

Anemia Message Board

Anemia Board Index

cause of my helpful if i had doctors that seemed some what concered. i've suffered from anemia for as long as i can remember, they put me onto an iron suppl and after 3 months he said my levels are elevated but not at the normal state but i could stop taking the iron if i wanted too. i did, and then it has gone down hill from there. i get my "attacks" as i call them where i cant even go up stairs without having to lay down and blacking out. In january of this year after months of dealing with being sick I went to the ER. i'm a happy go lucky person so my body just grew adjusted to being low when they tested my blood i was a a HCB of a 6 and the doctor was freaking out on me because I needed an emergency blood transfusion and he thought I was going to die and didn't understand how serious this was. I declined the transfusion (i'm 21 and this was a very scary issue) but he told me my family had the power to decide otherwise and no matter what I was getting the transfusion because Iron wasnt going to solve the problem and i'd be dead before the year was out.

1 month after my transfusion...3 pints to be exact(a lot of blood I was told) my HCB was still abnormally low. So the Gyno put me on Repliva and a birth Control with an Iron in it to try to help bring my levels up, I wont know until May if this is working. The women from the lab at the hospital came down to test my blood to find my blood type and said I should be seeing a Hemotoligist but everyone I call in my area will only see me if I am a cancer related patient and I'm not.

I just am tired of the endless "I don't knows" and am getting fed up with "we'll try this and if it doesnt work we'll try something else"
I never did find out the cause of my anemia. Quite a few years ago I was put on iron for anemia. I took them faithfully for a while then stopped. Then in the fall of 2005 after weeks of having pains in my legs when going up stairs, rapid heart beat, being pale and having no energy I finally made a doctors appointment. Until that time I muddled through the days-work, taking care of the kids etc. even though I was exhausted. Blood tests revealed hemoglobin was at 4.3, hematocrit was 14. something, my ferritin was also critically low but I'm not sure what the number is on that. Anyways the doctor told me to go to the ER. The ER doctor couldn't believe I was walking. I was admitted and had blood transfusions (4 units). My numbers started rising-slowly- helped by 300 mg of iron each day. I had an endoscopy, colonoscopy, x-ray of my intestines but everything was clear. My menstrual period has never been very heavy. I had an appointment with the hematologist but the blood test I took right before I saw him showed my levels were acceptable. So other than a few more blood tests he decided not to do anything. I took my iron faithfully for a while and then gradually took fewer pills and then stopped a few month ago. My blood test 4 1/2 months ago showed good numbers. Then I had a blood test last week and my hemoglobin is 10.7 and my hematocrit is 30.7. I have a doctors appointment on Monday and I'm sure I'll be back on the iron and will need to make sure I take it becasue obviously I do need it. You'd think they would want to know what's causing this because I would like to know but maybe sometimes the reason is "undiagnosable"?


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