Hi Gang,

Nothing major but I do have a personal experience to relate.  I have been supplementing with iron according to the ASMBS guidelines. I had bloodwork drawn last week for my upcoming appointment.

I got a call from my Doctors office today. My iron is "way too high" and I should stop taking my supplements immediately.

I have been feeling fine lately. I am tired..but that is because I am going wihtout sleep due to wedding and end of quarter.

Anyway, I find this remarkable because PRIOR TO WLS, I was anemic and had low iron.

So despite having that chunk of my intestine "bypassed" I am still doing fine.

The take home messages are

1) Keep up on your labs

2)Things can be wrong although you feel great and may be in teh best health you have ever been

3) Miracles (liek not being anemic) do happen!!!

ask for copy of lab work. 

what is too high? how about your other numbers?  ferritin? 

High iron may not be related to supplementation. It may be internal issue.  

I agree with Hala. And how do the numbers compare to your last lab draw?

Way too high is not very scientific. What are the numbers?

I'm also curious about how high is way too high?

HI Guys!

Thanks for your quick response.

I dont have the numbers. I shall see her on 12/19.

I am curious now too!

Thanks!

Which iron numbers are they talking about?  I ask for copies of all my labs and I keep them in a folder and I watch my numbers.  Started doing this when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2007. Now I watch my numbers for the wls results as well.

I noticed you have to be specific with your questions when talking with the nurse or doctor.  Ask which iron level they are talking about. Ask what your ferritin level is. At 9 months out my wls told me which tests to have my primary doctor run. Then the wls gets a copy to add to my record with them. I had a wls appt and found out that my primary wasn't testing for it. She was testing for iron just not the ferritin. She knew to test for B12 with a wls patient. I had to ask her to add ferritin to the list of bloodwork(I get like 3-4 pages of blood work results for a ton of things, feel like a pincushion)

Last month my liver results were really high over 1000 or close to it depending on which enzyme it was and my ferritin was 244 and my iron bloodwork was 97. I was told to stop taking my iron supplement for a month since too much iron can effect the liver. Had bloodwork done and my liver is back to normal. I called the doctors office and my ferritin dropped I believe the nurse said into the 20's or 30's. I don't remember what my iron was but I am more concerned with what my ferritin levels are. I started taking my iron again but a smaller dose. :)

snowAngel, I too battle with hypothyroid. They have been adjusting my meds for almost 5 years and cannot get it into normal range. What treatment has been successful for you?

I have taken armour thyroid for the past four years.  I had been on levothyroxine before that and I didn't feel like it was working for me. Trying to get that dosage right was a nightmare. There were times that my doc had me take higher dose every other day and a lower dose the other days just to try to get my levels where they needed to be.  I had just started researching about armour before I moved. When I got the new doctor I asked if I could switch to armour the second or third doc appt.  She agreed and I feel so much better on it.  Then it was just monitoring levels and I noticed that when my levels were closer to 0 I felt best.  After the rny my levels changed and even though it was in the "normal" range, I asked her if I could have a dosage change. After monitoring it for so long I know what I feel the best at.   Luckily I have had doctors who listen to me.  My doctor has me do blood work every three months right now.

edited to add. Are they monitoring your T3 and T4 when they take blood for your tsh?  Armour helps both T3 and T4 levels.  Whereas levothyroxine and synthroid(sp?) I believe only helps with the T4. 

Thanks for the info. I will look into the armour thyroid. I have been on levothyroxide all this time. I've had two different doctors and it seems they treat it differently. My old doctor increased the dosages even though my thyroid was low. My new doctor decreases the dosage since my thyroid is low. So far, TSH is all they have been checking. Last lab it was 0.374 UIU/ML. The previous lab it was lower at 0.085 so maybe it is working after loosing weight. But I will check into armour thyroid to talk to my doctor at next months lab. Thanks again!