Anemic with low blood sugar...HELP!

Hi Everyone,

I really need help. First, a little back story. I had surgery on 8/4/15. All was well until about 6 days later when I got the worst lower abdominal pain of my life. I was readmitted for pain control. All tests checked out ok. Went home. After the liquid diet portion of food was over and I started solids, my problems returned. I was SICK! No matter how small the bites, or how long between bites, I was still horribly nauseous, or vomiting, or both. Called my surgeon. I got the lecture, he said I was overfilling my pouch, that I was eating too fast, too much, for too long or not long enough. In tears, I hung up and sent an email to the office demanding to see a new doctor. He apologized and said he still felt like he could take the best care of me. I agreed to stay. Over time, my vomiting became less and less but I was/am so food aversive that now I'm scared to eat.

So, I see my surgeons PA last week, and explain my symptoms again. I am persistent in saying that I don't feel well, I am run down, exhausted, Im always cold, my legs cramp and I know this is NOT my fault. Again, she starts in. Wants to know how fast Im eating, how much Im eating, when I'm eating, suggests that the stomach cramps I get 2-3 hours after a meal are from over-filling my pouch. What???!!! How on earth am I supposed to know that Im overfilling my pouch if at the time, I feel fine and then hours later have pain? I asked this. She says I'm ignoring my body cues. Wow. Just wow.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling like death. Frustrated, I dragged myself to urgent care and begged for help. On top of feeling lethargic, I was now feeing symptoms of low blood sugar, the cramps that I felt hours after a meal suddenly made sense, because they had progressed from pain to uncontrollable shakes, sweating, thirst, headache and dizziness. Id had these symptoms before but attributed them to dumping syndrome somehow. Urgent care tested my blood. My glucose was 95. Not bad. But my white and red blood cells were in the crapper. I am anemic! I call my surgeons office and let them know that I went to urgent care and that I'm anemic. The receptionist says "yeah, ok, thats really common, take some OTC iron" I said I already do that. And this isn't common for me! She asked for the test results to be sent to her and that they would call me back. I sent them personally, I have heard a thing from them.

Fed UP! I went to my primary care and once again begged for mercy. She took more blood from me and said she'll call me when they come back. In the meantime, I have a GI appt scheduled on Monday.

To be clear, I am and always have been taking all my vitamins, my iron, my pantoprazole and calcium daily. I never miss a dose. I eat three meals a day, even though I don't want to and it pains me, literally. I have lost more weight than I think is healthy. In less than 3 months, Ive gone from 252 to 210 pounds. But my surgeons PA says thats "perfect". I feel like death warmed over. I can't enjoy my weight loss because I'm always so sick and tired.

Please, any advice would be so appreciated!!! Thanks!

I am new here and due to that I don't know when you will get this reply. I am not qualified to give ANY medical advise, I can only speak from my limited experience. For ME, I must eat VERY slowly and in small ( very small amounts) other wise I get the same feeling. I was not doing so well until I was moved to soft foods at my 2 week check up and I was able to eat a 1/4 c mash potatoes that had enough carbs to stop my own blood sugars from dropping. I am only 4 weeks out from surgery and I left the hospital on Sept. 22 @ 288 and I am at 252 as of today. I have learned that for my own personal well being I have to listen to my body. Water is my best friend lol and even though I have been released to eat scrambled soft eggs does not mean my body agrees with it. I have learned that I can only take a rice grain size taste of something new or I will get the same reaction that you are describing hours later and all the way through to the next morning. Keep following up with your DR. and I personally would log everything you are eating, time, amount ect and take it with you. On a side note I also learned that when I do try a new food my body does not like, that if I go to the gym or exercise in some way. It has been helping my body to digest it better. Just a thought, I hope you find relief.

Ok first off I'll also give a back story. I had a lap band in 2006 did great lost all my weight and was doing so good I loved life, them in 2008 we go into an accident and my lap band was compromised so they had to do a VSG or I could just take out the band I didn't want to loos my tool that keeps me this happy healthy person so I went for it one of the points they made over and over was how great it would be because they would be removing the lower part of my stomach and that is where this gland is that cause you to feel hungry wow that sounded so great no more being hungry. Little did I know that that gland also helps you to absorb your iron and b vitamins with out it you don't have the right stuff so when your food goes out of your pouch into the small intestine it won't be absorbed your iron and your B are absorbed in the first part of your small intestine.  Now I am anemic my ferritin is a 3 I am just now after 3 years able to hold my own at keeping my other numbers up, but I can't get the ferritin up at all. With it being that low my symptoms are joint pain, restless leg syndrome, abdominal pain all the time, weakness, confused a lot of the time, I get overwhelmed easy, and am always tired, and cold. I have also been told I have fibromyalgia and RA as well as a few other of the autoimmune diseases. I am in a B Vitamin crisis right now the B vitamins are your neurological helpers they keep the nerve endings covered without that covering I itch all the time my hands go numb and are like pins and needles. My Dr has me vitamin loading as I can't take the B shots I get sick and each time I have to get an iron infusion I am sick for a week or more with such bad joint pain I don't even want to get out of bed. At first they will look for bleeding inside when they don't find that they will label you as iron deficiency and just start giving you infusions that's great they do help and not everyone gets sick, but the problem is you can't have too many of them as it can hurt your liver and your heart. I see some people on the board who have many infusions in a short time and I think that's dangerous, my Dr feels the same way.  The only thing we can try is to take more vitamins then is good for you and that can also cause other health issues, and they make me sick and it hurts my guts so bad I had to back off of them. I would make sure they do a full blood work up to check your B's as well as your Sed Rate you need a good Dr that knows blood a hematology Dr is the best place to go, but even at that they don't always know what to do if you don't absorb even a very small fraction of what you take it can take years to build up your stores and even ten it may not be good enough to make you symptom free. I know that this is not very good news, but what you need is to stay on them all the time ask what each test means and don't just take what they tell you as law. The other thing you need to look out for is hernia after this kind of surgery you have a week abdomen and are pron to them I had one and one doctor I went to told me I just needed to poop more and the pain would go away like that's going to heal a hernia if I would have followed his advice it would have been much worse as part of my intestines was going through the hole. Things to keep in mind taking calcium with iron will void the iron you need to keep them well apart from each other. Also soy is death to iron it will strip it right out of your body soy is in all kinds of stuff we don't know about like I can't believe it's butter has it in there the protein shakes you may be drinking can have a lot of soy in them soy is really bad for people like us. The last thing I'll say is don't give up your fight is just starting education is the way to go find out all you can about iron deficiency and B vitamins as well as others that you are running low on make them do the blood work I can't say that enough you have a right to know what your numbers are all of them including your vitamin stores. The sad thing is they know when they remove that gland you are going to have a hard time absorbing and they do it without telling you that part. The other thing is as more and more of us are turning to WLS the doctors are unsure what to do this is becoming an epidemic amongst WLS people with no end in site. My Doctor told me of a client of hers that had WLS 25 years ago and was in the first stage of Alzheimer's her B 12 was so low it barely registered on the test with shots she has started to do much better but if it goes to long it can't be reversed that's true with other neurological issue as well. I sometimes fall for no good reason or walk like I'm drunk I don't drink so that's not it its the B vitamins. You can in no way get enough of what you need in the food you eat, as we have a very small poach and it takes a lot of food to make a difference. Hope this helps you and anyone else I wish they would let you know before hand that this can happen they no it can. Some WLS centers are bringing on doctors just for this issue. 

Deb

Anemia and other malabsorption issues can be dealt with. I am not clear on why your Dr is so reluctant to use IV therapy for your Iron deficiency. You do need to monitor your levels regularly so that you do not bump the levels too high. The danger of the IV iron is an anaphylactic reaction. If you have a reaction they will treat you with epinephrine. And then you will be back to the drawing board viv a vis your iron.

The danger to your liver is in the event of an over dose. Regular monitoring will prevent that.

When my anemia was at its worst my hematocrit was in the low 20's and my hemoglobin was down around 5.

At that point I was pretty much bed bound except for perhaps an hour a day. I was taking Prescription iron supplements that were readily absorbed but I was prone to anemia before my surgery and had a perfect storm of a month that involved 4 medical issues that in and of them selves were not a problem, but collectively resulted in a rapid drop in what were already only borderline ok levels.

I wound up getting 250ml quarterly of Ferrous sucrose. Within 3 weeks of the first infusion I began to recover and within 6 weeks felt around 80% of normal.

I was on those quarterly infusions for 4 years and they kept my levels in the high 40's.

During that time I remained on oral supplements, Multibid x2 a day.

Two years ago I began processing iron and absorbing it better and went off the IV treatments.

Currently I have normal hematocrit and hemoglobin levels.

I remain on the x2 iron supplements plus what I get in my multi.

Based on my experience I am wondering why your Dr has not moved on the the IV treatment. He seems to be very conservative. You might want to inquire about it. It was a life saver for me. Literally.