To ask if this is an emergency?

[Soitis83]

Posting here mainly for traffic.

The last week or so I've felt terrible. Finally took an iron tablet and felt so much better.
Problem is that better didn't last very long so I took another one..then another and then another. All together 80mg, one packet is mixed with other things and one is just 20mg.
I've convinced myself I'm going to die. Please someone reassure me I'm going to be okay

What?

None of this makes sense.

Iron tablets don't work like that, you don't instantly feel better.

The bigger risk appears to be your anxiety and poor decision making. I wonder if the ambulance is more for mental health than physical.

I take 630mg a day, every day. I have low iron obviously but they take months to work. Can't see what harm 80mg would do? Try not to panic.

Iron tablets wont have made you feel better, painkillers may have done but not iron. More likely to make you feel sick, odd thing to take....

I can't understand how taking one tablet made you feel better. It's a long process to build up iron levels and OTC iron rarely cuts it, they need to be of prescription strength.

What does the packet say about the ingredients.

Try not to worry. Ambulance response times are : category A (life threatening emergency 8 minutes on lights and sirens)
Category B eighteen minutes response time.
Category C non- emergency.
If you feel your condition has deteriorated, you can call 999 and speak to an emergency call handler who can change the priority if necessary. I hope you feel better soon.

Agreed, iron is not a pick my up like caffeine or whatever!

I think the issue here is more around your anxiety, and understanding of risk. Have you done any research into standard medicinal doses etc? Am guessing not. Similarly, I'm guessing you didn't tell the call handler you'd taken 4 vitamin tablets, but just described it as 'an overdose of iron'?

I'm meant to take 600mg a day as standard...80mg is not ambulance material.

I was quite surprised myself. I can't get there myself as I have three young children here

If you have low iron or ferritin then you need to take 250mg tablets of iron (ferrous fumerate) - I was prescribed 4 a day. It takes 2 weeks to start feeling the difference and definitely isn’t an immediate pick me up. Hope that’s a helpful guide for you.

Ask your gp for a blood test but make sure it includes ferritin. Mine went down to 6 and I felt awful.

I told them the exact amount from the exact brand

an Ambulance for 80mg ?! Wow. I didn’t think that would be logged as urgent enough for an ambulance to be honest .

You took 4 (low dose / multivitamin) iron tablets over a course of a day and have called an ambulance… what a waste of resources ?

I know I definitely have low iron as I'm my last pregnancy she said I was very low. I'm not sure how they made me feel better so quickly. But honestly, I do have massive health anxiety

If you are able to get to A&E then take the packets of what you have taken and go there if you are worried wait for ambulance is too long.

I was quite surprised myself. I can't get there myself as I have three young children here

And how does an ambulance make a difference?

Now you know a little more, do you still think you need an ambulance?

I'm thinking this doesn't quite ring true...

I called 111 for advice and she said she's sending an ambulance

What on earth have I just read?? I take 200mg iron a day. A tablet won’t instantly make you feel better. Did you use the word overdose and that is why you are getting an ambulance?? I begged for one two weeks ago with an unconscious husband and after three hours they sent a taxi !!! He was in hospital over a week but no ambulances!!

Well what difference does an ambulance make then? Or are you treating it like a home visit?

you’ll still have three children with you if they decide to take you to hospital. Which I doubt will be the outcome.

If someone has taken an overdose (even a very minor one) if they won’t take themselves to hospital and 111/999 has been made aware they then have to send out an ambulance as a duty of care.

Elderly people fall and lay on the floor for hours in their own urine and defacate because there is so few ambulances.

That seems like a massive overreaction by 111 for 80mg of iron...I'm supposed to take 630mg every day!

Also, iron doesn't work to immediately make you feel better, it just doesn't work like that

And? What's going to happen to them if you miraculously need to go to hospital?

Yeah we guessed that.

I take galfer every day. 305mg ferrous fumarate every day, as a maintenance dose. When my iron was low I was taking double that (on doctor's orders).

Also, iron tablets don't work instantaneously.

I certainly don't think you need an ambulance if that makes you feel any better....

Surely the body just pisses out any excess vitamins? It doesn't absorb everything in them and it doesn't sound like a massive dose anyway.

This. I'm no medical expert but I'm pretty sure taking 4 over the counter iron tablets doesn't constitute an ambulance coming out or a medical emergency. I'm struggling to believe that this is true!

I was on prescription does iron tablets before, 3 times a day. I can't remember the dose but pretty sure it was a lot more than what the OP has taken. Iron tablets don't instantly make you feel better either. This whole post is just completely bizarre.