Recent Blood Work

[Sparkleshimmer]

Hi

Could anyone shed any light on this blood work I have just had done??

I am currently taking Ferrous Sulphate - 3 x daily (awaiting an iron infusion)

5mg Folate - daily

Have recently had B12 injections.

This stuff makes no sense to me - does it look like things are getting better??

Thanks in Advance

MW

[shaunab87]

Hi

I have just got my result back to and I put all the codes i.e RBC into google to see what the medical term was. Its interesting to read. I know the numbers in brackets are the range.

Hope I helped.

Thanks

[Gambit62 Administrator]

Not an expert but the results above are showing that you have low iron and that you have enlarged and slightly deformed blood cells - the later is a classic symptom of B12 and folate deficiency.

In order to see if things are improving you would need to look at early blood tests.

However, clearing up the macrocytosis caused by B12 deficiency only happens as old blood cells die and new ones are made in your bone marrow. The average life of a red blood cell is about 4 months so that is going to take a while so depending on time-scales from when you started on B12 it is probably very early days and you wouldn't expect to be seeing much improvement in these measures yet.

Have you noticed any improvement in other symptoms that you had?

There is a checklist of symptoms in the pinned posts.

[fbirder]

Your mean cell volume (MCV) is normal. Which means, on average, your red cells are neither too small or too large - On average.

The RDW describes the range of red cell sizes, and your's is high. That means that you have some red cells that are too small and some that are too large. But the average is OK.

The most likely reason is a combination of iron deficiency anaemia (which makes them too small) and B12/Folate induced macrocytic anaemia (which makes them too large).

It's not possible to tell if things are improving from a single measurement. But if it is that combination then you should start feeling better within a couple of months - and see some signs of improvement before then.

Iron sulfate is not the best form of iron to take. Take the rest of the pills with orange juice - or Tesco effervescent Vitamin C tablets. They contain ascorbic and citric acids which help the iron get into solution - which is where it needs to be for absorption to happen.

Many people find different forms of iron (fumarate or bisglycinate) are more effective and gentler on the stomach.

[Sparkleshimmer]

Thanks for the replies, very helpful