blood test results have left me confused, like really confused.

[seanto]

so last week I had restless leg syndrome which is my bodies way of telling me my iron levels have dropped. My levels have a habbit of going up and down which is something Im not able to fully control. This is because if I take ferrous sulfate when I feel fine my levels go above normal. So I have to rely on my symptoms to let me know they have dropped but at the same time hope I catch it early as one time I almost had a blood transfusion. Thats a zone I dont ever want to go back to but it was also reported that time that I had Microcytic, hypochromic anemia. So when my body gave me restless leg syndrome I went back on my meds and straight away started to feel better. However by thursday midday I relizsed it was absorbing the iron quicker than I could give it or at lest it felt that way. As i always take it right before I go to bed as normaly taking one a due cures my problems. So I had woke up feeling like I was coming towards the end of my issues. However by 5-6pm I ended up feeling by both light and drowsy on top of the restless legs. I kept nodding off to sleep without relizsing I was doing so and quite frequently. Also went off my food. I ended up doing the only logical thing and rang 111 who put me in touch with an out of hours person. Out of hours said there wasn't a lot they could do because even if they got me out for a blood test I wouldn't get the results till the next day. so they told me to book and emergency one with gp surgary in the morning. Now I had the blood test feeling a little better as I had some iron the night before right before bed and luckily haven't gone back to how I was feeling thursday evening thanks to iron meds.

Then today I ring up for my results to be told me levels where all normal and when I tried asking for numbers the woman over the phone didnt quite understand what i wanted. So I ended up finding out my white cells was at 5.1 and my red cells where at 4.50. This has like left me supper confused like how could my levels be fine when my symptons only went down when taking ferrous sulfate? Like it just doesnt make sense to me. like how could my iron be low but not my blood? like why would mt body need the meds if my levels where fine? im just confused.

also just in case anyone was wondering I have to leave a two hour gap ether side of meds or I will get stomach pain even if i have eaten something that shouldn't conflict with the meds. I also have a high metabolism and small stomach so I struggle to find time in the day to top up my iron. As i have to eat small meals but more often which is why I would always take my meds right before bed.

[Agirl89]

Hi

Did your iron levels also show your ferritin level as opposed to just rbc?

Sometimes your ferritin levels can be low (think of it as stores) but haemoglobin still be normal enough

[seanto in reply to Agirl89]

hey

I dont know to be honest as I tried asking for ferritin levels over the phone but the woman was like heres the results for your white and then offered me my red blood count when i tried asking again. so I gave up. I tried ringing them up not so long ago to ask if i could speak to someone about them but they told me I had to ring tomorrow as I didn't ring them at 8am. Oh how I wish my body didn't sleep through my alarms.

[lotsoissues]

I get restless arm syndrome and sometimes legs. Don't have a clue why but I get it