Sunday, September 7, 2008

Filling Space with Iron Filings

"Doc Holliday" has me on my final regimen. I am to have a pint of blood taken every month, sometime after which he will extract some more blood to test, after which I will meet with him for another consultation. The practical effect of all of this is that I won't have anything to say on my blog for three or four weeks in a row except to repeat my rather thinly-worn complaint about needles and answering services. So what to do. I could petition my readers for things they would like to know about my condition, but I am convinced that they would rather just read this thing once and then move on less crimson subjects. I have thought of having another blog about other ailments that occur more frequently like torn finger nails, gastritis, stiff joints, and paper cuts, but I am certain that my readership would plummet to 1 (me; I like reading my own stuff). I think, however, that it has pretty much plummeted to 1 anyway since I have not written anything for about a week. So, again, what to do?

I mentioned a while back about how I was cautioned about taking over the counter vitamin C now that I am a confirmed afflictee of hemochromatosis. Vitamin C facilitates the absorption of both heme and non-heme iron. Perhaps it would be useful to talk about things that I do take that apparently are not on the "do not consume" list and why I swallow them down every morning.

Lyprinisil: This is my blood pressure medicine. I did not have high blood pressure until I moved to New Mexico. My pressure was always 120/80 my whole life until them. I think that it went up in conjunction with the expansion of the Institute of Religion at the University of New Mexico. By the time I saw the doctor there, my pressure was 165/135. Why blood was not squirting out my eyes I do not know. My doctor put me on this blood pressure medicine, large quantities thereof, and it short order I seemed to be back to normal. Since that time I have tried to get off of it completely; at one point I was down to 2.5 mg a day and I seemed to be doing fine. Since the suspicion that I had this genetic disorder began to settle in, my blood pressure has been going up. About the time that everything was being evaluated, "Doc" increased my dose to 20 mg daily. I am now at 123/84 most of the time (139/93 just now, but I was thinking about it).

Bee Pollen: I take this for my allergies. It keeps me from having the symptoms and the obligatory sinus infections that inevitably follow. I did not have any allergies until I moved to New Mexico (hmmm... a developing pattern). High pollen count is 50 ppm (parts per million). Above that and there are serious problems in the air. The juniper pollen count in Albuquerque in the spring is generally in excess of 1500 ppm for about six weeks. For the first couple of years I was almost worthless from the middle of March until late April. Trillium taught me about bee pollen and I have been fine ever since.

Vitamin D3: Trillium says that this is the immune vitamin. I always thought that was what vitamin C was for. I am happy to know that I will not be suffering random diseases as a result of knocking vitamin C out of my ancillary diet. I have taken this for about six months or so and I have not had even the whisper of a cold.

Saw palmetto: Men have a condition later in life that causes them to get up during the night more often than they did when they were younger. A year ago, I was getting up every two hours during the night. I had chronic fatigue as a result. I take one pill a day and I now only get up once during the night, usually after six hours of good sleep. The prostate gland can be shrunk by saw palmetto. Do not, however, think that more is better. More means.... no I am not going to tell you what it means. Just don't over-do it; girls don't do it at all.

Chondroitin and glucosamine: These are for putting a little substance back into the joints, for replacement cartilage and such. I take two a day and have not felt any worse for wear. It is probably no more than modern snake oil, but it keeps me from worrying about shrinking to a height less than Becky's and thus my blood pressure is better.

Calcium-Magnesium: I have no idea why I am taking this. Trillium said that if I didn't do it I would become a bitter old man (or was it a brittle old man?). In any event I don't want to be an old man so I take it.

There you have it. A non-hemochromatosis blog entry that is just taking up space. Not very interesting, but so it goes. Just for the record, my sister Judie tells me that her hematologist is interested in my blog. If you are reading this, "Judie-doc", welcome to my world.

6 comments:

Rebecca's Oasis said...

Well that was interesting.

Are you taking anything for your thinning hair and prune-like skin?

You should eat ball-park franks. They plump when you cook them. You might plump when you eat them and it will smooth ot your skin.

Chalula apparently puts hair on your chest - try rubbing some on your head.

It appears that your sense of humor is intact - for now. But if you happen to find it hard to laugh try smacking your funny bone on a door jam.

Hang in there dad. If all else fails you've always got your good looks.

Zaphod said...

OUCH!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Dad's hair isn't thinning! It's just soft and downey...I like to rub dad's head, but I hardly get the gumption to do it. I have to save up 6 months worth of desire to not be able to control myself and touch his feathery hair...it's almost as good as petting a kitten, except dad doesn't purr. I like your blog, dad! just post your everyday stuff until you have another appointment!

Chris said...

I didn't get allergies until I moved up to Salt Lake in 1999. It seems that it really hits be when I am doing yard work or dusting. I also didn't start taking Prevacid until I had moved up to Salt Lake. Maybe I am developing a pattern here too. Or, it could have been the fact that I lived with Lee 6 months and received radiation sickness/poisoning from living in that pit of despair.

Katscratchme said...

I like Dad's downy kitten hair too. I think that Becky thinks it's thinning because he doesn't slather it in hard-hat gel every day anymore. He lets it free to blow in the wind most days now.. sigh.. blow in the wind Dad's Hair.. blow in the wind.

As for the blogging. I like your blogs Dad. I don't mind if you post something non-Hemoblahbewhatsits. You can't tell me that with a brain the size of a planet you don't have something else going on in there.

Zaphod said...

Bo Diddily had a song called "Hey Man" back in the late 1950s, a kind of fun-poking between Bo and his bass player. In the middle of the song the bass player says "Hey man!"
Bo says "What?"
"I was walking down the street with your girlfirend the other day."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. We were walking along and then the wind blew her hair into her face..."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, and then the wind blew her hair into my face..."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. And then the wind blew her hair into the street!"