Serious colonoscopy questions

Background: In an earlier post I reported that my blood tests show that I had/have anemia (also spelt anaemia).  My doctor's initial reaction is to advise iron tablets, which I have to a large measure been taking.  He then also requested my local hospital book me in for an endoscopy, which involves sedation followed by a tube being passed down through the mouth into the stomach.  The goal being to do a physical examination of my insides.  This revealed, at worse, a hiatus hernia, which means that my stomach is pressing upwards into my oesophagus.

The hospital report on this was reassuring, that possibly 75% of older adults had hiatus hernia and that mine was nothing special.  I thus thought, well that was worth doing to find out not much wrong, and no particular harm done.

On the mend

As you can see from the chart my C-reactive protein is heading towards normal.   This I knew anyway since my inflammation (and thus much of the pain) is dropping everywhere.

My iron levels seem to be coming back into order (and thus my anaemia is reducing) and generally I am feeling better all round.

Yesterday I was made aware of Wim Hof, who otherwise goes under the name of the Iceman.  He is from Holland and has done many remarkable things, including achieving 20 Guinness Records.  What has all that go to do with this blog, and more importantly me?

Anemia

Not that I knew it, but a big feature of recent months has been fatigue brought on by a lack of iron.   Iron is used body to help generate red blood cells.  A good supply of these gives you energy whereas an insufficient supply leads to fatigue - and additional draining pain!  Apparently around  60% of people with arthritis are anemic.

My particular type of anemia is called Normocytic anemia.  Not that that means much (to me), it is more a label indicating anemia with an associated low red blood cell count.  Apparently this can be common with people with diseases like arthritis.

My symptoms that feel can be attributed at least in part to anemia include:

• Pain in my lower legs: My right leg in particular has been painful below the knee.  Lifting it say to get in and out of bed was not nice.
• Weakness in my hands: I have not been able to open jars, use a can opener or turn taps on and off easily.

People with arthritis need a steady supply of good foods.  Because of arthritis, your body uses up nutrients much more quickly than for healthy people.  So you need to alter your diet to give it the nutrition it needs and deserves.  By this I definitely do not mean you must eat more!  Nor do I necessarily mean buying organic food.  What I do mean is choosing the foods you eat and the foods you avoid.