could anyone look at these BLOODS for me please?

[52andblue]

Background:

Female age 54. Physically disabled (double crutches) plus undiagnosed apnea / low iron / vit D for some years. poor sleep nutrition and limited mobility meant I ended up with a BMI of 44. My GP wrote everything off to 'too fat' & recommended gastric surgery. So I had a roux en y Op in 2019. BMI now 26 so good in gen health terms. BUT... still have apnea, still have vit deficiencies (worse as RenY surgery interferes with gut absorption, NHS prescribes lifelong vits & calcium but I'm not able to absorb properly). Due to a cock up (sent out of area for surgery) I wasn't given the loading doses after surgery and ended up with an iron level of 20 for 3 years even on ferrous fumerate x 3 daily. During this time i was regularly falling over, brain fog very bad. Eventually lost my job with awful consequences.
Last autumn I felt so ill I asked the GP to test again and iron was >7 and I was given IV iron x2 and it went up to 333 within 10 days. I felt quite a bit better. But I'm feeling worse again so asked for an 'interim' blood test (they are annual). It's dropped to 159 since Sept.

I live rurally. This is my only choice of GP (& head of practice). they always refuse to give results (I had to mention GDPR to get these). GP has just cancelled F2F appt (they suggested I book at time of bloods) and says that it's 'probably the menopause'. I was menstruating but had symptoms and GP put me on Everol Sequui 50 5 months ago but not much improvment. When I said I dint' think it was that she said: 'well you can have anti depressants then, and maybe you could do with CBT for health anxiety'.
I had depression in my 20's. I know how it feels for me. It's not that.
(My previous job wa offering CBT to patients with anxiety and depression working for a charity trained & contracted out by NHS)

Hi @BigGreen
Yes, that's a good suggestion thank you. I have in fact tried them, I thought I'd found the holy grain, but find they are not a strong enough concentration to raise my levels up even over time. I do use them for my ASD teens though as DD has awful iron levels but struggles to swallow tablets. Ds iron has never been tested but he has deficiency symptoms so he gets the daily spray too. They taste quite nice & v convenient.

holy grain? holy grail

I was never able to maintain my iron levels with prescription iron like ferrous fumigate/sulphate. Felt dreadful for years whilst on them. Then I switched to spa tone liquid sachets (from Boots or Amazon) and felt so much better.
I also take vit D every day / it comes on a spray which you may absorb better - no reason why you couldn’t buy some and give yourself a loading dose which may help.
I also felt dreadful on HRT and have now switched to supplements - I take sage, Red clover and pregenolone (all from Amazon) and the difference is remarkable. I felt in a confused shattered fog for years. I found the HRT made me put weight on around my tummy which frightened me in terms of cardiovascular health.
I also find I feel worse if I slip up on a healthy diet/exercise. I don’t have carbs except fruit and veg, absolutely no refined sugar and no alcohol. If I have any of these, I’m back to drowsy, mood swinging exhaustion.
I know I looked to my GO for solutions for too long - when I took control myself and did my own research, (I can recommend Dr Eric Berg on YouTube for excellent health advice), everything got better. I don’t bother with GPS anymore.

Fumarate
GP
GPs

@52andblue

Sorry for long background but posted as poss relevant & didn't want to drip feed.

Here are the results:

Vit D not tested.
Vit B12 545 (I have injections every 8 weeks)
Serum Folate 7.8
Ferritin 159

sodium 137, potassium 4.1 Creat 59 eFGR >60

HB 138, WBC 4.3, PLT 186, MCV 88.3, RBC 4.67, Hct 0.413, MCH 29.4, MCHC 333, Neut 2.63, Lymp 1.18, Mono 0.27 Eos 0.18, Baso 0.01

I have little clue what most of the last ones even are.

I am not sure where to go from here.
I think I have 3 issues:

Vit / Min absorb from food / supplments is compromised by Op
Menopause
Very poor sleep

I asked the GP if we could try to tackle all 3 at once as I am now a single parent and sole Carer for 2 teens with Autism. I also get tired due to the nerve damage in my legs making mobility hard.

I've bounced between 'too fat / too menopausal / too anxious' for too long. I'd like some help but I'm not sure what to ask for or , crucially if anything CAN be done in these particular circs?

Sorry I haven't RTFT but I can tell you the following are all within the normal range : HB (haemoglobin, red blood cells) PL (platelets, clotting) WBC (white blood cells) NBC (neutrophils, immune system)

PLT = platelets
Neut = neutrophils

Any night sweats?

Yes, regularly wake at 3am, drenched.

GP says all results okay. Will re check iron in 6m.
Asked for higher dose HRT patch but 'none avail' so offered coil.
GP also suggested antidepressants. Ooof.

Did they test your thyroid, OP?

OP, first thing I would say is that when you have testing done, if you’re already taking high doses of supps then that can affect the result and make it seem higher than it is, which in your case won’t be helpful, since they are quite low already! No doubt you may already know that though.

With regards to absorption - I have this problem too and was so anaemic years ago that I needed IV iron, which it turns out I am allergic to, so only got 1 infusion and was then left to get on without them, but I did get to see an NHS haematologist consultant, which was really insightful. He explained that iron is very tricky since our bodies can only absorb a certain amount per day. He also said that recent research has shown that taking iron supplements every other day is best for maximum absorption. Also that we assimilate (heme/meat) iron best, so eating red meat is quite crucial. I did a mix of red meat 2-3x per week, 2x Spatone in juice every other day and ate all the iron rich (non-heme) veg and Vit C every day, as much as I could. I also used digestive enzymes to help with breaking down foods to make digestion and hopefully absorption easier on my stomach / intestines.

For HRT, you’ll want to look up Louise Newson / Balance, she’s the expert in the UK online and I should think Oestrogel for the oestrogen replacement would make sense as it’s transdermal rather than pill form. The progesterone could come from a Mirena coil, pill or vaginal pessary.