Anemia?

SO I just put a call into my doctors office to report some symptoms. They seem to match those of anemia, low red blood cell count, a "common' side effect of chemotherapy. Yesterday, and especially last night - doing the slightest thing made me just pant, I couldn't catch my breath. And my heart pounded in my chest. Poor Stephen's eyes looked a bit bugged out of his head...

This is so SOON for something like this, and I remember my doctor saying that there's basically nothing to be done about it, until it's so bad you go to the hospital for a transfusion?? Remember the $6600.00 shot I get 24 hours after chemo, the Neulasta? That jacks the white blood cells way up, which allows this chemo regimen every 2 weeks, keeps you healthy - with a better immune system. But the drug they were giving for doing the same thing with red blood cells, to combat the anemia - I think it was Procrit?, there was a stupid commercial for it I remember (I loathe drug commercials on TV, HUGE pet peeve of mine, even prior to this infliction) - they found caused CANCER. No shit, the anemia drug for chemo patients caused cancer. So they don' t give that any more. I've been searching the internets for an anemia diet, because I know this means I need IRON - I know that iron supplements in pill form do not work for chemo anemia, so My best bet is food - no? I can't find one. I find the "miracle cure from the jungles of South America", and crap like that - but no high iron diet. My buddy told me to cook in a cast iron skillet - cook what?

I sound really frustrated, do I not? Well that would be because I AM. I still wake in the night between 3 & 4am - toss and turn and feel icky and hot - now I'm not queasy during the day, but my complete lack of stamina is staggering. I just read that one of the anemia symptoms is insomnia - whoo hoo! How could I have developed anemia in 1 damn day from my 1st treatment??

OK - I'm going to go try and destract myself, in some way that doesn't make my heart pound. The weather is CRAP, that does not help me. I've at least been able to sit outside in the mornings and have my coffee, the flowers are starting to bloom and the birds and squirrels are all spring - fevery. It's been pouring down rain for 4 hours already, I'm just........very frustrated.