Starting B12 injections with very low ferritin?

[RealLifeClanger]

I've just been diagnosed with Pernicious Anaemia as I am intrinsic factor positive. Has anyone started B12 injections for this while knowing their ferritin is very low? I'm getting conflicting information as to whether I should start injections before getting my ferritin up. My ferritin is only 10 and my B12 is obviously very low with the pernicious anaemia. I need to get both up but not sure what to tackle first or whether to just continue with the iron supplements (25mg liposomal ferrous fumarate) I recently started and hope for the best?! My first injection is booked in 9 days and I'm worried that as my ferritin is so low the injections will make me worse or not work properly.

Go for the injections. They are two different types of anaemia so you need both treating.

I hope you feel better soon

Thank you. It's so confusing as I keep reading different things. Some say ferritin needs to be at 30 before injections and some say to just treat both at the same time.

My B12 was 84 and ferritin was 25. I had the injections whilst simultaneously starting ferrous furmarate, but for me I, I didn’t start to feel better until my ferritin got to over 50 which took about 6 months (next blood test showed 54). So although I had the B12 injections I didn’t feel miraculously better - hopefully different for you though!

Yes take both- also ensure you have
potassium (baked potato, watermelon, coconut water)
Magnesium (supplement)
Folinic acid (not folic)
methylated multivit including b9.
Vit D

also NHS won't give you them often enough so join pernicious anaemia facebook group (pat kornic) and look into self injecting.

Thank you! I'm taking a supplement with most of those in already but I think it's methyl folate rather than folinic acid. I've just bought a separate vitamin D spray as that is also low.

I've just requested to join a pernicious anaemia Facebook group today so will check later if it's the same one.

Glad your ferritin got there eventually. Did you have the prescription strength ferrous fumarate? I'm very wary of trying that again as I had a terrible time with it previously.

Did the B12 injections make you feel worse initially? I was worried they might use up all my ferritin and I'd be worse off but not sure if it works like that.

No, the B12 injections didn’t make me feel worse - just didn’t make me feel better either. I will say that I did find they hurt though! Don’t normally have a problem with arm injections but found these stung for 5/10 mins.

Ferrous furmarate was the 210mg you can buy OTC. I took daily with vit C for 6 months which took me to 54 but I stopped and another blood test showed my levels dropping so I’m obviously not storing it well. For the last 12-18 months I’ve pretty much self-medicated and taken ferrous furmarate every other day (as recommended on here) with vit C but I’ve not had a blood test so no idea what my current levels are.

Thanks, yeah I think I'm probably going to have to take iron forever as I just don't store it. Hopefully I can space it out more as time goes on.