Growing up...

I always wondered why my canine teeth were so sharp! And now, I know. As Dracula put it so eloquently, "I vant to suck your bloooood."

Hahahaha - ok not really, but the thought of healthy blood piques my interest and I find myself fantasizing what it would be like to have 8 pints of round, plump, red blood cells coursing through my body. (Totally normal fantasy, amirite?) A friend of mine teased me recently, talking about how iron-rich their blood was, and I have to admit - I wanted to beg for 2 pints! (just 2 pints! Come on! What are friends for??)

My pale, shriveled red blood cells (RBCs) are happy enough, oblivious to the fact that they're simply not doing a good enough job supplying my body with the nutrients it needs. We tried a diet of iron-rich foods, and doubling down on my iron pills - but turns out, my body doesn't really like metabolizing iron the normal way. When I lick my cast iron pan for my daily dose of Fe, (joking, please don't do that...) my body looks at iron and says, "Oh wow! Look at that - Let's get rid of it!!!! Woo hooooooo! High fives, everybody!" (or something to that effect, I actually don't converse in Cell-speak)

So instead, we intravenously blast my body with bags of molasses-colored, metallic tasting Iron. (nope, it doesn't pass over my tongue, but when it goes through my veins, I can taste it.) Interesting, but annoying. I mean - it's cool that we live in a world where we can do that, right? Don't get me wrong! There is a treatment for my condition - believe me! I am happy about that. But a teeny bit of an annoyance to be hooked up to the Matrix (my affectionate term for the treatment facility).

My body has compensated for this a long time in a depleted state and has pulled from other resources to create alternatives, so it's hard for me to always know when my iron stores (and lots of other things) are completely depleted. Sometimes, my numbers show that I should be kinda dead-ish, but unbelievably -I feel fine. Today, it was time to test again and they pulled 11 vials to run all the specific tests.

Ironic that they took so much of my blood. (haha...haaaa.😒)

Most people couldn't imagine me have MORE energy than I do right now, but... I actually could. The iron infusions usually take about 8 weeks for me to feel it (takes most people 2-3 weeks) which brings me right back to my fantasy. I wish, oh how I wish for a bag of instantaneous energy. No need for my body to process anything! Just fat, red, iron-rich, donut-shaped gems- floating through my veins and arteries doing exactly what they're supposed to do! I was born in Pennsylvania, but I think it should have been Transylvania.

If anyone is still looking to get me a birthday present, I'm O+

Vampire, edited by @dreemsteem