PCP Running CBC a month before I'm supposed to do it for my surgeon

It has become quite apparent to me that I'm deficient somewhere. For a while I have been experiencing dizziness every time I stand up and recently I've noticed excessive and mysterious bruising on my legs. I brought this up to my PCP yesterday as I was visiting with her about a sinus infection and she inquired about my B12 and Iron. My surgeon has me on daily sublingual B12, but no iron. Anyway, she ordered a CBC to check my vitamin levels and hopefully I'll hear from her with the results soon.

My question is: (and I'll probably just need to ask my surgeon's office about this) will I still need to have my blood drawn and retested less than a month from now as I was scheduled for my labs right before my 6 month checkup? Have any of you had this kind of issue?

You may not need the CBC redrawn but you'd still need your other labs. How come your PCP is just doing a CBC and not checking your iron level?  A CBC doesn't really check any vitamin levels, it tells you how many red blood cells, white blood cells, etc you have.

I am unclear... Did the doctor just order a blood count or a whole bunch of vitamin levels? If the former, the CBC itself is such a small (and inexpensive) part of the whole batch of lab work that they will probably do it again. (If it is off at all this time, you will want it rechecked again, anyway.) If you meant the latter, they will probably NOT repeat them again in a month (your insurance will likely refuse to pay for it even if they try to do repeat a bunch of stuff. Just ask your doctor to have a copy of the lab results sent to your surgeon's office and then next month the surgeon can just order whatever your PCP did not already have checked.

Hope they find the problem quickly.

Lora
(damn autocorrect...!)

Well I guess I was confused. I thought she said she was ordering a CBC, but I know for sure she's going to be looking at my B12 and iron levels specifically. Thanks for the replies, ladies. :)

I would let your surgeon decide if he needs more up to date results.  I would guess that most of the time they don't.  I have been seeing my PCP, surgeon and a liver doctor and many times they will tell me have such and such level drawn and I tell them I just had that done and they can look it up themselves and see if they need a newer one.

unfortunatly alot of surgeon's dont' put us on the proper supplements or do the proper labs. there is no reason at 6 months out that a female shouldnt be on any iron.

The bruising could be from a low platelet or vitamin K level, I am glad you had the CBC level done but she can't tell if you are low in iron or B12 by a CBC alone. That only tells you if you are anemic but not what type - it also tells her if you have any type of infection. Yes, you definitely need to have your labs done at your surgeons office - your PCP only did a CBC - there are tons of other things that need to be tested. I had my labs done on Tuesday and they took like 14 or 15 vials of blood.

As far as your supplements - you should be on a multi vitamin 2 times daily and make sure it has selenium in it. calcium citrate 1500-2000mg per day, B12 sublinguals minimum of 1000mcg daily or monthly injection but most need alot more, carbonyl iron with vitamin C - minimum of 60 mg/400mg but most need a great deal more up to 300mg/2000mg daily all depends on your iron and ferritin levels butt he best iron is tender irons from vitalady.com - it is easy on the stomach, non constipating and easily absorbed - it has the vitamin C already in the capsules. They are 60mg capsules.

You also need vitamin D3 - Dry D3 and that depends on your vitamin D level - minimum of 5,000 units per day but most need a great deal more up to 50,000 units several times per week.

vitamin B1 - 100mg daily

then after your labs are drawn, you will see what else you need.


if you need a full sef of labs, I can give you a list