Low Ferritin

[rubyslipperss]

Hi I've read through a few threads on here as I have low ferritin - it's 28 , it came up in my NHS app.I think it's always been a bit on the low side but feeling really fatigued , going to bed after work, can only work part time etc ,not able to socialise unless I've had a rest , day off etc . Palpitations , hair thinning, headaches. Feel generally rubbish . So fed up, I cried when I went into surgery to ask for blood tests.

I've called my GP surgery to discuss but the receptionist said it might not be looked at for a week. I'm worried it will be dismissed . All other bloods fine including thyroid , though they didn't do full screen , and Hb, folate, B12 all ok just the pesky ferritin .

Should I start taking iron supplements anyway ? I've seen some gentle iron on Solgar website.
I've read on here that you should only take iron every other day . Can anyone advise ? Thank you .

Could a relative or friend not take a days holiday/ paid leave to help ?

Do the children have Grand parents or god parents ?

Really hope you find a solution

Ah I see. Completely understand about the driving in the dark thing. How well do you know your neighbours? If school is walking distance could they take the children in the morning before school so you can get the first appointment, and they walk them to school, then hopefully you'd be done by home time. If there's an afterschool club maybe they could be booked in there just in case.

Its so bad that they don't understand the issues with childcare, and how difficult it can be to arrange an appointment. You'd think in a pinch the children could be accommodated in the hospital during the appointment but I expect in the UK they wouldn't do that (I'm not in the UK, when I had to go to the hospital one night while sole carer of my DD, the hospital took her into the children's ward for the night and looked after her - that's good care)

My mother in law is 77, she lives in a rural village and doesn’t drive; she is also up in Liverpool as her sister had surgery for a bowel obstruction last week and we have no idea when she will be back home. My father in law lives 5 hours drive away in north wales and has dementia so he can’t help. No other relatives that know the children well enough to look after them apart from my sister in London - and she is going to speak to her boss but it’s a lot to ask her to do this for me as last summer she was down and back every week for a month while I was under the previous 2WW referral at the hospital in the opposite direction. My parents died years ago.

God parents live in London or Wiltshire so, again, not round the corner or able to help at such short notice. I have no one here that I could ask to do this for me, sounds strange but I have no local friends, it’s just me and my husband and the twins. I am massively independent and do everything so not being in control and not being able to do what they want, is so frustrating.

Children are not allowed in most NHS hospitals while parents are having procedures - they make it very clear they can’t come with you and you must make alternative arrangements (they aren’t even allowed to go into pregnancy scans at our local hospitals!) They really don’t make any concessions for childcare issues; it’s fit in with them or make do without the care.

We’ve lived here 2 1/2 years after having to move because the landlord sold the house we lived in; so while I know my neighbours to say hello to, we’re not friends. One side is a woman similar age to me (50’s) who goes out to work about 7-3 every day and her elderly parents; the other side is a woman who works at Tesco and is out full time. The school is in a village just under 3 miles away and the route is narrow country lanes, no paths and some incredibly steep hills; there is a combination of buses that can get you there for morning drop off but, in the afternoons it’s either taking kids out of school 30 minutes before the end of the school day to avoid missing the bus, or the next one is 2 hours later - in a village with just a pub and the school and houses. My husband doesn’t drive because of eyesight problems so he can’t even take it on very easily.

Oh I assumed you were a single parent. Can't your husband just take the day off and take care of the children?

Ah your other post about your husband not being able to drive came up after I hit post. I'd still have him stay home and just keep the children home one day from school. Call them in sick or something.

You being seen on the 2ww is very important

Id keep children off school with their dad

Hello everyone, did anyone take ferrous fumerate for their low ferritin? I’m not feeling any different on it.

No
But i believe it can take a few months
My friends on it - she has 6 months worthy currently

Oh thanks @worldwidetravel2017 trying to be patient and failing

Yes, I could keep them home and him look after them - but schools are so hot on attendance now.

And it doesn’t address the issue of getting to/from the hospital and being able to have the procedure with sedation. I did a journey planner for buses and it’s 6 buses an 4 hours to get one way 😱😱 and taxi is around £75-100 each way

I understand theres a lot of cost involved and logistics but health is wealth

I had 3 x colonoscopies in a 12 month time period

Thankfully all colon polyps were benign but one was medically deemed large and i was very glad i had the procedures when i did .

I do recommend you take the sedation
And also - the prep involved means youd likely need help the day before too

The mix you have to drink - solution prep - means the day before you want / need to be at or near a loo at all times

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead I really hope you find a solution to the problem! As it's a 2ww would your DH work let him stay at home with the children and you could look into hospital transport? That's what hospital transport is there for and as it's a long way and you clearly wouldn't be ok being sedated then getting 6 buses, they would have to provide it . Also, if there is a charity attached to your trust, you may be able to get reimbursement for a taxi. It's worth ringing the finance department if they won't provide transport.

I did, - I think I felt a difference after a couple of weeks of taking it but it did give me a lot of gastric problems so I'm not sure if it did much.

DH works from home but it’s a phone based job for a private medical insurance company (oh the irony!) and he has to be shut away in the office without distractions. The only choice is he would have to take carers/parental leave and that’s unpaid (we’re currently a 1 income household; I was/am going to try to find a job as soon as the surgery is out of the way!).

I’ve looked into hospital transport and don’t meet the eligibility criteria; this is from the ICB website about eligibility
“What criteria needs to be met?
Eligibility will be assessed against the following:

1. Requires the skills or support of patient transport staff, on or after the journey, to the extent that it would be detrimental to their condition or recovery if they were to travel by any other means.
2. Impacts on their mobility, to such an extent that they would be unable to access healthcare, and it would be detrimental to the patient’s condition or recovery to travel by any other means.”

And
“People are eligible when they meet the criteria at the time of booking and the journey. This does not include social reasons for transport (such as being unable to afford a journey or not having access to a bus or car).”

So, as you can see, I don’t meet the criteria. The only other alternative is voluntary services who provide a driver to do the round trip but, when we tried to book it 2 years ago for a day surgery procedure, the organisation couldn’t fulfil the request as none of their volunteer drivers wanted to start at the time of day a driver was needed to get me there and also take responsibility for a post anaesthetic patient on an hour long journey home.

If I can be given an appointment on a Friday, my sister will speak to her boss and try to get time off from her job and drive down from London on the Thursday to help out; but can’t do other days as would mean she would have to drive here after work, do the hospital run the next day then drive home after dropping me off - and that would mean she is driving 600+ miles in 24 hours and wouldn’t be safe for her.

Sad.y, not everyone has the luxury of considering the “health is wealth” mantra - not when the cost implication of 1 hospital visit is 50% of our monthly income after bills and regular financial commitments!

I know the “delights” that are moviprep/kleen/prep/picolax as my background is healthcare so have worked in units where they were all used as bowel prep; I’m also aware that the 36 hours before the procedure are going to be a nightmare because of it - just another reason for refusing to have it done when I hadn’t even been given any other investigations. Plus another reason why planning and arranging the journey is so complicated.

I really don’t think people get what it’s like when you live in a county with a single hospital 50+ miles away and rural bus services that call at every village and hamlet, en route when, where we used to live, we had 4 NHS hospitals in a 15 mile radius of where we lived and decent transport links to them all; meaning the only consideration was which one could offer the earliest appointment!

My referral was made and the hospital gave me an appointment the following day which made me wonder if they have triaged. I have the infusion next week.
Feeling quite nervous.
Worried about reaction and also iron leaking onto the skin.
Anything I should be aware of?

That's really shit that hospital transport won't take you (I'd call them and explain your situation just in case they are more lenient on criteria for invidivual cases). My nearest hospital is 50 miles away too but at least the bus is direct, even if it only runs a couple of times a day, but no way can you go on a bus when you've been on the prep anyway. The UK ought to do better at helping patients in such situations, especially when public transport is poor in some areas. Here you can get a kela taxi which you book the day before and payment is capped at 25 euros per journey no matter how far. Had to use it when I took my dd to get her tonsils out as couldn't travel on the bus with a post-surgery child. They'll probably cut this soon though, with our new shitty government :(

Take something to entertain you, infusions take quite a while. And speak up if you feel any discomfort, no matter how slight, so the nurse can check that nothing is going wrong.

They monitor you and give iron as to your weight etc
Youll be ok

I don’t drive and have similar transport issues but I’m lucky that my DH does drive and also that his work are very understanding. He’s had to take multiple weeks off twice when I’ve needed emergency surgery for different issues - one with recovery being six weeks! And also I had a separate issue where I needed to go to hospital twice a week every week for a month or so. His work let him take all the time off that he needed to help; officially it should all have been unpaid but they paid him. It’s worth your DH checking, you might be pleasantly surprised.

It’d be good to work something out now as we’ve discovered that you don’t always have a choice - in both cases above I was sent straight to hospital for surgery!

When I had mine , the pharmacist came before to discuss it all with me . I had said I was nervous to the nurse so they slowed the drip down to 30-40 mins , and they asked me to let them know of any strange feelings I had . They also told me they would stop the infusion if there was any leakage . I did have a tiny patch but you can't see it now . They monitored me once when I felt a bit dizzy but to be honest , I think that was my anxiety- everything was fine .

The issue my husband has is that he can’t actually drive because his eyesight is too poor, even with glasses, for him to have ever learned. So, even if his employers give him the time off, he can’t help with the practicalities of getting me to and from the hospital.

My sister has spoken to her boss this morning and he has agreed to her being able to take certain days off to drive down and help me if I’m given an appointment on any of those days. Now just waiting for the hospital to call me, and noticed on my NHS app it says, if I don’t hear from them by tomorrow, to ring them

Mind if I join? I’ve various health issues and have recently discovered that my ferritin is 27 and wondered if it’s worth pushing the GP for iron supplements? (GP surgery had told me that my results were normal - I’ve only found out about the low-ish ferritin by chance!). I also have POTS-like symptoms (postural intolerance/autonomic dysfunction) and notice that there seems to be cross-over with the symptoms of iron deficiency. I’ve reacted badly to oral iron supplements in the past so feel a bit concerned about trying them again.

I don’t for the same reason. When my DH had to go in - luckily only once when he couldn’t drive himself - he had to take a taxi as there was no other option. It wasn’t quite as expensive as it would be for you though! Though it was a nightmare when he needed extra stuff.

You have a lovely sister, I’m glad you’ve got something sorted. My family have never been in a position to help.

landofgiants, my ferritin was 10 and I had the impression from the GP that over 15 would have been seen as ‘ok’ by the NHS, even though it’s not good at all. I’m not sure what the maximum is they’d have given supplements for though.