Updates

I've been away for a month or two trying to sort out  issues in my life that left me lethargic.  My father died in early April,  my step Mother fell at the end of April - a stroke and a broken hip.  My beloved Aunt succumbed to heart disease and heart failure in June.   I have some major life issues to address.  Went to my new-old doctor who  had been out of practice due to her own serious health issues.  Went to her after she sent a letter to her former patients saying she was back and was in full-time practice again.  I felt my current MD was not paying attention to my health issues.  So I went back to her saying I was depressed and that I had a rapid heart beat and general listlessness.  Rather than giving me anti depressants she did a full blood work up and it turns out that I have pernicious anemia. pernicious anemia is also termed Biermer's or Addison's anemia.  Thanks WebMD.com, I found out the following information:


"Pernicious anemia is due to an inability to absorb vitamin B-12 (also known as cobalamin or Cbl) from the gastrointestinal tract. Humans get vitamin B-12 from animal products; both meat and dairy products are dietary sources of vitamin B-12. The body is able to store vitamin B-12 for a long time, so inadequate dietary intake must persist for years before a true deficiency of vitamin B-12 is reached. Because of this, the symptoms of pernicious anemia usually do not appear for years. While pernicious anemia is most commonly diagnosed in adults with an average age of 60."

"Feelings of numbness, tingling, weakness, lack of coordination, clumsiness, impaired memory, and personality changes can all occur. Both sides of the body are usually affected, and the legs are typically more affected than the arms. A severe deficiency can result in more serious neurological symptoms, including severe weakness, spasticity, paraplegia, and fecal and urinary incontinence."

"As with other causes of anemia, symptoms related to decreased oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood can include tiredness and shortness of breath. Vitamin B-12 deficiency also interferes with the function of the nervous system, and symptoms due to nervous system damage may be apparent even before the anemia is discovered."  

"Symptoms of anemia are due to the reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood. Shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, and pale skin can all occur with anemia. In anemia, the heart is placed under stress since it has to work harder to deliver enough oxygen to body tissues. This can result in heart murmurs, fast heartbeats, arrhythmias, an enlarged heart (cardiomegaly), or even heart failure."

"Pernicious anemia is most common in Caucasian persons of northern European ancestry than in other racial groups. In this population, 10-20 people per 100,000 persons are diagnosed each year with pernicious anemia."

All of these symptoms are getting under control with weekly B12 shots, massive doses of calcium and vitamin D as well as just better health management. 

All this time to myself has me thinking about what to do next on the homestead - I had given my chickens a chit for life long support because I raised them as pets.  I had thought one could be a broody hen but that experiment failed grandly.  She did not take to the fertilized eggs. These pets eat roughly $30 per year of laying pellets plus require significant pasture and time to keep their coop clean - and they lay less and less.  So I'm thinking that with the cooler fall weather now in North Alabama it is time to cull the flock and then get a fresh batch of chickens for spring time laying.  If I proceed butchering the chickens, I need to do it now.