I got pretty sick in January/ February, Cold, upper respiratory infection, sinus infection, all pretty much at once. I put off going to the doctor for weeks but my symptoms only got worse. Finally I caved and went in, got diagnosed and I began treatment, and after a change in medicine I started to improve. But a few weeks after I started to feel better, I started to feel bad again, I was having waves of shortness of breath, often accompanied by nausea, dizziness and the shakes, similar to how I felt when I was sick earlier. I really just wrote it off as anxiety because we are so close to moving, and we have a lot going on in the month between leaving Montana and arriving in California. Also if you know me IRL I have sort of been complaining of the winter blues for the last couple months.
Also my monthly cycle got really screwed up at first I blamed this on being sick too, but when it happened again after I was better I decided to go to the doctor because it was possible that there was something hormonal or thyroid going on. After lots of questions and blood work I was told everything was A-Okay except my Vitamin D was not only low, but really low. 30-100 is normal, below 25 is considered a deficiency, my number was in the low 20s. When I got this diagnosis I giggled a little inside, I am a sun worshiper, I love being outside in the warm sunshine. I am likely at a higher risk for melanoma because as a kid I spent almost every day of summer vacation at the pool often nursing a sunburn afterwards. Same in Okinawa, I had a nice tan year round. But here in Montana there is only 3ish months where you can go outside in shorts and a tank top. My sun exposure is easily less than a quarter what it has been most of my life. I am also missing out on the other great sources of Vitamin D; fish and fortified milk, neither of which I get much of. Fish in my area scares me, I live next to a very toxic mine, so I don't fish and almost all the ocean fish at the grocery is farmed, also I just don't do milk.
My doctor prescribed me high dosage vitamin D supplements, one a week for 8 weeks, then I need to get my levels re-tested. I am also planning, besides adding regular sunshine back into my diet, to start taking supplements, to make sure this doesn't happen again. I started my first dose last week and I have only had 3 breathing "episodes", versus the 2-3 I was having daily. I have also noticed an increase in my energy, and maybe even my mood, although I'm still bitchy because it's still cold as shit.
I know google is not your friend when you are sick, but WebMd and a lot of other general doctor websites say there really isn't any physical symptoms associated with Vitamin D deficiency, besides muscle and bone weakness and
rickets. But when I googled "vitamin d deficiency shortness of breath" I got tons of hits. If you google hard enough you will always find someone that says you are right, even if you are wrong. But I found comfort in the fact that people also had the same physical symptom that I was, and they found relief. Because honestly I was initially worried that there was no answer, or it was the anxiety and this was a symptom I would just have to learn to live with.
So I am finally back on the road to recovery. I hope for real this time, I need to get out and be more active, my weight loss has stalled and I feel like I have been stuck in a "end of winter slump" of lethargy and lazy. I really want to go outside and walk, feel the sun on my skin, but there is too much snow still on the ground for the stroller, and I don't trust myself to baby wear and walk in the snow, I'll fall and hurt us both.
I really hope this explains why I have been a little down the last few weeks/months. and I really hope things will start looking up for me again.
Has anyone else dealt with a vitamin D deficiency? How did it affect you?
