I'm so worried about my Dad, he's 78 has diabetes, has had triple heart bypass, takes 30 prescribed tablets from Dr's and has sickness, dhioreaweight loss, fatigue and pins and needles in his hands and feet oh and thyroid trouble. He's GP says he's bloods are fine!!! I ordered an ambulance for him a few months back and the hospital kept him in over night where he was given a drip of red colour liquid which made him feel great..
His GP won't acknowledge a b12 deficientcy and I really believe this is the cause - please would you help me, I don't know what to do.. TiA x
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TAB100
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Hello TAB 100. Sorry, have to quick, not much time...
Suggest you get the surgery to print out blood results for you. What a GP says is normal is not always the case. Results bumping along the bottom of the scale will not do.
As jillc39 says, has he actually been tested for B12 deficiency. Also worth noting that serum B12 can be a unreliable indicator of B12 status as it can give a false reading high reading and also does not indicate what is going on at a cell level.
All the guidelines state that if symptoms of B12 deficiency are present, then treatment with injections should take place, even if the serum B12 level is in the 'normal' range.
When neurological symptoms are present ( which you say are), then treatment should take place without delay and you Dad should be having B12 every other day until no further improvement and the every 8 weeks (although some people need it more frequently). This is important, as swift treatment is needed to prevent potentially irreversible neurological damage.
If you need guidelines to take to your GP click on my username and go to the first post I wrote (only about five). Look for, in particular, NICE, BNF and NEQAS guidelines (and there are others).
You may have to be quite persuasive with your GP since many of them have an extremely poor understanding of B12 deficiency / PA (a thought, has he been tested for PA?). Hence the suggestion that you actually take some guidelines with you.
Sorry, but haven't got time to say more....good luck. Let us know how it goes.
Excuse any typos...no time to re-read. Auto correct is a bit of a fiend!
Does he have memory problems at all - the standard blood screening for memory does include B12 and folate so that might be one backdoor way of getting it done ...
You could also ask for a review of his medications - particularly if he is taking metformin - which is known to interfere with B12 absorption - and is not recommended as a drug to be used with the more annually challenged. Most statins also interfere with B12 absorption.
Unfortunately the other conditions you mention do have a considerable overlap with B12 and it's likely that the GPs will put any symptoms down to those pre-existing conditions.
One thing you could try is gathering information that makes it clear that a B12 deficiency can be present even if there isn't any macrocytosis as its possible the doctor thinks there can't be anything wrong because there isn't any sign of macrocytosis.
How was he diagnosed with Alzheimers - was it just the GP or did he see a specialist? Alzheimers is a rather specific form of dementia but just as PA is used as a catch all for B12 deficiency, Alzheimers can be used as a general way of saying dementia. He should have had a blood screening as part of the diagnosis if it is a thorough one.
When the GP says "The bloods are fine" he could well be under the impression that a B12 deficiency is always accompanied by macrocytic anaemia (large red cells). If there are no red cells that means no B12 deficiency. That's wrong.
My dad went to his GP today and asked for B12 injections to which the GP replied he must check his blood first as too much B12 in the body can be bad for the kidneys!!!
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