How Dangerous Is a Vitamin Deficiency????
I have been through so much the past two years and I wanted to share my story in hopes that I can save anybody from going through what I did. I had a huge stressful situation occur so a lot of what happened afterwards I contributed to that. At the time I didn’t put all of these occurrences together..it was all very odd. It started with me having some terrible painful sores inside of my mouth. They were on the roof, my tongue, cheeks, inside of my lips, I had anywhere from 2 to 9 at a time. Numerous doctors and numerous tests couldn’t ever figure out what they were caused by. I eventually started taking Align Probiotic and within two weeks my sores started to clear up. Next thing to happen was my little dog jumped on the back of my neck causing (or so I thought) my hands to go numb. Again, I went to doctors without any solution. I started to go to a chiropractor and after a lot of time and a lot of money the numbness just seemed to get worse. It was spreading, my feet became numb and my legs straight up through to my ribs. My back was in agony but I’ve always had a touch of back problems so I just figured that it was all acting up because of the dog. As a bit more time went on I was continually getting worse and I was becoming very weak, I could barely walk. My general doctor sent me to a back doctor who said that there was no reason in my back why I should be in a wheelchair, which is how I was able to get around at this time. I was grouchy and forgetful, I’d drive to the end of the road and have to go back home because I couldn’t remember why I was out. I started falling asleep everywhere, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. According to my husband and daughter, I would sleep for days in my chair and they couldn’t wake me up. Eventually, my feet swelled..and I mean swelled! I was watching them grow and grow, it was like a horror movie, I honestly thought that they were going to explode. By this time I wasn’t walking at all, I had fallen so many times and would have to yell for help because I was too weak to get up. Hubby took me to see my doctor again and she noticed how yellow I was. She decided to run a blood panel on me and called 2 days later to say that she’s never seen anything as bad as my results were. She said to immediately get to the emergency room. So, we went up to St. Anthony’s and they took me right in and started blood tests. I was admitted right away and had a team of doctors. This is all really a blur. I just remember test after painful test and a cancer doctor thinking that I may have Leukemia. They discovered that I had lost 50% of my blood, so first thing was to give me a blood transfusion (it lasted all night). I was completely bruised. I was transferred to the cancer floor because they truly thought that I had cancer. Thankfully, Dr. P Morris at St. Anthony’s is relentless. He and the team of doctors had discovered that I had virtually no B12 and zero immune system. They actually joked about needing “Dr. House”. I had Mri after Mri, blood taken and taken and taken and taken..and ultrasounds and a bone marrow biopsy. They finally came to the conclusion that, thankfully, it wasn’t cancer, it was all caused by my no B12. The B12 caused me to become anemic, which caused me to lose half of my blood (my periods were a bit heavier but I didn’t think too much about it). I didn’t have a period for approx 5 months but I’m at an age where I thought maybe menopause was starting. Anyway, the loss of blood caused me to have no immune system and to get 2 blood clots behind my right knee. I was in the hospital from October 14th until November 3rd . I went through 21 days of b12 shots and now I take them monthly. I was in a wheelchair five months ago and am now finally walking with a cane, the blood clots are gone and I was given the ok to come back here to the gym J My symptoms of B12 deficiency were slow and subtle to start with and then near the end happened very quickly. The sores in my mouth, moodiness, memory loss (a lot of things I was told because I really have no memory of it), numbness, my sore back, bladder issues, the weakness and tiredness, all B12. By the time I really saw it coming it was almost too late. The doctors were amazed that I had never caught anything else due to no immune system. I really am so blessed to be alive and so thankful to God, my doctors and my family; it was a very close call. If there’s any good to come of this it’s that I get to pass along a message to get your b12 checked, it’s a simple fix if you’re low and fatal if left.
Sincerely,
Jennifer
