Iron Infusion

[Ced60]

I have my first iron infusion next week and wondered what to expect in terms of time and after effects ?

Do you feel full of life ?

[Joolsg]

I didn't notice any difference at all. But my ferritin was already at 145. If your levels are very low, I'm sure you will notice an increase in energy.I was surprised at how quickly it went. In and out in half an hour.

[tagaxel in reply to Joolsg]

Did they give you a test shot before the infusion to make sure that you were not susceptible to anaphylaxis?

[Joolsg in reply to tagaxel]

No. But I looked up the statistics. Anaphylaxis is very rare. For Injectafer it's 1 in 250,000.I had been receiving monthly infusions of natalizumab, an MS drug, for 15 years and the rate of Anaphylaxis was far higher for that.There are a lot of scare stories, particularly amongst doctors. It's outdated. Modern iron formulations are far safer than those in the 80s.

There are meds and crash teams if anything goes wrong. But it won't.

You will be absolutely fine.

[Jumpey]

I definitely felt less tired.It had no effect on my RLS sadly.But I'd had low hemaglobin. My ferritin had been 130 before the infusion. Huge good luck.

[tagaxel]

Maybe you could help me out. I think they will give you a test shot before the infusion to make sure that you are not susceptible to anaphylaxis. Could you find out – I guess you’d have to ask someone administering the infusion – what would happen if you tested positive for anaphylaxis. In other words, if you tested positive, would they have to give you something like epinephrine.

[Ced60 in reply to tagaxel]

I have had my infusion today , it took 5 hours to go through and I had to stay for an hour afterwards . They did give me a test shot for 15 mins at a really slow rate at the start and on I had half hourly obs throughout the whole infusion . I had one called Cosmofer, they said it is a strong dose. Fingers crossed now

[Ced60]

I will ask when I go ! He told me that I would be there all day as the molecular structure has been changed to stop all the anaphylactic shock issues that they had in the past and that they infuse it really slowly for that reason ? I don’t understand what he was saying to be honest but it was along those lines !