Iron Tablets

[MichaelJH]

After my bypass surgery I was somewhat anaemic. This righted itself in around six weeks. After my amputation I was again anaemic. Running a serious infection I was not paying to much attention as my medication was tweaked. Anyway nearly a year later I was still on them but found out they had been prescribed for three months and reviewed following a blood test. Anyway this was added to my routine blood tests. Cue a two month delay! Anyway I had two sets of blood tests as the left hand doesn't know what the right one is doing. As many will know iron tablets can cause constipation. I am still suffering four days after stopping the little devil's. Anybody experienced this and know how long it takes to normalise?!

[Gail1967]

I have a history of anaemia including post my bypass- had transfusion in hospital then the normal tablets for several months. I found once off them it was several weeks before the constipation subsided - took mild laxatives to move things along- until bowel felt naturally looser!! The joys!!!

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Gail1967]

Thank you. It looks as I have to be more patient.

[Clerkenweller]

I was on 3x 200mg ferrous sulphate and suffered the side effect you refer to. I found Laxido (sounds like a cartoon brand) v effective. I dropped to 1 tablet a day and it took about 3 weeks to get to normal. Lots of veg fruit and roughage but you know that.

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Clerkenweller]

I even ate some cabbage (😱) yesterday! After seeing Gail1967 reply I did a bit of Googling (I know one shouldn't) and it appears the issue is that the tablets feed bad gut bacteria!

[Shar28 in reply to MichaelJH]

If iron tablets feed bad gut bacteria have you tried eating pro-biotic yogurt and pre-biotic foods such as sauerkraut and kefir to feed the good bacteria?

From experience, ground linseed works well to alleviate the iron tablets side effects!

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Shar28]

Love sauerkraut with a good bockwurst!

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Clerkenweller]

No... Laxido was offered so often in hospital I asked the sister if she had shares in the company! 🤣 I am convinced levitation is a side effect! 😁

[stillaboveground]

Bloody hell Michael anemia, wound that wont heal and now you are bunged up with the iron pills, what else can go wrong, have you tried a magnet or listening to ghost story's. take care & keep safe.

Ruth

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to stillaboveground]

Yes! This man had been cheated and murdered. However some time after this his hand emerged from the grave. It slithered around entering houses through open windows and letter boxes grabbing the usually sleeping person by the throat...

[stillaboveground in reply to MichaelJH]

Oh dear😱

[Qualipop]

Oh dear. I'm already living on laxido which doesn't work very well and crucifies my adhesions and have just been told my iron levels are low. I was last given iron tablets 30 years ago when pregnant and had to stop hem because of severe stomach pain.

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Qualipop]

The FBC hasn't come through as yet but was stopped after a short face-to-face including checking the lower eye lid and palmar creases.

[Hidden]

Yakut does the trick for me, takes a few months of taking though. Plus seeds work a treat

[Alison_L]

I keep a large bottle of Lactulose handy...

[Milkfairy Heart Star]

For me, I feed my gut flora with bio yogurt, linseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.Eaten with soft tinned prunes.

Lots of water.

During pregnancy I took Floridex as iron pills are the work of the devil 👿

[080311]

Had a 4 month course starting December of last year, had Laxido didn’t help very much. John as a lot more tablets than me and tends to suffer with constipation he as tinned prunes every morning just a few and that makes him fine. I had prune juice which helped me. It took about 2-3 weeks before I was back to normal after stopping the iron tablets.

Pauline

[isobelhannah18]

Lots of water. The more fibre you eat the more water you should drink. I love dried prunes, figs and dates and they're really good for constipation but they've a high sugar content so I don't know whether your diabetes would allow you to have them. Good luck because constipation is an illness in itself!

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to isobelhannah18]

I might be able to tune (my insulin) in for two or three but no more. A sort of Catch-22 situation!

[Hidden]

After 2 years, I would happily forego my daily intake of iron tablets. Alas, there is little chance of that, whilst my pesky valves continue to kill off the red blood cells. A case of indefinite Aneamia.

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Hidden]

Sorry to hear that. Are they proposing anything going forward?

[Hidden in reply to MichaelJH]

To be honest, I'm not sure. It's complicated, but, I have three points of leakage, Mech AV and MVs and with a left to right Shunt which is the main concern. Unfortunately, the leakage is increasing, to the point my latest bout of Heart Failure popped up out of the blue. Due to multiple surgeries, there is a reluctance to carry out any further surgery. I've known this for years and been fine with it. However, my normal cardio has now asked for further advice from Newcastle Freeman, and as it stands Paediatric Surgeons are investigating options of keyhole surgery as conventional OHS isn't an option. Hopefully I'll find out one way or another in the next few months. Either way, it's out of my hands so, I just keep on popping the iron pills.

As it happens I see the HF nurse tomorrow and will be asking about an iron infusion again.

[Hidden]

I was found to be low in irn, not quite anaemic apparently - but close.

They gave me a 'ferretine infusion' - which took 30 mins all told and 30 minutes more to make sure I had suffered no side effects.

That was in June. I will be tested again in November, when hopefully they will have enough vials for use with blood test (given the current shortage). Apparently, if Ferretine levels are still down, I can expect another infusion.

Sure as heck beats taking iron tablets - just a thought.

[Pollypuss]

To my amazement I discovered I was very anaemic before my bypass to the extent they had to keep me in hospital for nearly two months because they could not operate until my blood level was normal. So I was on a drip twice. However I had the opposite and had a really bad upset stomach on iron. To keep my iron levels up now I discovered Spatone , a water based iron solution which I take every morning with a drop of cranberry juice (or any juice with vitamin c) and I have no problems . I wish all medication I had to take was as side effect free as Spatone.