It's Not Easy Being Gray

Monday evening I got a message from my doctor's office to call about my bloodwork. Unfortunately, I didn't get the message until after the office closed, so I had to call Tuesday morning.


I talked to the nurse and she said the only thing my bloodwork showed was a decreased vitamin D level. Dr. F. wants me to take an additional 2000 units daily.

And, I can kinda see how that makes sense. I've always felt worse on gray days. I've always done better working outside than in an office all day. I just think it's a little funny that vitamin D is catching up with me now, since I've been spending even more time outside than I used to these days. Especially on nice days when I can get a ride in after work or take my boy-o over to the playground.


I will admit though, we had some very beautiful weather over the weekend and I felt my spirits lift. I was still feeling pretty exhausted Sunday, but my outlook was better.  I can handle being tired if I'm in a halfway good mood. My 30 minute ride, which is usually cake for me, was almost "too long". My swim Tuesday morning, of which I only barely managed 40 minutes of my normal 45-50, was definitely too long. I barely made it to the 15 minute mark, but kept pushing myself to keep moving, even if it wasn't at my normal pace.  I managed a short ride yesterday with Boo.  (I bribed him to be good while we went to the grocery store.  I told him we'd ride to the ice cream place and have ice cream for dinner if he wasn't "Mr. Crankypants" while we were at the store.  It worked, so we had ice cream and a bike ride for dinner.)  I didn't make it to the pool this morning.  I probably could have, and I know I should have, but I didn't.

Tuesday at lunch I ran out and picked up a bottle of Vitamin D pills.  I like the fact that they're nice and small.  So far, I've taken one the last few days with either breakfast or lunch.  (I decided that taking them before or after work wasn't going to work, as I'm just not that organized in the mornings and I have a hard enough time remembering to brush my teeth before bed, let alone actually take a vitamin... we'll have to work on this over the weekends...)

I don't know if it's doing any good yet or not.  Last night and Tuesday night I was exhausted but just couldn't get to bed before 10 or so.  I just couldn't settle.  My focus has been a bit all over the place, but that's almost normal for me I think.  Dr. F. asked me to keep track of things a bit, and I've been trying to.  I notice that I tend to crash around mid-morning and it's a 50/50 shot if I rebound by the time I go home.  Unfortunately, this does not help the work situation any.  I know I'm going to end up in serious trouble some day if I can't figure out the real root of my lack of focus.  For now, I'll be happy if I can figure out the root of my mental and physical exhaustion and fix at least one of them.  Of course, if my mind is ready and raring to go, but my body can't keep up, that makes for cranky times too.

I'm willing to give this a good, honest, shot until my appointment in a few weeks.  It does seem a little silly that me, the one who spends as much time as possible outside and loves to drink milk, has problems with vitamin D.  In theory, you really only need about 10 minutes a day of good sunlight and you should be able to synthesize enough vitamin D.  Well, apparently that's just not the case for me these days.  Who knows?  I just hope there isn't some underlying problem that's causing the vitamin D levels to be low that could be something harder to fix.  I like simple.  I like easy.  Remembering to take one silly little pill at breakfast isn't too bad.  Having a complex medical issue, not something I want.

Well, I'm going to wrap this up here.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I'm sure you'll see the evidence in my ramblings here before I make any formal announcement.  My subconscious often blurts things out before I realize I'm saying them. *laugh*  That's what I get when I let my fingers run away on the keyboard.

Peace to all and may your answers be simple.