I've finally come to a conclusion

This is a long and detailed post to spare some of you, but I really thought this might possibly help someone else out there in the future and it was interesting info to me!

Some of you may remember this, but a few months ago I thought I was having panick attacks because I would get so light headed and almost faint. The doctors ran a ton of tests on me including a thyroid test, overall blood count test, a heart monitor analysis, and stress test to determine what was going on and everything came back normal except the fact that I was really low on iron.  Well I've now determined that is what is making me have these fainting spells. I'm a little relieved to know that this should JUST be something that will go away once I'm done being pregnant and it's not anxiety attacks. Phew!!

Here is how I came to my conclusion...I had been taking iron pills for about 2 weeks when I started to tell a HUGE difference in my energy level, weight gain, exercise level, and no more fainting spells in over a month!! (Still not knowing that my iron level was the cause of the fainting and having my doctor tell me that shouldn't be what is causing it)  I quit taking them a few weeks ago because they were causing some stomach discomfort and I felt like I didn't really need them anymore. ( I had been taking them for about a month a half total).

Well 2 weeks ago when I went to the doctor my iron level was 36 (they like for a pregnant woman to be 35 or above), so 36 is really good for a woman in her 3rd trimester. My iron level was 32 in the 2 visits before that so you can definitely see the improvement the pills made. I told the doctor that I could really tell a difference in my attitude & energy in the past 2 months. She told me to still continue to take them every other day now, which I didn't listen and decided I would take them when I felt I needed them.

Well last Wednesday I started work back part time and while I was sitting at work I was feeling really drained and like I had absolutely NO ENERGY. So I decided I needed to start taking my iron pills again. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, besides a few classes I would just lay on my couch all day. Seriously!! I could hardly get up. It's not a tired feeling it's more of a lazy feeling. You feel like you have weights in your legs when you move.

Well on Saturday, I had another one of those dizzy fainting spells while just sitting on my couch. I decided to google low iron because at that point I just knew that had to be causing these dizzy spells since it had been so long since I had one.

Google confirmed what I have been feeling. Iron is what creates hemoglobin in your blood stream or oxygen in your blood stream. If you are really low on iron you don't create enough hemoglobin or oxygen and therefore you can feel really dizzy and faint or pass out. I am sooo glad to finally know what was causing this!

I've had my iron pills in my system for about 5 days now and I've been loading up on spinach salad and steamfresh bags of broccolli. I can already tell a huge difference from last week. I go back to the doctor on Wednesday and I guarantee they will confirm that I'm low on iron again.

I will definitely be taking them every day from now until June 2nd! I'd rather have stomach aches than passing out spells and no energy. In another week or so I should have my energy back hopefully! I have a baby shower and birthday party in the meantime to throw, so wish me luck! (Another post to come on that!)