b 12 shots and blood test

[christine71]

i have been having b12 shots every 3 months since i got pernicios anaemia the last 6 months i just sleep memory is all over the place feeling nausia every morning bones ach all over went to gp and told them they did a iron test for animia which they said was normal but wont do one for b12 as its there policy not to as you get b12 every 3 months can this be right i feel really ill and dont want to go to the gp again can any one help me please or do i have the right to a blood test

[Gambit62 Administrator]

If you feel awful all the time and feel worse since you started having the shots then problem could well be functional B12 deficiency

Short abstract on this in patients with B12 problems can be found here - sorry just the abstract

ndcn.ox.ac.uk/publications/...

If you find that you are feeling okay for a few weeks after the shots and then things start to go down hill then you are probably not retaining B12 as long as it (alledgedly) says on the tin (3 months). This is incredibly common - I've yet to find someone who actually manages to get through to 3 months without experiencing problems though there probably are some out there. Nobody is sure where the 3 months comes from as there doesn't seem to be any scientific evidence that anyone can trot out for it.

Unfortunately, the only way of confirming that you aren't retaining for 3 months is precisely the course that has been ruled out.

For either of these possibilities the treatment would appear to be more B12 than you currently have - though exactly how much would depend on which was the problem.

You always have the right to complain about your treatment but you probably won't feel up to doing that - not quite sure what the process is with GPs - practices usually have Patient Liaison Committes which is probably the first port of call.

This sight might provide you with some useful hints on finding a way forward

b12deficiency.info/b12-writ...

[christine71 in reply to Gambit62]

thank you for all your comments just feel im going down hill all the time and gp is not even helping thank you for all help and info which i will be looking into

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to christine71]

I had a similar experience in the 15 months after I was told - as a result of something completely unrelated - that I had a B12 deficiency - it took me a year after that to figure out what a B12 deficiency was and another 3 months after that to realise that I was going to have to treat myself if I wanted to get better because I really was continuing to go backwards. Doctor was a caring chocolate tea-pot but caring didn't really make up for being a chocolate teapot - the crunch for me was being given a questionnaire for depression and realising that anyone with a B12 deficiency was going to score high on it regardless of whether the B12 was affecting their mood. stumbled out and apologised for wasting his time (and thought to myself it was a pity he was also wasting mine). Started using a nasal spray I'd had as a supplement much more than it said on the tin and things started to improve remarkably quickly. I mainly use the nasal spray but do occasionally inject subcutaneously - you can get the ampoules from outside the UK (lots of people use German pharmacists) as you don't need a prescription there.