Hard time functioning at work during cycle
I'm so happy I found this subreddit because I felt alone and looked down on for my symptoms. I have 4 lemon sized fibroids that keep growing and they have had an impact on my menstrual cycle. I weighed my pads and I lose on average 400 ml of blood per cycle. I usually have a 10-12 day break between cycles. My bleeding has caused me to have iron deficiency anemia.
My PMS symptoms involve dizziness, brain fog, fatigue, forgetfulness. When I get my period I am so drained and there were times where I nearly passed out because it made me anemic and I didn't realize. My flow is so heavy I can't control it, even with a diaper, 4 pads and 4 tampons at the bottom of the pads I leak through it in 2 hours. I've left work early a few times because the bleeding is uncontrollable. I look white as a sheet and am covered in bruises. My stomach is distended and sore. I've now started spotting in between cycles which began 2 months ago
My ferritin stores are low (3 being the lowest), my hgb keeps dropping. I had IV iron infusion and my ferritin was good for 3 months but I'm back to where I started.
I'm an ER nurse and this interferes with my work. My coworkers think I'm exaggerating my symptoms and that I'm weak for struggling with it. I do my job and still take good care of my patients but it's a struggle because my energy is so low. Thankfully I'm getting a D+C in June which I hope will help with the bleeding. I think it's the anemia that affects me the most. My days off are spent sleeping, I have no energy and it's making me depressed. I don't want to quit the ER but I'm doubting if I should do bedside nursing at all right now because of the physical toll, and thought I should try to find a work from home job.
Was wondering how you guys function with fibroids and if you had any advice on how to deal with this or if you've been in my spot before? Thank you