I was going to use an old post but the forum complained. If this is in the wrong place I know that it will be moved.
An anal tear sent me to the VA ER last month. Last Friday I had a consult with an NP at the Minneapolis VA. My blood draw came back with a low ferritin level so now there is a colonoscopy in my near future and a few other tests I am not looking forward to.
Here is the issue. I have had this most of my life. I try to eat medium rare meet at least 5 times per week as I do not like eating liver or the various blood meals I was rasied on. I have had iron supplements before but ended up wiith high levels.
In doing a quick research of this symptom I find, depression, anxiety, Restless legs, Arthritis, brain fog and fatigue to be comon related complaints. I have had all of those for many years and they have been more intense with Sjogren's.
Cancer, Hodgkins are a couple of the other options. I do not believe that I have these.
Some article refer to hormonal imbalance. I do have some missing hormones with age and Sjogren's. Anyone have an ideal how long it will take them to get to looking at these issues?
Dear Joe,
I have had anemia since 2006. My diet was not the problem. I was exhausted. For about a year I would take iron tablets until my blood tested normal. Then the doctor told me to stop taking the iron tablets. Again I was retested after about two months and my anemia had returned.
So I did this about three times and then I decided to just keep taking the iron tablets. And I've taken iron tablets twice a day since then so it's about 12 years my iron levels are normal which means of course that by taking an iron supplement I can maintain a normal level of iron in my blood and I no longer have anemia.
Iron deficiency anemia With no diagnosed Cause is fairly common for those who have Immune disorders Joe.
Regards, Elaine
I did spend many years taking Iron supplements. I was told to quit when I was in my late 20's.
Your doctor may order a ferritin test if you have some of the following symptoms associated with low ferritin levels:
unexplained fatigue.
dizziness.
chronic headaches.
unexplained weakness.
ringing in your ears.
irritability.
leg pains.
shortness of breath.
I have had all of these symptoms from time to time. Some are continuous. Could it be part of Sjogren's? If so, could it be fixed or better managed? Would better management of this lead to better management of Sjogren's?
I had low ferritin levels since 2005 and been on iron supplements off and on. My ferritin has been as low as 6 and up to 19. Finally had the bleed identified from the arterial venous malformations in my colon. When I had those lasered in October the bleeding stopped and after my last iron infusion my last ferritin was 41.
I had the colonoscopy and gastroscopy done in Sept and they idenitified my malformations again but could see no bleeding. I never observed bleeding in stools but it had to have been occurring. It is good you will have the colonoscopy cause you can have any polyps identified. Also may people are getting iron infusions to replentish the iron. I was not absorbing the iron. The shortness of breath is gone....I always blamed that on my asthma. Good luck to you.
All this stuff we get just proves that the longer we live the more ailments we get. Irish
Joe, sorry about the tear and the pending colonoscopy-:(((
I also have low ferritin. I've read that just having an auto immune disease can cause low iron and ferritin. My former rheumy used to check my ferritin. It seems like ever since they have checked it, it was low. I take a form of Iron that I get from Whole Foods, that is supposed to be gentle on the stomach. They haven't checked me recently, so I guess they aren't too worried about it. I had an occult blood test on my stool and it was negative. So, who knows why I am low. But, I think it was causing some fatigue and restless legs at times.
how strange, I have high ferritin and they always told me that, together with the levels of c3 c4 and Pcr, it is a sign of inflammation.
I am on my third day of iron supplementation and I feel like I have a new lease on life. I hope that I continue to see improvement.
I started this on my own I hope to have a retest of my blood before the procedure.
The symptoms could also be related to arthritis or Sjogren's from my web search.