Ferritin/iron question
For the past 3 months I have been horribly tired all the time, I sleep more than im awake lately and foggy brained. Last February I had blood work done and my Ferritin was 14 and that along with my iron levels were all within normal limits. Im thinking that my Ferritin is too low though? I made an appointment with my bariatric team but it isnt until end of September. Just wondering if I should pursue this with my regular doctor before then....
14 is way too low for ferritin and yes, that's probably why you're tired. Below 10, they usually do iron infusions.
When I had labs done about a month ago, my ferritin was 15. My iron was 96, I think. Perfectly fine. I increased my iron from 75 mg to 300 mg a day (that's elemental iron, I use carbonyl iron). I take that with 2000 mg vitamin C. I spoke with vitalady (michelle) and decided to go up to 300 mg based on her recommendation - my PCP actually told me my ferritin was fine at 15! And it had dropped to 15 from 70 a year ago. That is so not fine.
Anyway, I will get labs done in about two months to see if my ferritin has gone up. If not, if it's still 15 or has dropped any lower, I will be making an appointment with a hematologist to discuss iron infusions.
I just noticed you said your ferritin was 14 last Feb. I'd get it checked again ASAP. If it's lower now, which it could well be if you didn't increase your iron intake in Feb, I'd make an appointment with a hematologist now. I would definitely not wait until the end of Sept to address it.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
You do not have to split it up.
I split mine up because the iron I am currently using is Sundown Perfect Iron, and they are tiny pills but are only 25 mg each. Then I have 500 mg Vitamin C pills. That means to get the 300 mg iron I have to take 12 pills and to get the 2000 mg C with it I have to take four pills.
I plan to order the Tender Iron from vitalady.com, which is 60 mg iron plus 400 mg C in one pill. Then I would only need five pills instead of 16! But I had already purchased a lot of the Sundown Perfect Iron and 500 mg C when they were on sale so I want to use up what I have. So that means taking 16 pills to get all that in, and I cannot stand to take that many pills at once, so I take 150 mg iron and 1000 mg C (eight pills total) twice a day.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
