vitamin a - pending
vitamin e - not covered by ohip (can i get it covered?)
vitamin k - not covered by ohip (can i get it covered?)
copper - pending
i left the remaining elements for next week.
a without e & k won't give me as much information about my colon as i want, especially given that a, like d, is actually synthesized from precursors, in addition to being directly absorbed. so, i could very well be getting a ton of beta-carotene and unable to absorb retinol. it's the e & k that were really useful, here.
further, after checking for iron & zinc, the next thing to check for is copper - because zinc can interfere with copper.
i at least got the following results:
- b12 is now at 304. so, i've had this tested three times now and it's gone up each time - from 233 to 251 to 304. does that make sense? well, b12 is one of the things i keyed in on when i updated my diet. i should have been getting enough, or so i thought, but the ms-like migraine attacks i was having could be explained by a b12 deficiency. i mentioned this to him already, this idea that i should actually be expecting my b12 levels to be climbing because i took my intake way up, and i may have been a little deficient. but, the reason he insisted on checking was that he was sure i had celiac (ugh. fucking hipster.), and that should mean that his celiac theory is now totally dead. if he's rational...but, he's a doctor, dammit, he's not a logician. good thing there's one around, huh? i'm going to have to tell him it's highly illogical if he brings it up again...
you know that spock and mccoy never got along so well, right?
- my ferritin went up again, this time from 17 to 21. this is sort of the blurriest possible outcome. if it had gone way up, it would be easy to see i'm absorbing it; if it had gone down, it would be easy to see i must be bleeding. but, this small, steady uptick makes it hard to tell if i'm really just having that much difficulty with absorption, or if i'm actually bleeding after all and just barely absorbing enough to keep up with it.
i was off them for a few days at the start of the month, as well. at the very least, it seems to suggest i should stay on them.
it's moving in the right direction, at least.
but, i definitely need to do the poop test.