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Iron infusion
On Friday I had an iron infusion to replenish my iron stores. I went through this before several years ago after a bad bout of menorrhagia which depleted my iron. The infusion fixed me right up as I didn’t have any more extreme blood loss after that.
My appointment was at 8:15 am at my doctor’s office. The Scientist said he’d drive me even though it wasn’t exactly needed. It was kind of a just-in-case sort of thing, along with moral support. He even missed some of the cricket match to be there. :) Anyway, we left in plenty of time and arrived a few minutes early. As we pulled in, I took note of the pharmacy and then realized I’d left the iron at home. I had to get the prescription filled and take it to the appointment. So we had to return home to get it and return. Fortunately, my doctor was okay with that and I was fit into the schedule.
It took a little while to get everything set up by the nurse. Then the doctor came in and placed the canula in my hand and then got it started. She left at that point and the nurse handled the rest. It was all pretty ordinary and not much of note happened. My blood pressure was a bit on the lower side of normal this time, which is kind of unusual these days.
It was a good thing my appointment wasn’t for a couple of days earlier because there were massive power outages in the area and they weren’t able to operate during that time.
After the infusion finished, I came home and took a nap. I hadn’t had enough sleep the night before and I was already feeling sluggish. The extra hour or so made a difference later on when I had to work. It takes two to four weeks for the infusion to fully kick in so I don’t expect any major changes just yet. Last time it happened really gradually so that might be the same this time.
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Short term
As I posted yesterday, I was in to see the doctor about my test results today. My usual doctor is currently away so I saw a different one, who is a registrar (sort of gp in training although not really training). I saw this one before about my fracture in my foot and she was fine then. This time her inexperience was really obvious.
Since my iron stores keep dropping so fast, the plan right now is to have an iron infusion, which is scheduled for Friday. I’ve had one once before when I had iron deficiency from menorrhagia and it worked well. This one should keep me in good shape for a few months and hopefully, answers will be available on the dropping iron before I need another one. I must admit I’m not very confident the capsule stuff will uncover anything but you never know.
Most of the other irregular results weren’t anything to be concerned about in isolation. A couple of tests will need to be done again. And then there is the antibody testing that again showed super-high anti-nuclear antibodies. That’s nothing new though. There was, however, mention of cytoplasmic antibodies and my questions showed this doctor knows almost nothing about them even though it’s a fairly common finding. There is also a positive test on a liver antibody which can relate to autoimmune liver issues. This had a note but was not highlighted and she would have missed it had I not pointed it out. She’s not concerned since my liver is looking really good right now. But in the past, I’ve had an ANA pattern that has had some associations with autoimmune liver disease. If something is developing I would rather know earlier than wait for it cause issues. She’s going to consult with my regular gp when she is back. Also, my liver results are “deranged” which apparently means they are up and down. About every second test shows some abnormal results. While they look great right now, they might not be quite so good next time. I never heard of deranged results before but on searching, I found it’s a common term in the medical community. Weird. They weren’t that high last time so I can’t help thinking my doctor had concerns when she ordered the tests.
All that said, my main concern is the low iron and that will hopefully be sorted, at least temporarily, after Friday.
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Iron infusion
I had my iron infusion last Friday and it wasn’t what I was expecting. Well, I was told to allow an hour, which was fine. I took my iPad and my Kindle with me to use while I was waiting for it to finish. Alas, I got there and the nurse put my purse and my iPad on the bed opposite to where I was located so I didn’t have access to it. When I have donated blood or plasma in the past, that’s how I passed the time and it went really quickly. Instead I ended up overhearing the minor dramas in the triage/nurse area.
The actual procedure went pretty smoothly. I thought I’d be sitting in a reclining chair but instead was given a “bed” to use. I offered my right arm since I have a good vein there but the nurse said there was a bump on the vein and wasn’t keen to use that for fear of damaging it in the future. I think the needle is kind of big…probably much like the needle for plasma donations, I would think, since a similar process occurs. Well, at least part of it is similar. Anyway, after consulting with the doctor, it was decided to use the vein in my wrist and that went fine. In fact it hurt less than the blood drawn for my calcium test earlier in the week. I think that’s pretty good for that location and a big needle.
I had to fill a prescription ahead of time for two vials of iron and bring it with me. The nurse added those to some saline solutions and it was all connected up by the doctor. It was rather boring but it took less than half an hour to finish and then I was on my way home. I had no side effects at all. I thought perhaps I’d had the metallic taste in my mouth later on but that didn’t happen either. I did have a bit of a headache for a couple of days but I have no idea if that was related to the infusion of just my body’s reaction to the wintry sort of weather we had on the weekend.
It’s been almost a week and I don’t feel any different so I don’t really know when I might feel any improved effects. Or perhaps it will be quite gradual…or maybe I won’t notice much changing. I have to do another blood test a month after the infusion to check my iron levels so I will see that is going at that time.
Meanwhile, my calcium test result came back and it was normal so I started taking the vitamin D yesterday. I’m not sure when that will be tested again but rather imagine that it will take a while for that to increase and for my parathyroid level to go down…assuming that’s what happens with it. Hopefully my body will be in better balance of all these things soon.