I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired: a rant about lif

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Well here I am, 28 years old sick and unemployed.

A litte background, 2023 was a rough year I won't get into it on here as I've written about it in other posts but needless to say I'm still recovering from it. My biggest challenge this year is my health or lack there of. I was recently diagnosed with a genetic disease called hemochromatosis which causes iron overload in the blood and organs. Iron overload causes the internal organs to work harder because they are less efficient with the large amount of iron deposits inside. This causes me to feel exhausted from doing just about anything, there are some days I do nothing and I somehow feel more tired the next day. This has caused me to have to leave my job a few months ago. Thankfully I am on disability and living with family, but it's still sh***y to have gone from being independent living on my own while working to being sick, unemployed and living in a family members spare bedroom. Man I feel (and sometimes look) like I'm aging in dog years, I mean I know people in their 70's that have more energy than me for christ sake, that's how bad it is.

I hope things will start to turn around for me because this is not the life I want to live.


Thanks for reading this long freaking post.

Canadian Freedom Lover

Sorry to hear of your dx.
My mum and I both have HH.

Are you doing phlebotomies and avoiding Vitamin C?

It will improve with treatment and proper screening of your organs.

I'm sorry you're going through this. I think I understand at least in part how you feel because I too have a chronic illness (ME/CFS or chronic fatigue syndrome) so I am always exhausted, even from not doing anything but worse if I do something. I hope you can get some treatment and that things will improve for you. In the meantime, keeping your chin up is no small challenge.

Yes I'm a registered blood donor. My next blood donation will be in early to mid November. My doctor has told me to donate blood every 4 months.

And other than fruit juice that I drink to help take my pills I don't consume much vitamin c.

Thanks for your supportive comment.

Have you learned any coping strategies to deal with your chronic fatigue syndrome?

I try to accept that I can't do a lot of things rather than beat myself up or bang my head against the wall because I can't do them. It's easier said than done. I try to be happy about being peaceful at home doing very light tasks and watching TV shows. I do get frustrated though, especially when I'm trying to spend time with my bf and I find myself so tired I can't keep up my end of the conversation. But I'm also happy to spend time with him, and he's willing to just hang out at my house and go out to eat (he drives) because he understands I can't do much more. I ration my activities because if I push myself I feel much worse the next day and sometimes for days afterward.