Anemia

Hi family I went to the dr. Thursday and had some blood work done. This afternoon the nurse called me and told me that the dr. wanted to see to do more blood work because my iron levels are low and I have ANEMIA. I am trying to stay positive and not worried but I see the surgeon Aug. 11 and I dont want anything to put off surgery or have the surgeon question any health problems. I am lucky to be the weight I am and have NO co-morbitities (sp). Is this a major problem I should worry about? Can I get my iron back up quickly? I am such a picky eater so I wonder if I'm not eating enough iron enriched foods? I LOVE to eat ice and someone asked me last week if I had low iron because of the way I eat ice... is that true? Thanks Kay

That is a good question. Take it to the main board and I bet you will get lots of replies. Good Luck. David

THANKS David I'm going to post it now! Kay

Hi Kay. Let me put your mind at ease about at least one thing: eating ice has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with anemia! Ice is frozen water: anemia is a result of having not enough IRON in your diet: the two have nothing to do with one another. Iron is a vital mineral we all need to keep us from having low blood counts, being tired all the time, and when you're really anemic, you're quite pale looking. I could get all technical on you and bore you with the statistics on hemoglobin and iron in the blood, and oxygen levels, blah, blah, blah... bottom line: Anemia is NOT life threatening unless you are, for example, having uncontrolled bleeding somewhere in your body. Listen, you can deal with anemia by increasing the amount of green leafy vegetables in your diet: spinach, dark lettuce (not iceburg; that's jus****er!) beans (like pinto and black eyed peas) and red meat like steak, hamburger. Also, an iron multivitamin will help tremendously. Iron won't go up quickly, I'm afraid, so start an iron supplement NOW. Go to any drugstore and pick up iron. It's cheap, and it works. It may make you constipated, so while you're at it, pick up a bottle of "Senna" which is a stool softner; it'll offset the constipation you get with iron. Also, your stools will turn dark, even black; that's normal with increased levels of iron. So go get a cup of ice and munch on it on your way to the drugstore for some iron supplements, and some senna. Don't worry. You're okay. Jessica, RN 302/265/175

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Nurse Jessica! I wonder why everyone thinks eating ice means your anemic? When the nurse called me the other day and told me to come back Monday, I freaked out. I have never had any major health problems except for being fat so I was really worried. I will start eating iron enriched foods. I am a picky eater but I think I can deal with the meat, raw spinach and pinto beans. I'm going to buy some iron pills in a couple hours when me and gf go to store. Thanks again, I feel better. Have a nice day, Kay

Yes ice cravings are definitely a sign of anemia, here is a link to help you understand it: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2004/11/i-eat-lot-of-ice.html do a search on yahoo or google for "ice craving and anemia" and you will find a lot of good info. Since you are pre-op you could take pretty much any iron including ferrous sulfate. After surgery the best absorbed is ferrous fumerate or carbonyl iron. Take some iron supplements and also take (and I'm not kidding) Chlorophyll 100mg tabs twice a day until time for surgery or when they last take your blood before surgery to check. They will cancel surgery for anemia so start doing some supplements right away. Good luck to you Kay. Greg

Interesting stuff this pica behavior we can get when things go out of wack. I had heard about the ice chewing related to low iron. Long ago when I worked with the developmentally disabled I had a client who was severly disabled. One day this kid started eating dirt like it was going out of style ! Nothing we did (outside of keeping him indoors) stopped this behavior and we made a MAJOR concerted effort over a period of months. Well it dawned on me he could have a iron deficiency and sure enough the blood work bore this out. Iron was started ,we dropped the behavior modification regiment and, this kid immediatly stopped eating dirt once his iron level reached normal limits ( a couple of months later) Interesting huh ? It seems our bodies can drive us to search in strange ways to get what we need.

Howdy! I have always had a slight iron problem...the only way I knew is because I gave blood so much in the years before surgery. A normal hemoglobin level is 12 and I always run at 10-11. Broccoli and raisins are packed with iron. A small handful of raisins (only if your are pre-surgery) every day used to do the trick for me. Right now the vitamins I take include 2 Flinstone chewables with iron and my levels have been pretty normal. My cousin who had WLS has an anemia problem and she uses an OTC product called 'Ferro-Sequels'....but just make sure you are backing it up with something to avoid the constipation. Good luck! -Cheri

Thanks for the info.. I will remember the broccoli and raisins. I had Broccoli for dinner so I guess that was a good choice. Thanks again, Kay