Anemia - blood test results, anyone familiar?

[duncandisorderly]

I have been feeling fairly run down lately and atm feel pretty rubbish. The doctor sent me for a host of blood tests, and all were normal, except the follwing:

hb - 9.5
MCV - 71
hematocrit - 4%

I have been prescribed iron tablets and advised to eat iron rich foods and have to go for a repeat blood test in two weeks and the gp will call me back if things aren't improving.
Is there anything else I should do based on the above results. I'm not sure I can acrry on for two more weeks feeling like this - I am sleeping my life away at the moment.

oh and ferritin level was 3.

I have had ferritin that low post birth and felt rubbish so youmust be exhausted. Iron tabs kick in pretty quickly but it will take a while to raise your ferritin levels - although you will feel better within a week ime.

Lots of steak and dried apricots etc. Good luck

Hi,

I can't comment on the blood results, but most people I believe struggle with iron supplements due to them being prone to causing constipation, you might want to look into buying a food supplement called Spirulina

its packed with iron, more so even than liver, & also contains lots of other good stuff, & easily digested too, my SIL & MIL both found this to be FAR better than the prescribed stuff at sorting out her aneamia, & I swear by it for other reasons too, & as its a food supplement rather than herbal, it won't interact with anything & cause problems.

Its even good for Kids, turned my DDs health around in less than a week, after months of part time school & suspected juvenile M.E. after she didn't recover properly after Pneumonia, 3 a day for a few weeks & now, now & again as she needs them as a pick up, great immunity booster too.....I can't recommend the stuff enough, its a brilliant all round tonic

do make sure you get the compressed tablets though, as the powder is foul, I cut these up for DD & she was fine taking them

I had quite bad anaemia post DS2 and have found that Floradix (liquid supplement) is very good, if I take it every day.
I agree that tablets are not ideal, they are hard to digest and can make you very constipated.
But the Floradix doesnt have this affect and is also a slight tonic too.
Holland and Barrett sells it and is doing an offer at the moment making it bit cheaper if you need to stock up.

Hi sorry you're feeling grim. I think you need to get your hb count up to about 12 (I don't know about the other results). It might take more than a couple of weeks but I imagine your GP is hoping there will be some increase after 2 weeks.