Take your iron

 Is it ok to take it right before bedtime?  That's the only time I don't take anything else and can take it by itself.  

 wow hope everything gets worked out and it goes back up! I though get frustrated b/c I have a level of 4 and they are having me wait til JULY at my pcp for new labs and will not do infusions so i been walking around like a tired azz zombie. I go to my surgeon friday and I am going to insist for new labs to be done then and if my level is still that low I think an infusion should be in order. 

Ack, yes be adamant with your surgeon to have labs drawn again and be referred for iron infusions.  I'm exhausted all the time (older mom, running with 2 young boys) I didn't expect these results.

My bariatric program talks about iron, but as an option. It is not one of the required supplements I'm supposed to take every day. But reading all this, I think I'm going to go ahead and make it part of my daily regimen.

Thanks for this!

Jenny yes start on an iron supplement.  Get copies of your labs every time you have them ran, track them in a spreadsheet. 

My surgeon didn't include iron in his plan either (6 years ago) and I have learned lots on OH pertaining to what we really need to do along with the ASMBS guidelines.  I KNOW what I should have been doing and I haven't. 

I had lots of female problems with multiple cycles a month prior to my hysterectomy in 2009; that is when it would have made more sense to me to be anemic.

Dana: Iron is the one thing I slack on for the same reasons. Coffee! I need to get some proferrin I think. I bet the infusions perk you right up!

Lining up for my butt-kicking here.

I've always had great iron levels, all my life, so I have been kinda, um, casual with that. Especially when I read that you couldn't take it with any calcium or dairy. It got complicated there. I eat yogurt every day, and drink click twice a day, which I make with half ff milk, and which has calcium added. The timing always seems wrong, and I start to just let it go. Recently I said, ok, anything is better than nothing. Started just taking it, whenever I thought of it.

I haven't had any blood work done in I'm ashamed to say how long, due to coverage and $ problems, now I'm afraid to even think about what the results might say...

What's doubly stupid is I have the order for the blood work, right here in my office.  But it has to be done fasting, and I have to get up at 6am, get my kids together, out the door and dropped off at school, and be at my desk at 9am. I can't ever quite pull it off without something in me, and then I can't do the blood work.

I know, I know, wah-wah-wah. It's lame, and I must just get it done. It just seems inexplicably difficult. I get to all my other appointments, follow-ups, see my therapist about my shoulder, no problem, but that part about getting everything done, and making an am fasting appointment without any caffeine is apparently beyond me.


Signed,

Koko the Whiner

LOL not laughing at you at all.  I feel the same way about no caffiene in the a.m. before blood work.  If I ever get the "easy way out" again I think I'll go postal on someone.

Try to get those labs done......how are you feeling? 

I've been exhausted for a while and have blamed it on marital issues, running with my boys, overworked and underpaid, and the list goes on.

I think it was Pup that said just take them.  It's better to absorb something then nothing at all.  I have a friend that had WLS and her surgeon told her the same thing.  I learned my lesson on this one. 

Stupid question here.  So I have an egg every morning and that is when I take my vitamins (not calcium though).  Since eggs are dairy am I not suppose to be taking my iron then?  I dont recall what my level was last year but it was normal I know.

Thanks.

I believe it is that calcium that's an issue with iron absorption, not the general food category of "dairy".