Iron/ Ferritin frustrations

We agree! I'm am miserable right now and my PCP is blowing me off. ?

Check your own blood work - or post the numbers here and let some of us look at them. Until i started paying attention to mine -and knowing what to look for - my life got much better. More expensive- but better (my insurance refuses to pay for some labs).

I've seen an awful lot of people get horribly sick by blindly following doctor's advice on supplements. Most don't know crap about whst we need.

It is very unlikely that a patient will kill themselves by taking the doses of iron pills suggested by folks here.

The usual daily dose for a patient with anemia is 3 - 6 mg per kg of body weight. (For a person who weighs 200lb/90kg, that is 270 - 540mg of iron). If taking an iron supplement with 65mg iron, that's at least 4 pills per day.

Toxic effects begin at doses above 10 - 20mg per kg. (At 200lb, that's 900 - 1800mg.) That works out to between 13 and 26 pills per day. NOBODY here is recommending that.

(If I've screwed up my math here, somebody please chime in?)

Also, your doctor apparently failed to warn you about the risks of alcohol addiction.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/rny/6032137/Dont-Do-It-Her es-Why/#50406063

Why the hell do you blindly trust him/her to be right about iron supplements?

Hi,

You should be concerned about your ferritin. Ferritin is your storage. Once the storage runs out, your iron starts to deplete. The labs might be OK for a normal person who hasn't had surgery but for someone with a re route, it is good that you are being cautious.

I just had an iron infusion in December. In less than six months, my hemoglobin dropped from 13.5 to just below 9. My ferritin was really low below 10. My primary care sent me to the hematologist. Hematologist said that some people just can't absorb enough iron and he was reasonably sure I would be coming back frequently. My bariatric surgeon has me on a double dose of iron . So far, no real stomach problems. Need to get my labs checked again soon.