GP Appointment

[22ntstcw]

What questions should I ask

[fbirder]

It depends what questions you want answers to.

Do you think you're B12 deficient?

Why?

What possible causes have been suggested (are you vegan or have you had stomach surgery)?

What tests have you had done?

What were the results?

Has any treatment been suggested?

Have any further tests been suggested?

What country are you in?

You had several helpful replies in your post 4 days ago. But for anything more than general advice you really need to supply more info.

[Foggyme Administrator]

Hello 22ntstcw. Perhaps you could start by telling us a bit about your situation? For instance, have you been diagnosed with anything by your GP or a hospital consultant? If so, what was it and when. Are you on any treatment? How do you feel? Are you still having any symptoms? Is there anything going on that you do not understand or cannot deal with? Do you have anybody supporting you?

It's quite difficult to be able to help you without knowing a little about your medical situation so if you could say something, it would give us all a better idea of how to help you.

Anything will do for a start.

Take care.

[22ntstcw in reply to Foggyme]

First, I am sorry I hav'vt answered your posts.

I'm 69 male and 18 month I headaches something which I don't get, at the same time I was making mistakes when diving, but I put down the Arthritis I have and my age.

My Doctor said Vertigo and gave me tables but my driving worse, as I turned a corners I blackout for 5-6 seconds so I stopped driving.

Then one night I started to sweat, my heart was bonding, aching all my body, that was in November 2015, I went to 5 Doctors over Christmas into ! have sleep disturbance, wake up aching and still tired, fall asleep in day the new year, and the last one did blood test showed I had P.A.

[Foggyme Administrator in reply to 22ntstcw]

Hello 22ntstcw. Good to hear from you. Did your doctor start you on B12 injections? Are you having any other treatment? And do you know if your doctors tested your serum B12 levels and what the result was (with the reference ranges so that we can see where the result sits in the scale)

The information would be useful to know so that we can think of how best to help you.

As you have PA, B12 deficiency is most likely the prime culprit for your symptoms (though your GP may want to rule other things out as there are other autoimmune conditions that run hand in hand with PA).

Getting the right treatment is crucial in the early stages in order to avoid the potential for irreversible neurological damage so, send us some information about where your 'at' with treatment and people will be along to help.

Take care

[Foggyme Administrator]

P.s. It might be a good idea to cut and paste the reply you sent just now into a new post, then add the extra information I suggested would be useful.

More people will see it and you'll be likely to get many more responses (people tend to not see threads in a post unless they have responded to the original).

The more responses the better, and once people have sent a reply, they tend to keep an eye on a thread or get notified if you reply to them directly.

Cheers

[22ntstcw]

Hello

I didn't get any answers form my GP, she did say my last B12 bloods test was ok, not a word about treatment, she was very vague saying I was in the right hands.

[Foggyme Administrator in reply to 22ntstcw]

Hello 22ntstcw. If you have been diagnosed with PA (which you say you have) and are having symptoms of B12 deficiency (including neurological symptoms), then you need treatment with B12 injections, FOR LIFE. The symptoms you describe are listed as symptoms of B12 deficiency.

As you have PA, B12 cannot be absorbed by your stomach and intestines so you cannot get it from food (in the normal way) and supplementation from tablets will not work. This is why B12 injections are so important for someone with PA. Even if your B12 levels are ''okay' (and this is unlikely, considering the symptoms you have), then your body's store of B12 will continue to drop and you will become increasingly unwell.

Your GP should be treating your SYMPTOMS and not serum B12 levels - all the guidelines state this and you GP is being negligent if she does not treat your pernicious anaemia and, more importantly, the symptoms you have right now!

You most certainly need treatment for pernicious anaemia and the treatment is B12 injections. Again, for LIFE.

Medics will often say that blood results are 'normal' when they are not. B12 levels bumping along at the bottom of the scale are not good enough. This is why it is important to get a copy of your blood results so that you can see what they actually are.

Any serum B12 level lower that 500ug/L can produce neurological symptoms and, ultimately, neurological damage, which over time may become irreversible. Your B12 levels need to be at lease 1000 (some say over 1500) to keep you well and allow your body to heal.

There are guidelines for the treatment of PA and vitamin B12 deficiency that it would be very useful for you to read. I don't have time to include all the links here but if you click on my username it will take you to my profile page. Go to the first post I wrote and you will see the replies, advice, information and links to guidelines that I was sent. Look, in particular, for BNF, NEQUAS, NICE and BMJ guidelines. @fbirder has also produced a summary document that contains a summary of all the current guidelines. You could also look at the replies I have written to others about problems with getting B12 treatment - they will show you that you are not alone and give you more information about B12 deficiency, serum B12 levels, the problems with getting treatment from medics etc. Also search for information from @fbirder, @gambit62, @polaris, @clivealive and @sleepybunny (a few members who I can think of 'off-hand' - all are very knowledgable and it is always useful to read anything they have written.

You may have to be very persuasive to get treatment from your GP and as you read through posts here, you will realise that most people here have to battle very hard to get appropriate treatment. You may also be surprised at the level of hostility you might meet.

People here have found that the best way to deal with this is to become knowledgable about their own condition. Many print out guidelines and take them along to the surgery in order to try and educate their GP's - and get treatment! This might be a good way for your to start to approach your own situation.

Also - two very good books that are well worth reading are 'What You Need to Know About Pernicious Anaemia & B12 Deficiency by Martynn Hooper and 'Could it Be B12 An Epedemic of Misdiagnosises by Sally Pa holly and Jeffery J Stewart. Many member have also bought these for their GP's in an attempt to get them to educate theirselves!

B12 deficiency and PA are very complex things and a first you'll feel overload with information and 'stuff' that may sound like a foreign language.

Please don't despair - it does sink in overtime and you are not alone in this. People in is forum will always reply if you post with information updates and ask anything that you don't understand.

It's always a good idea to make a new post for anything new - older posts tend to get missed once they are way down the page. This will enable more people to see what you write and try to help you.

And it would really be a very good idea to get those Serum B12 results from your GP and put them in a new post so that people can comment. It's very difficult to offer the best advice if some of the 'facts' are missing.

Finally, I'm so sorry that you're having such horrible symptoms and struggling to get treatment.

Please write a new post, with updates, to let us know how you are getting on.

I sincerely hope that all goes well, you get some treatment, and start to feel much better very soon.

[Gb57 in reply to Foggyme]

I'm so glad we have lovely caring people on this site. The internet is truly wonderful!!

[Foggyme Administrator in reply to Gb57]

Couldn't agree more Gb57. I have had so much help and it's made a real difference to me. Don't know where I would be now if I hadn't discovered this wonderful place. And my wonderful 'stranger friends'.

Take care 😀

[fbirder in reply to Foggyme]

my wonderful 'stranger friends'.

And they don't get much stranger

[Gb57 in reply to Foggyme]

Ditto me too!

[22ntstcw]

Thank you for the information and will do what you suggest.

[Foggyme Administrator in reply to 22ntstcw]

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.