During my last and final attempt to get my abysmal iron levels up with doses of 75-100 mg/day, I managed to bring upon myself a nice case of vertigo. (It also caused cystic acne.)
After a week of the iron it was suddenly difficult to sit upright without vomiting, much less stand up. I considered going to the ER but the only other time I’d done that I had to wait four hours. By the time I got up the nerve to go, I felt well enough to cope.
Iron supplements depleted vitamin A?
I stopped taking the iron, obviously, and the vertigo improved to manageable levels but still kept hitting me a few times a day. I also had dry eyes, which I had learned earlier was what happens when my vitamin A levels fall, and since vitamin A was one of the nutrients that competes with iron, I thought I’d start with that. I tried 30,000 IU a day. The vertigo went away in about three days. I kept taking a smaller dose for a few weeks. I also took some vitamin B12, which research-wise is actually more closely associated with vertigo than vitamin A, but I recall being convinced it was the vitamin A that did it. Vertigo is also associated with vitamin A toxicity, but I know that wasn’t the case for me.
Once again, the doctor zombie stare
In the meantime I made an appointment with my then-doctor to make sure my ear wasn’t actually rotting or being colonized by something vile. When I brought up my experiences with the iron and vitamin A, I got that completely unresponsive, blank look I’ve only experienced when dealing with doctors. It was as if I hadn’t spoken at all. She said it was probably just a temporary inner-ear imbalance. F— these people.
That behavior, plus her reluctance to send me to a specialist after a month of abdominal pain, made me switch to one of the hospital systems that President Obama praised in a July 2009 speech about changes in health care.
When this content was published
The content on this post was first published on June 16, 2011, and updated on April 11, 2023 to include a swear word. Because I remain, all these years later, sick of these dumbass fools.
