I know that we will all die at some point, but last year around this time I really thought it was the end. It was just a feeling I was having, apart from getting a cold and strep throat. The strep cleared up in my throat, but I guess when I went to the urgent care I didn’t get enough antibiotics because I ended up having to take a month of antibiotics to get rid of the strep that moved to my blood. Oh, it was a rough time. So, after my month of antibiotics I still felt like I was dying.

I couldn’t take it anymore so I made another appointment for my doctor, as soon as she walked in, I proclaimed I was dying.  She tells me I’m not dying right now and ask me to list off the reasons why I think I would be dying. I may have been a bit mellow dramatic, but I was almost to tears thinking that I would be gone soon. I’m tearing up thinking about it now.

I expressed to her that I could barely walk a few feet without being short of breath, stairs; they were my worse enemy.  My heart was racing and palpitating all over the place, sometimes it felt as if there was a fish moving in it. My muscles and bones where hurting, I felt like I had aged to 80, because that’s how slow I moved because of the pain. She chuckled because she said you look very young. I was pale in the face but makeup, highlight and blush does wonders. I was tired all the time, like I worked in a field doing hard labor, when all I did was sit at a desk. I literally eat something and in less than a half an hour I had the runs. My hair was falling out in clumps, I hated combing it because of how much hair came out. I had massive anxiety, I couldn’t go to work some days. I was feeling more and more depressed even though things around me were in a good state. The mental fog was horrible and what bothered me was the numbness and tingling in my arms and legs. You know what really brought me in though was the numbness in my face and the uncontrolled twitching in my fingers, I told her I must have either Parkinson’s or MS. I told her that I put all the symptoms on Web MD and it said go to the hospital.

She listens, she always listens that’s why I like my doctor, I would share her info, but it is already hard to get an appointment, I don’t want to make it impossible now. She looked at me and said, OK I will take a battery of blood tests and make a determination from there. We did allergy testing, HIV, A1C and just about every other panel. When the results came in, no HIV, A1C told me I was pre- diabetic, allergic to some trees and cockroaches, however I was severely deficient in vitamin D and vitamin B 12.

Really, how much did I really need when it came to vitamins? Standard for B 12 in the body is 232-1,245 ng/ml and I was at a 210 ng/ml. Vitamin D sufficient to normal high 40 to 100 ng/ml I was at 9.4 ng/ml. She asked if I was eating properly and if I was avoiding the sun. I joked and said I must be a vampire.

She wrote a prescription for the vitamins and I started taking them and within a week I was feeling so much better, by the time I went back to see her in about a month I was almost to myself. She even noticed how much energy I had and I looked way healthier. She recommended that I continue taking the vitamin D for the rest of my life, and I will, who wants to go back to thinking I was dying.

I also did research on both vitamin deficiencies and realized how much I need them. Amazingly enough, vitamin D functions like a hormone in the body, and every cell in the body has receptors for it. There was a study in 2011 that suggest 41.6% of white adults in the US are deficient, in Hispanics 69.2% and 82.1% of African Americans. These numbers are on the rise, I wonder why?

 Vitamin B 12 helps keep the body’s nerve and blood cells healthy and helps make DNA, the genetic material in all cells. These vitamins are essential to one’s health, I see why I thought I was dying.

Apart from taking the supplements, eating a healthy diet is essential. I needed more fatty fishes in my diet, like salmon, herring, sardines. I needed beef, egg yolks, tuna, mushrooms and foods fortified in D like orange juice and breakfast cereals. I have added some of these to my diet.

So, if you are like me, don’t be like me and go to WebMD for your analysis, make an appointment with your doctor, talk to them and express how you are feeling, it will make a difference in finding out what is wrong and how you can be cured.

Taking care of your health is essential in designing the life that you want.

*** This is my personal account with dealing with my vitamin deficiencies, please always seek medical attention when your health is not up to par. Never self-medicate and self-diagnose.