Hi Steve,
Ah yes! Those red/green vision test cards are tricky even when you do have good color vision. And thank you for your kind words. It was a valuable experience on many levels.
I appreciate your reply; you say you did not offer concrete advice, but you offered an astute read of my situation and validated my inclination to keep trying. I’ve been through a great deal in trying to get to the bottom of this, not least of which is wondering why I sometimes don’t seem to recover normally (a friend of mine once said to me “you’re like Wonder Woman most of the time but then you just DIE for a while). Back before everyone had iPhones and laptops I used to draw myself spreadsheets on notebook paper to track blood work, diet, sleep, training. I’m to the point now that I can almost guess what my blood work will look like based on how I feel, (Thomas–it’s not that I feel better at the higher numbers but more that I feel bad when they drop) but this low hemoglobin and occasional deep fatigue continue to confound me. Name a non-invasive approach to address this, I’ve tried it.
Gosh, yes, the American health care system is certainly not set up to help someone parse this type of issue; as for the U.S. Army medical system…my experience as a young woman trying to retain my flight status dealing with Army doctors was very hard.
But to focus on the positive, your response helped me decide to at least set up a consult with Rebecca Dent. I’ve listened to the podcast with her as well as hearing her on the female uphill athlete group calls and she knows her stuff!
Lindsay, thank you for responding! Unfortunately, none of those approaches you mentioned ever moved the needle for me–only red meat has ever made a difference in both my blood work and how I feel–but, as you note, everyone is an individual.
~Melanie