To bother my GP and ask for a B12 injection

[JRUIN]

I have pernicious anemia and have been having 3 monthly shots of B12 for years. Was due my last one a couple of days after lockdown was announced and it was, quite rightly, cancelled. For the last week though I have done nothing but sleep-which is good in one way because I have been struggling to sleep at all for the past year, but obviously not ideal because I am still feeling so weak and tired that I am struggling to do the simplest of tasks. I'm guessing these symptoms are due to low levels of B12, so would it be wrong of me plead for my jab under these circumstances or should I suck it up and wait until it's safe?

I can't absorb the vitamin orally and I too start to feel symptoms around 8 weeks after my jab, and was thinking (before lockdown) of booking an appointment (as advised by nurse) with my GP to ask if I could have a shot every 2 months.

@JRUIN Be interested to hear what your surgery say when you ring them tomorrow. I hope it's the right response

I’m a GP.
The guidelines at the start of lockdown were to cancel all injection appointments and advise oral supplements.
Last week new guidelines came out to say that certain groups of people (including those with pernicious anaemia) could now have injections again.
So if you ring you should get an appointment .

Our patients are having their injections as normal. You need B12 for well being so ring and ask for a practice nurse appointment. If there is any difficulty speak to your GP, I think that some patients have been started on oral B12 during the lockdown.

I will let you know @Livelongandprosper. Can I ask do you feel better as soon as you have your jab? Because with me it seems to be more gradual.

No, I don't feel better straightaway either. Things start to improve slowly after about 2 weeks.

I got mine because i told them I wasn't prepared to get ill. The nurse made me feel so bad about it I have bought my own. I have been doing it weekly and feel so much better than I have for the past 4 years.
I always felt I was on catch up. Get so low before the next injection, then climb up to 'normal' not long after feeling OK, levels start dropping again. Does that make sense?
I am going to continue weekly for now, hasmade so much difference. Definitely ring them tomorrow and don't let them fob you off

You need B12 for well being

This is true. It is a bit off when you think about it like that, especially as when I am even a week late with booking my appointment I get a bit of a telling off for it, but now I'm basically being told it's not that important after all.

Definitely ask for one. I had one a week into lockdown and have a blood test next week to check levels. It's worth a call to ask

Yes that makes total sense @barcodescanner. Where do you get your supply from?

I get mine every eight weeks, and mine got postponed this time around which stretched it to 12 weeks. I had it last Friday and am now allowed to go back to the 8 week frequency. Ask them for it, I was a wreck prior to mine.

@JRUIN I got it from a pharmacy in Germany. It is over the counter there.
Loads of help on FB support groups. You need to take folic acid and other things as well if doing it more often.

Mine were cancelled from the get go and they said to call six months after my last one. Shocking. I’d be on my knees by that point. Mines a malabsorption so it’s my only option.

Luckily, I self inject in between my NHS jabs as they are usually every 8 weeks and I need them every 3 - 4. Once you get over the first couple it’s a complete doddle (I do my thighs rather than arm).

Cross post with barcodescanner

I get mine from Amazon.de as it happens. It’s very simple to order if you use amazon as much as I do in the U.K. (the buttons are in the same place so you don’t even need to speak German)

Yes

Yes you must get your injections.

It's really important

If you have PA they should not be cancelling your injections - it is essential treatment. Nor should they give you tablets instead. I would definitely phone. My surgery has been doing them throughout; they just ask you over the buzzer before they let you in if you have any virus symptoms etc.

I would also push to have them more frequently if you need them. I don’t understand why they are so stingy. At my old surgery I eventually persuaded them to let me have them monthly. Then I had to move house and thus GP and they wanted to put me back on three monthly, which I absolutely can’t cope with. Now I have a compromise of six weekly, but I did order extra back up supplies from Germany to do additional ones myself... so in fact I now have them every three weeks.

My GP no longer does the injections and have just stopped prescribing tablets, you have to source them yourself. I know others in the area are also now doing the same.

I'm another one who buys my own because once every 3 months isn't enough. I was doing one a month but feel much better with one a fortnight.
Happy to share where I buy it if anyone wants to DM (German online pharmacy) as it is freely available OTC in most european countries.

If you've got PA. you normally don't absorb through your stomach. Or orally.etc. .

You must have one. Lack of B12 can cause serious irreversible health problems.

I’ve had mine since lockdown, I have it every 10 weeks. After hearing so many surgeries had cancelled them I bought my own online and some syringes but called to book it when it was due and it went ahead no problem.

Glad to have a back up stash at home though, cost barely anything and I’ve done one which was really easy and nearly painless.

They should never have been cancelled, the WHO says it’s an essential medication and if tablets helped and we didn’t need injections we wouldn’t have been prescribed them for decades. Even for the places that did cancel, updated guidance was issued weeks ago and practises should be doing what their patients need.

Ridiculous how many people have had their health thrown under a bus due to this.

I was so tired and ill my head was almost on his desk and it just wasn't possible for me to fight back at that time. The second time I asked he told me some people "imagine" more frequent injections have some effect but there was really no evidence to support this. He actually had me wondering if I was a hypochondriac.

This makes me so angry on tour behalf. How dare he?! So fucking dismissive. Can you imagine a man in your place being talked to like that?

Mine have been carried on through lockdown and I think it’s disgusting that other people have had theirs cancelled. It can cause irreparable nerve damage amongst other things.

Practice nurses shd still be giving injections. You may be asked to wear a mask and they may sanitise your hands at the door and ask you. It to touch anything but you shd defo get your injection