Hello everybody. The first time I was diagnosed with anemia I was in college but it was when I was 25 that I was diagnosed with Thalassemia minor. Contrary to what doctors say about thal minor having no side effects I feel anemic and tired all the time and get exhausted very fast when I do a serious workout. And this negatively affects my quality of life.
I eat beef and beef liver quite often and take quatrefolic folate supplement. I take 7-9 mg of iron every other night and interestingly I feel more anemic the day after I take it. I also get more anemic after cardiovascular exercise. The cardio I do is not intense, just 30-45 minutes of biking 4-5 times a week, so I don't understand why I get more anemic afterwards. (Shouldn't cardio stimulate more red blood cells to be produced?)
Here are the results of my blood work from a few weeks ago:
Hemoglobin A1C: 4.4
Iron 66
HCT 36.4
MCV 59.7
MCH 20.2
RCB 6.12
RDW 16.2
Other than anemia my blood work shows high blood urea nitrogen (but normal creatinine) and borderline low testosterone. I've read that one symptom of uremia is anemia but I don't know if uremia causes more anemia or there is just a correlation between the two.
I have insomnia too. While insomnia makes anemia worse, it seems my anemia is a cause of my insomnia as I have to breath harder and my heart has to beat faster than that of a normal person at night.
It seems that my anemia/fatigue keeps getting worse and worse. Recently it has become so bad that I can't even keep up with day to day activities. I feel tired, spacey/dizzy, sleepy and anemic all the time.