Pre-and Post-Surgery and Iron Levels

[jrsno1fan 22]

Being anemic is not anything that's new to me. As a child I have memories of my mom feeding me nasty liquid Iron that tasted like the inside of a coke can that's been sitting for a few days. Awful, metallic, nasty stuff. During my pregnancies I was also very anemic and had to be on extra iron so about 3 months prior to surgery I wanted to make sure my levels were good enough for surgery so I asked my pulmonologist (the one dr I trusted the most) to do blood work and check my iron.

My first results said what I expected, my ferritin level was 16. So the doctor sent me for an iron infusion. He checked my levels again 2 weeks later and it was up to 20. He said that was still low and sent me for a 2nd infusion. At this point I was 2 weeks pre-surgery so he gave me an appt for a follow-up in 3 months.

I had surgery on 8/6 and nothing was said about it in the hospital or at my post surge 8 day follow-up. At the 1 month mark I expressed my concern about being so very tired, bruising easily and severe Constipation. The surgeon said it may be from the surgery but if I was still feeling like this at 3 months he would do more blood work.

I had my 3 month visit last Wednesday and they did draw blood. I got a call on Monday from the nurse and she said there was a concern regarding my iron levels. She said when they saw what the numbers were they went back to my in hospital labs to compare. In hospital my iron was over 600 which is extremely high, double what normal should be. Now 3 months post surgery it's still in the high 500's.

Now I don't know what to do. She said follow up with my PCP but he's not the one who ordered the infusions. So what do you guys suggest? Go back to my pulmonologist, who is a lung specialist not a blood specialist, go to my PCP who would have to start from scratch or find a Haematologist and start with a completely new doctor but in a specialized field?

Thanks in advance for reading my long post and any advice you have.

[Camella 209]

Sorry this response is a bit late in coming. I would recommend going to your PCP, explaining the situation and taking it from there. I unfortunately only have very mild issues with anemia so I can't offer a great deal of advice. I would ask for a copy of all the blood results so far and present these to your PCP (as not to double up too much) and allow that doc to recommend the next course of action. I'm sure your PCP will order a full blood count which may reveal if something else is also going on apart from just Iron. I hope that helps and good luck.