth controls, pills, shots, rings, you name it I have been on it. I have also had many blood tests done to check for different diseases, and have had countless belly ultrasounds and transvaginal ultrasounds, this is where they go inside to look at everything, and all of the tests have come back normal. 

And since the doctors have no idea what is going on or how to fix it, I was told at age 16 that I would not be able to have children. Since then this has been confirmed by many MANY doctors, so I gave up hope. I decided that I was going to adopt and have a bunch of babies form different parts fo the world.

This problem has become so bad in the past that on my 15th birthday I had to get 4 units of blood pumped into me, and then in Feb. 2014 I had to get another transfusion. over the years I have also had to have countless numbers of iron transfusions and have become quite used to having all sorts of needles in my arms. 

So about a year and a half ago I had a doctors appointment just as a check up, they did a pap smear, which scans for cancer, and the test came back abnormal. So I was then told I had to have a biopsy taken of my cervix, that was fun, let me tell ya... Just kidding we don't need to go that far into detail. 

So after they did the biopsy, I was told that it came back as pre-cancer but it was nothing to worry about as long as I got my tests done regularly, which since I have tons of vagina problems meant I was going to have a pap smear done every time I went to the doctor, so I wasn't worried. 

Then a few months later I was in a tremendous amount of pain, and had been bleeding for about 3-4 months. I went to my doctor and he didnt seem to want to fix anything and told me it was fine. 

So I called a new doctor, Dr. Gayle, I was set up for an appointment in January of 2016, all I had to do was make it from August to January.  I could do that, or so I thought.

I started having more problems so I went to a doctor in Houston, based on a recommendation. At first this doctor seemed promising, she seemed as though she was going to help. 

She ran a TON of blood tests, ordered ultrasounds and wanted to figure out what was going on... but when all was said and done, she put me on a new birth control, Nuvaring, and sent me on my way. 

When January came around I had to reschedule my appointment, and the next time was not until July 2016. So I set it up. Then when it got closer, I realized I was going to be out of town for work the week of my appointment so I had to reschedule AGAIN. The appointment was then set up for October 11,2016. The morning of that appointment I got a call from Dr. Gayle's office saying he was going to be in emergency surgery all day and wouldn't be able to meet with me, so we rescheduled AGAIN!

NEW UPDATE

So I rescheduled for October 17th, 2016. I was quite nervous going into this appointment as you can imagine. I had seen so many different doctors for this and all of them had done nothing to help me, and why would this doctor be any different. 

SO the appointment started off with me in his office going over my past medical history. He asked me a TON of questions. I told him everything I explained above. He then asked if I had ever had any surgeries for this in the past and I said no.

He then stood up, declared he was going to start from scratch and give me a clean slate, and he was going to do a transvaginal ultrasound himself, right then. 

So i got ready to have this done, he came in and started it. First of all, I have never had the doctor themselves do this ultrasoud, it was always a tech. Second, he spend about 45mins looking around in my uterus, in my opinion, that is WAY too long for anything to be up there. However, this was the most thorough anyone has ever been when doing an ultrasound.

While he was looking he found a few different things that he thought was concerning. 

First, when he got to the top of my uterus, he said and I quote, "This is interesting, I can see right through it." He showed me what he was taking about. I could see where the healthy normal part of the uterine wall was and then the part he could "see through" was a brighter white color instead of a lightish grey. He just kept staring at it and saying it was interesting. He would move the camera a little to either side then go back and just stare at it. He is not sure what it is and therefore, wants to do surgery to take it out and biopsy it.

And if that wasn't enough there were also polyps and some other things that could be effecting my bleeding just hanging out in my uterus.

The third thing he saw was a large dark spot lower down in my uterus close to my cervix. He was also not sure what this was so, again he wants to biopsy it. 

The forth and final this he is concerned about it endometriosis. This is where the lining of the uterus grows where it is not supposed to and causes what looks like blood blisters all over. This can be quite painful and can lead to many problems. However, the only way to check for it is surgery. Yay!

So I was supposed to have all of these procedures done on Monday, October 24, 2016. But due to insurance problems, I cannot do it until November 29th. Recovery will be between 1 - 2 weeks, and then I should be back to normal. 

I am both nervous and excited about all of this. I am finally getting answers and maybe after all of this I may have a normal real period. 

However, the best part of all of this I have saved for last. I asked Dr. Gayle what I ask every doctor I see, what is the possibility of me having kids. He looked as me and said, "The problems you are having DO NOT and WILL NOT effect your ability to have kids. I do not know why doctors tell patients that. It only adds stress and anxiety to an already terrible situation." I looked at him dumbfounded and confused. I had been lied to for the last 9 years of my life. He then said "I dont want you to think or say that you cant have kids anymore, it simply is not true!" This made my day!

Anyways,  I have attached pictures of a drawing that Dr. Gayle did of what he found. 

Big red dot it where he could see through. 

Little red ovals are the polyps and other things just chilling. 

Bid black dot is the unknown dark spot. 

Small red dots is where the endometriosis could be.

Front View:

Side View:

 

I know this was a lot of information and went into too much detail but I know that everyone is curious and this was the easiest way to get to the most people. Please if you have any questions let me know. 

Remember that when life gets hard, keep moving forward and...

Always Smile!

UPDATE as of 9:30am Oct. 24, 2016:

Results from the Pap Smear last week came back normal.

Someone Worth Dying For?

Howdy!

So it has been a while since I have written anything, but as y'all should know by now I only post when I feel prompted or inspired to... Well it finally happened again! So so settle in this one might be a bumpy ride.

Life is great isn't? Is a wonderful roller coaster that you can never predict the way its going to go, nor cna you predict how fast you are going to go, or how slow. How high you might climb, or how low you might plummet! And it is WONDERFUL!!!! Right?!?!? Right!

Based on that you would assume that my life has been pretty crappy lately right? Well that isn't necessarily true. Life has actually been decently good, I am loving work, school doesn't suck too terrible, I have the world most amazing friends... So what wrong?

That is a great question. For the last few months I have felt as though I am once again stuck in a rut. I do the same things everyday and do not seem to be progressing at anything. Mostly on a spiritual level.

I mean I go to church, I go to institute (bible study), I try to do things that will up lift me, but it doesn't seem to be working.

I go and hang out with some of my close friends and I feel like I am alone. I try to pray and feel the Spirit to see what Heavenly Father wants me to do, and I get nothing, so what is the problem?

Is it that God doesn't care to help me? Is it that He is waiting for me to come find Him?

No. The problem is Me.

I continually go about things the wrong way. I do them for selfish reasons and not good selfish reason. Yes those exist, but thats for another post.... Maybe.

When I pray I do not do it because I want Heavenly Father to help me know His will, I have been wanting Him to conform to my will, which we all know doesn't work.

I have been wondering why I am here, is there a point, if He doesn't like what I want to do with my life what is the point?

Then I realized something. The reason I keep thinking like this is because I do not have a solid relationship with Christ. I have not tried to to make the Atonement personal. I take it for granted.

I keep asking the same questions that most of you have asked. Why am I here? Whats the point of me living? Why did Christ die for me, I am not worth it.

And by asking these questions we are hiding ourselves from the Lord. There is a wonderful analogy that I want to use. Heavenly Father has buckets and buckets of blessings to pour down on us, and his never stops pouring them, but we aren't getting them. This is because we have decided that we need an umbrella and we hide from him.

Why do we do this? I believe it is for many reasons, but my biggest reason is because I don't know my true worth and I feel I am not worthy of the blessings. This comes from a lack of understanding and not applying what I know to be true.

I know the Atonement cleans us all and makes it to where we are all capable of feeling the love from the Lord if we choose to, but I feel as though sometimes some of the things I have done disqualify me of this love.

Crazy right? It wasn't until today that I really understood how much the Lord loves me and is watching out for me.

Today I was at work and I heard the front door open and my desk is in the back and I was going to get up to greet the people who had come in but then realized my coworker was already there doing it. SO I sat back down. Then the following happens:

Coworker: "Can I help you?"

Random Peeps: "Yes we are looking for Teasha Adams."

Me in the back of the office, looks at other coworker, and I say "You have got to be kidding me."

(Side story, I keep getting things delivered to the office and I thought this was another one.)

I get up out of my seat and walk to the front and I am SHOCKED and SPEECHLESS(which if you know me, doesn't happen often)  by who I see in front of me. It was the DJ's form the radio station I listen to in the morning. It is a Christian Radio station and it is awesome! It is the best way to start your morning, in case you wanted to know!

So they introduce themselves to me, and hand me a "Blessing Bag" with some goodies in it and ask if they can speak to me alone.

I lead them into a conference room and I close the door and they explain that they felt like they needed to reach out to me to thank me for everything I am doing and to make sure I was doing okay.

So a little back story to this, is I had called in and messaged them a few times back in Feb/Mar when I was going though a hard time, and I once I came out of it I didn't really reach out to them much, except to request a song here and there.

So they had no idea, and still have no idea, of what I am currently going through. But they asked if they could pray with and for me and of course I said yes. And I wont share here exactly what was said, but it was exactly what I needed to hear. It was amazing!

So, how did they know to come to me? How did they know I was at work? How did they know where I worked?

All great questions once again, and I am sure I could figure out the answers to some of them, but the biggest one is that they were in tune with the Spirit, and the Lord knew what I needed. He knows us! He loves us! He will make away for us to see His love for us, we just need to open our eyes to see that it is HIM!

Heavenly Father sent Brian and Kat to my office today, because HE knew I needed them. HE knew I needed to know how much He loves me. He knew how to reach out to me. They had no idea that I have been feeling ill, and that I had been in the hospital over the weekend. They had no idea that I had called into work for the past few days, and had almost not come in today either. They had no idea.

But the Lord did. Y'all, He loves us more than we can being to understand. He knows us, He sees us, we aren't just here to live and die, we have a purpose. We are here to learn how to return to him. And the way we do that is by allowing Him to love us and allow Him to help us.

How do we do this? We believe. We trust him. And we start to understand that we are all worth dying for.

Christ died for all of us that we maybe made clean to return to the Father, but He would have done it for any of us individually, simply because he loves us.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ both love us individually and they both want to help us, we just need to trust them and lean on them for help.

If you are struggling with your faith, knell down in earnest prayer and I promise He will answer you, but do not be afraid to do what He asks of you, trust Him. He will bring you joy.

I am starting this journey of truly believing that I am someone worth dying for, so if you need help, come to me. I am here, we can support each other. I love you all very much and I hope you know how much Heavenly Father loves you too!

As always if you ever need to contact me please feel free to via email teasha.adams@gmail.com or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/teasha.adams91 and of course you can leave a comment down below.

Remember that when life gets hard, keep moving forward and...

Always Smile!