Hi All,
I'm new here - thought I'd join as I've been browsing the site for some time following being diagnosed with Pernicious Anaemia and B12 deficiency in July/August this year, apparently probably resulting from issues with heavy menstrual bleeding (sorry if TMI) and being on the contraceptive pill for 9(ish) years. I'd been feeling exhausted all the time for about 6 to 9 months prior to this (couldn't go to the gym anymore, was literally just crashing after a usual day writing my PhD) - I'd been putting it down to stress and being lazy but eventually decided that I needed to get checked out and here we are!
My B12 levels were at 104 following a blood test in July which I understand is quite low (not really sure, wasn't actually explained to me!), and so I had the 6 "loading doses" at the start of August. I had the flu at the time so didn't immediately feel the true impact until end of August. From then on, throughout September, I was definitely feeling more energised, less tired, and had better concentration - felt as much like my old self as possible at that time (I was changing to a different contraceptive pill at the time too).
For the past few weeks, however, since start of October I've started feeling back to how I felt before the injections. I'm currently in the second year of my PhD, and also do some teaching of undergraduates alongside, and I'm running a choir this year so I am quite a busy person and can't afford to be exhausted constantly/not about to concentrate.
So, now, I'm after some advice really about people's experiences with getting the B12 injections more regularly than 3 months in the UK. I think I need the injections every 2 months rather than 3 - my next injection isn't until Nov 16th and this just seems like such a long time to last whilst feeling like this/not being as productive with my work/feeling exhausted. Has anyone had any luck with persuading Doctors in the UK (I'm in Wales) to increase the frequency of their injections? How could I approach this with my Doctor (got an appt on Friday)? Any studies/research papers I could use? What's the best way to achieve this?
Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks