PLEASE comment on my blood results!

[Cetus]

Please help! My GP keeps saying there is nothing wrong with my blood results but I see many which are regularly out of range. I think he is fobbing me off.

Can you comment on my blood test results? Over the years I have had a lot of symptoms of B12 deficiency including symptoms for pernicious anaemia.

In case you can't see the chart, I have posted it to ibb.co/Np2MkHv .

Here is the just the most recent set of results:

Hb/HGB concentration (range 13 to 18) = 14.7

WBC (range 4 to 11) = 3.7

platelet (range 150 to 450) = 209

RBC count (range 4.2 to 6.5) = 5.24

hematocrit/HCT (range 0.4 to 0.54 ) = 0.451

MCV (range 84 to 102) = 86 more typically 82 to 84

MCH (range 28 to 33) = 28.1

MCHC (range 30 to 35) = 32.6

Some background:

(1) Until a few years ago I took B12 and folate because they seemed to help but so did other vitamns so I didn't take them steadily.

(2) In the last 3 years I've taken B12 and folate much more steadily and at higher doses including injections.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ANY COMMENTS.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

The measures that appear to be out of range are at the bottom of the range indicating that your red blood cells are smaller than normal - this would be consistent with a microcytic anaemia - most common cause being iron deficiency.

The type of anaemia associated with B12 deficiency is macrocytic anaemia - MCV, MCH and MCHC would be expected to be above range rather than below

ALT and AST are tests of liver function. Liver problems can cause dumping of B12 which would lead to high serum B12 in the absence of supplementation, and could result in a functional B12 deficiency.

if you aren't supplementing folate I have no idea why your folate levels are high

[Cetus in reply to Gambit62]

Gambit62 Thank you for your kind comments.

I have been supplementing folate for several years. I started by supplementing anything that helped, and there were a lot of things, and slowly, with a lot of twists and turns, I narrowed it down to folate, B12, iron, carnitine and a few others.

Thank you for mentioning microcytic anaemia. When I looked it up I found the following comment in a medical note.

"When megaloblastic anaemia occurs in combination with a condition that gives rise to microcytic anaemia, many megaloblastic features may be masked. Instead of being macrocytic, the anaemia could be normocytic or even microcytic. Vitamin B12 deficiency is a diagnosis that must not be overlooked." Quoted from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/157...

What does all this mean for me? I had never considered microcytic anaemia. I have many confirmatory signs of B12 deficiency also I find taking B12 helps and stopping B12 makes me ill. What should I look into next to get to the bottom of this?

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Cetus]

microcytic anaemia can be indicative of problems absorbing iron but you really need to get some proper medical advice - this forum isn't a substitute for professional medical advice.

If your current doctor isn't interested, what are your options of changing to another doctor?

[Cetus in reply to Gambit62]

Gambit62 My current GP is easily accessible and can be good if he wants to help. This is something he isn't interested in and has written very few observations in the notes for other doctors.

The situation is a bit like having to change doctors in the middle of an investigation, except my GP isn't investigating and a new GP would have to start afresh