The Words Everyone Uses and No One Defines

Erin Kovach stopped running three miles from her apartment, which was unusual for her.

She’d been a runner since she was 14 years old. First came cross country, then road races, and finally the steady, unspoken daily training that serious runners just quietly build into their lives. Over the years, she had learned exactly what tired felt like, and she knew how to handle a bad day. But the fatigue she’d been carrying recently was different. It wasn’t either of those things.

Halfway up a hill she had climbed four times a week for six years, her legs suddenly turned to wet sand. Her heart started slamming against her ribs as if she were sprinting. Something was wrong. She stopped, stood still for a moment, and looked up at the drifting morning sun. She let out a quiet sigh, turned around, and started walking home.

Her phone buzzed in her armband on the way. It was the patient portal from her medical provider. It was her doctor, Dr. Blaire. Her results were back.
“Labs look normal — nothing to worry about! Hemoglobin is fine. You’re not anemic”
She read it twice. Then she walked the rest of the way home, in the dark, feeling every step of it.

Here is the thing about that message. Every word in it was true. And it was still the wrong sentence.

Most people throw around terms like low iron, anemia, low ferritin, and low hemoglobin as if they all mean the exact same thing. Even busy doctors use them interchangeably as shorthand during a hectic afternoon. But they actually describe very different medical issues. It’s in the gray area between those diagnoses where people like Erin get left behind.

So let’s get to know what they mean, what you read on your lab report when it comes to your iron level. Because knowing your iron level can mean many things from

1. Let’s add more steak

2. Let’s add more iron supplement

3. Ok … something is not right. Let’s do more tests to see what it is.