What a Different Some Iron Makes

I'm severely anemic. Sometimes I forget. I'm so anemic that I can't give blood because my blood floats in water. I'm so anemic that sometimes my skin turns gray and I literally look like a corpse. My hair starts to thin. I can't focus. Generally, I turn into a non-brain-eating zombie. And I get cranky (which is not fun for James, who has to live with me) because I'm so tired that I can't do anything, which is really, really frustrating.

So why, one might ask, would a person who is so very anemic stop taking her iron pills? Well, because said person is an idiot and forgot how bad her anemia could get - not blood transfusion bad, but bad. 

It took me a month of exhaustion and low-productivity and gray skin to realize "huh, I might be anemic again. Maybe I should go back to taking my pills." So I did, and I feel MUCH better now. Maybe next time it'll only take me two weeks to catch on....