u/Depressedaxolotls

I have an appointment with a new doctor this afternoon, and I’m trying to figure out if rheums will do anything for anemia?

For context, my ANA is >1:1280, but all of the other autoimmune specific labs are negative. My ferritin and iron saturation are in the toilet, and I’ve also got low folate. I have weird facial flushing, painful joints, swollen joints, and a bunch of other symptoms. I have some that I’m pretty sure are iron related - worsening heart palpitations, severe fatigue and exercise intolerance, dizziness.

My immunologist doesn’t know what’s wrong. My last rheum was super dismissive and talked over me repeatedly. I can’t get into a hematologist anytime soon. My cardiologist said to follow up with hematology. My PCP is telehealth and useless with anything complex.

I am starting to feel really sick and just desperate for help.

I need to start eating a lot of spinach. I’m both ferritin and folate deficient, and I want to try to improve this with my diet while I wait for a referral to a doctor that can help. Spinach seems like a great way to start.

I originally tried fresh spinach, but it goes bad so quickly and that’s money down the drain. I personally dislike cooking, and it takes a lot of my mental energy. My boyfriend does all of our meal prep, since he loves cooking. He cooks on the weekend and we eat leftovers for the week, but spinach doesn’t seem to keep as well as the other veggies. He already does so much, I can’t ask him to cook me a special little spinach dish every day.

My current plan is to get some frozen spinach and cram it into an ice cube tray. When it’s spinach time, I’ll microwave a cube or two and then scarf it down like Popeye. I know this isn’t ideal but it’s so low effort that even I should be able to manage.

Are there any suggestions for what I can add to these little frozen spinach cubes to make them a little tastier? Butter? Garlic? Old bay?