Increasing Your Iron Levels

I didn’t get to post yesterday, since I spent most of the day up at the hospital with my Grandma. On Monday, my Grandma missed a step and fell and broke her pelvis in two places!

My Grandma is such an AMAZING woman, it would take many posts to elaborate on that. She is also a tremendously strong person with an unbelievable pain threshold. She NEVER complains about anything. In fact, she didn’t even cry after the fall. I can’t even comprehend how painful it must have been.

She is doing better now and will probably be in the hospital for another day before she goes to a facility for rehab. I am so grateful she didn’t break her hip, which would have resulted in surgery. She’s in great shape (she probably does more activity than a lot of people half her age!), and I think she will have a great recovery.

Yesterday, I decided to have my iron levels checked on a hunch that they were probably on the low side. Since I don’t eat meat and my mileage is creeping up, I wanted to be proactive on the iron front. As my suspicions confirmed, my iron levels were on the low end of normal and my ferritin was only 9 (ideally it should be above 20).

My doctor has told me to take an iron supplement once a day—I am doing the liquid supplement, since it can be better absorbed. I also decided to add on a B-complex, to make sure I am getting enough B12 (if you don’t eat meat, you can sometimes  be deficient in B12). My coach said that it will take about 5-7 weeks to notice a difference in my performance. My running should feel much better at that time and hopefully my performance will be better too!

It’s race day, and I will be running this evening. I haven’t run since last Friday because of the wedding and my Grandma being in the hospital, so I am hoping that my legs are nice and fresh!