The rest of my labs are in I bet my Ferritin is lower than yours!!

When I picked up my labs the other day they only gave me 2 pages. I had a follow up today and they gave me the other 4 pages. It is much worse then I thought.

Ferritin is 1, normal is 10-291
Iron, Serum is 24, normal is 35-155
Iron Saturation is marked ALERT at 7%, normal is 15-55
Vitamin D is 18.5, normal is 32-100
Zinc is low but barely at 68
PTH, intact is high at 73 and I'm not sure what that means.

Everything else on the report is in range but I don't see any testing for B's.

Here is my new vitamin schedule for the next 2 months.

2 Centrum chewables instead of the 1 I was taking
2 iron (I'm ordering the Carbonal from vitalady)
1 Vitamin D (I'm ordering the dry D from vitalady)

I'm also adding spinach to my eggs every morning and having a fresh spinach salad in the evening.

Yep yours was lower than mine. Mine was 9...

I dont know what it means either, but I read if D is low, then PTH will be high

I am surprised if your doctor's office doesn't have you take a high mg of Vitamin D for a while (50,000iu which comes as a prescription only)

But if not, you definitely will need more than 1   1000iu vitamin D daily to get your levels up

Lisa

Edited to say: i didnt know D 50.000 came available OTC. but if you can get a prescription, it will probably be covered.

Thanks Lisa! The more I think about the more I am not happy with the doctor's office. I saw the PA today not the doctor. She told me what to take and said to come back in 3 months. That seems like too long to wait especially with the word Alert on my iron saturation. I told her before that I took iron for 8 months, 3 x a day with colace and my iron dropped to its lowest. I had the infusion in March of 07, was pregnant a month later but had great labs throughout the pregnancy until birth. I have not had them done in 18 months now.

Yeah, I know what you mean about not being happy with the dr's office. None of mine seem to know anything about supplementation, not even the surgeon's office really.

It does take iron some time to come back up when you're taking pills, so I *think* that 3mo is about normal to check back. I've never had an infusion, so I dont know anything about those. How low did your levels have to get before they did that?

And i'm sure Andrea probably told you this already, but no, you dont want to take ferrous sulfate. not ever again hehe

best of luck!

lisa

I don't know much about any of the types (wet/dry, carbonated...whatever) of iron/calcium/D vits out there...but I take Bariatric Advantage for all my vits except the folic acid & zinc..and it took some jiggling of the schedule to get them in line...but here's what I take:

Every day:

2 BA calcium
2 BA multi
1 BA iron
1 BA Vitamin D

Monday & Friday
1 Zinc

Monday, Wednesday & Friday

1 BA B12

I had to reduce the zinc to 2x a week because it was getting high...and the B12 to 3x a week because it was getting high.  I started the Vit D about a year and a half out from WLS when it started going down, and once I started it, it's been fine...and all my other labs are fine.

Hope you can find a combination of vits - no matter what brand - that brings your numbers up to a normal, healthy level.

The scripted 50,000 iu doses of D are D2 and in oil.

D2 is the inactive form of D, which means more will be needed to create the "usable" form in the body, thus giving less for us to actually use.  Additionally, RNY malabsorbs fat -- we need a "dry" or water-soluble form of D3.

PTH will be high when D is low. My d is/was at a 4 or 5 so I am taking 1 50,000IU of Vitalady's D3.  The iron you are taking is NOT going to be enough!!!  You really should be looking into infusion to get it up asap and the do supplements to help keep it up.

I wrote you on FB. I am confused about the D's. I think I will give the doctor a call on Monday and skip the PA.

This isn't enough to even touch your issues.  Honestly.  Seriously.

2 centrums == good.
up your calcium citrate to 2000mg per day -- your body is leeching calcium from your bones, give it more to help support it
50,000 iu of D3 per day -- I did it in 10 5k doses, but she does have a 50k
2 carbonyl ain't gonna cut it -- that's only 50mg.  I take 600mg.  Be sure to take C with that iron -- 200mg c for every 30mg elemental iron
I'd also take a zinc -- zinc, copper and iron all form a trifecta, and when one gets crappy, they all do (as you've seen with your lower number)

I can't find your number can you email me it if you are still up?

So should I take a regular iron Ferrous sulfate along with the carbonol?

It stinks that I stayed so up after the infusion and now I am crashing like this. I think my levels started to go down when I went off the prenatal chewable and started.