I finally have some GOOD news for a change: The
iron infusions are working!
I got my first iron infusion on Monday November
30th, and a few days later I already had more energy and motivation.
Over the last couple weeks I’ve felt more like myself than I have in MONTHS.
The biggest change I’ve noticed is that I’m cooking again! Since the summer,
I’ve only cooked when I had extra motivation, such as Shabbos or holiday meals.
The rest of the time I just scrounged up whatever was easiest because I couldn’t
be bothered to do anything more. It got to the point where even boiling pasta
was too much, and most of my weekday meals were pre-made garbage. The times
that I forced myself to cook took a LOT of effort, and I was usually pretty
cranky by the time I dragged myself off the couch and into the kitchen.
But then! A few days after my first iron
infusion, on a random weekday, I made tuna casserole for the first time in
months. A couple days later I baked cookies. Last week I decided to make latkes
for the first time ever, and they were so good that I did it twice! And then I
made more cookies! And then I got REALLY ambitious and tried my hand at
homemade donuts!! These tasks that seemed impossible a few weeks ago are
suddenly easy, and I’m not even grumpy about doing them! And whereas before I
spent almost every day laying on the couch, over the last couple weeks I’ve
become a bit more active, and a bit more social, and just overall happier and
more energetic. It’s amazing what a little iron can do!!
The iron infusions haven’t exactly been a
party, however. Fortunately my veins held up to repeated IVs, but it burned a
bit going in and the IV site was pretty sore afterwards. The infusion itself took
an hour and a half, and the whole process took almost 3 hours. And because of
Covid, no one could come into the infusion center and sit with me. After each
infusion I was exhausted, and also had abdominal cramps as a fun side effect. I
got my 3rd and final iron infusion this week, and I’m definitely glad
they’re over! But I’m even more glad that they were actually worth it!!
I still have some medical shenanigans to go
this week, in the form of a follow up appointment with my transplant team, and
an infusion of Reclast to help promote bone growth since my bones have become thin
due to steroid use. But HOPEFULLY after this I’ll FINALLY catch a bit of a
break, and maybe even get a chance to actually enjoy feeling like myself again!
