Low Ferritin levels

Definitely. I'm doing both. Patches are keeping me steady but haven't raised my levels yet.

Thanks!!  I set up the patches for auto ship, one less thing for me to have to remember!

Good luck getting a hematologist to listen to you. I'm between 9-11 but also not anemic, so they won't touch me. I keep wondering how low it has to go before someone takes me seriously.

I want to do some kind of Daisy Ninja roundhouse to your Hematologist head!  What continues to stupefy me s when we as patients try to take our health into our own hands and yet repeatedly are told no!  UGH!  I actually was anemic and I was still told no by my Centre!  

I feel very confident that I would probably be either in the hospital or very sick right now if I did not have the intervention of my boss to help me out in getting the Iron Infusion. I am so sorry JB I wish I could help!! Keep fighting, someone will listen to you eventually!

I was 9-11 for a year  with other symptoms of iron deficiencies before I was able to see hema and he agreed that I really tried it all and I don't absorb oral iron. And I tried it ALL... some iron he never heard of ..(proferrin hema iron) 

good luck... 

my symptoms: (good to know if you need to convince them you REALLY need iron)

• severe RLS (restless leg syndrome),
• narcolepsy like symptoms - I could fall asleep just about anywhere as long as I was sitting down or laying down.. even after a few expresso.
• low BP, elevated HR
• hair loss
• pale skin, gums, eyes...
• my RBC and my hemoglobin were just below normal and dropping - trend show the numbers were dropping over 2 years due to low ferritin
• depression, low energy, shortness of breath...

I feel irate for you.

If you can get iron infusions- great... but they would want you to start with pills first. 

Iron infusion is very drastic. It can cause a severe reaction... and long term reaction..   and it is expensive. 

heme iron - like Proferrin or other heme iron are very promising to raise iron and ferritin levels.

patchMD - iron patch and the iron in multi is giving me high iron.. and keeping my ferritin from dropping too much too fast.

iron infusions are great if someone really needs that... but they can have severe side effects.  

For me Hala I was using the Proferrin Iron pills, 2 a day for close to a year and they are VERY expensive here in Canada, $30 for 30 pills so I was spending $60 a month and my Iron was still tanking as you know.  I am on my 3rd Iron Infusion,  I have had zero side effects and here in Canada there is no cost to me out of my pocket, my Provincial Health Care Plan pays for it.  All the other symptoms you mentioned in your post above that you had with the low Iron of 9-11 I had ALL of those but so far I have had no adverse affects of the Iron Infusions. My plan is to get my Iron (Ferritin) up to a good number then stop the Infusions and just continue using the PatchMD Iron patch which I think are brilliant!

Thanks so much for always being such an amazing wealth of info for us all, you and Grim are the sole reason I pushed for the Iron Infusions and I thank you from the bottom of my heart because I honestly think I would be really sick right now if I was still on 2 Proferrin pills a day!  You're the best!

 I am sooooo glad you fought for it and got it. Your levels were dangerously low. Critically low.  IMO. You really needed that. Iron is needed not only for blood but also to convert T4 into T3. And to repair tissue. And many other functions.  

So is Julia. 9-11 is pittiful.  Some of us are "designed" to keep that level of ferritin as a "last resort" and other things will get affected, like RBC will drop when they get small - imature..not fully formed. 

A lot of people get low iron symptoms when ferritin drops below 50.. . like RLS, bone pain, lower back pain, pelvic bones pain, being cold... And they don't even know their ferritin may be to blame for that. 

WOW, I didn't know most of this.  I just got my labs back today from the tests my surgeon ran after my first consult.  My ferritin is 16.4.

My RLS has been crazy the past few days.  I can't sleep without taking something.  And I'm on Mirapex and take drinkable magnesium shortly before bedtime, which helps a little but not enough apparently.

Time to start taking some iron and see what the doctor thinks for bringing up my levels.  I know last time I went to go donate blood they denied me both because my iron was too low but she made a bigger deal about my blood pressure so I never really followed up on the iron issue.  I guess I should have!