What's in my blood (and this time I'm speaking literally rather than metaphorically)
... is not enough Vitamin B12 & folate
After my recent discourse on what I could be dealing with health-wise, I got to have the planned discussion with my doctor, during which she persuaded me to have some blood tests. Only weeks before I’d had a raft of blood tests to check if my suddenly swollen feet were cardiac-related (fortunately they weren’t), so I could easily have felt fobbed off - but didn’t, as there was no denying I did feel heard, for the discussion we had was both lengthy and detailed.
And it’s a good thing those tests were taken, for it turns out what’s missing in my blood is Vitamin B12 and folate.
As ever, there’s bad news and good news, but let’s start with the good news…
this lack would explain the emotional swings which I was concerned heralded the return of depression (while wondering if it was something else)
fortunately I’ve managed not to grab an anti-depressant from the box, but focused on upping my self-care while waiting for the test results
it’s fixable (and there are options)
Now to the bad news…
the drugs I take for my stomach disorder might be the implicated in the deficiency
it’s a 4 week wait before I can have a follow-up discussion with my doctor
as a result, I immediately ordered some high quality supplementation only for my aforementioned feet to swell up alarmingly because of the salt in the (largely) seaweed-based contents
it looks like injections will be the option to fix this - how regular and how often I’m yet to find out
I’ve not included this next bit under the bad news list, but I am decidedly pissed about the private medical tests I paid for seven months ago which included a test of my Vitamin B12 level. As I was wondering how significant a swing there’d been since that test (which stated my B12 results were normal), I reviewed the documentation to obtain the actual numbers. Imagine my surprise to discover that the number was not normal, but already low at that time…
However frustrated I am at the slow pace of our beleaguered NHS, I am absolutely livid that when I resorted to throwing money at the problem, all I got was a massive red herring about blood pressure (which is and has always been absolutely bloody brilliant) while the genuinely red flag was glossed over. Not sure how much of my (unsurprisingly limited) energy is worth putting into action over it yet. I recall my daughter saying she felt startingly better after her first injection, so I’ll wait before deciding. Till then, I will continue to focus on gratitude and self-care.
© Debs Carey, 2025