Eek! HUGE drop in ferritin

I just got the rest of my lab results back - and I am so glad I don't just take my PCP's word that they are normal, because the CNA at his office tried to tell me they were all fine and didn't want to look up the numbers for me - and my ferritin is 15.  Now, a year ago, it was 78.  A year before that, it was 140.  Does that sound fine?  Of course not.  I explained as much to the CNA and told her that's why I want the numbers - if I had such a huge drop in a year, I need to start taking more iron, or by next year I will be severely anemic.

My iron is 96.  It was 125 last time, so a minor drop.  Last year, when I saw my ferritin had gone from 140 to 78, I increased my iron from 50 mg to 75 mg.  I take it with 500 mg vitamin C, and at least two hours away from calcium - it's usually more like four hours away from calcium, probably.

I am unhappy about this huge drop.  I was not expecting it to be so low.  It's been steadily dropping since surgery - the first time I had labs done, it was 272.  But 15 is LOW.

I'm gonna increase my iron to 100 mg, and increase the vitamin C correspondingly.  I'm going to be more careful regarding what I eat with my iron, as well, because there are actually a lot of foods that can interfere to some extent with the absorption of iron.  I'm supposed to get my B12 checked again in a couple months and I think I'll ask my doc to fax over an order for ferritin at that time, too.

Thanks gain for the reminder of how important it is to get the actual numbers for ourselves. Glad you stayed on top of this and can now hopefully remedy the situation.

Would it be better to do 50 mg 2x a day?  Maybe better chance of absorption?

I don't think it would make much difference.  We can absorb a pretty big amount of iron at a time.

Good to know! Thanks

So you are going to take more than 500 mg of C with the increased iron? How much? I take 500 mg C with my iron, never thought to adjust it with a change in iron.

Yes.  You need about 200 mg C for every 30 mg elemental iron in order to aid absorption.  I've been taking 75 mg iron with 500 mg  C.  With 100 mg iron, I'd need a little over 600 mg C, but what I have are 500 mg and 1000 mg vitamin C tablets.  I might take one and a half of the 500 mg tablets, for a total of 750 mg, or cut the 1000 mg into quarters and then take 3/4 of one for 750 mg C.  Or I might be lazy and just take 1000 mg C.

Yikes!  Glad you caught that!  My iron also dropped in pretty big numbers for three years in a row (but I had not been taking any at all since I had a hysterectomy).  I didn't worry about the first drop but when I saw the drop after last year's labs, I knew I had to start taking some or I would have been deficient by this year.  My lab value still wasn't quite as high as I wanted it, so I increased my iron last month.  Based on what you wrote, though, I am probably short by about 200mg on the Vit C to go with the increased dose (not quite enough with the iron capsule).

Hope you don't have any trouble getting the level back up.  It is a bit concerning that so many people end up with infusions.

Lora

I suspect I am going to have trouble getting it back up, based on how much it dropped over the past year.  I'm gonna email Andrea and vitalady and ask their advice.

Do you have your labs drawn in the office or go to a hospital lab? I never have a problem getting copies of anything in my medical file by going directly to the medical records department at the hospital and signing a release. I am a lab tech, yet I can't look up my own labs due to HIPAA; still have to do the release. :(