Hi I am going for my first iron infusion monday week as my hg is 9.6 and my gastroentrologist thinks i am not absorbing enough iron from tablets. just wondering how long does it take to work, i am suffering with fatigue and generally feeling ran down. crohn's is currently under control since january i started 6mp but he thinks my tiredness is more down to anemia then the 6mp
Like aypues, I have had both venofer and injectofer. I much prefer the injectofer due to the higher dose and the fewer infusions needed to fully recover. What is like to happen with either is that for your very first infusion, they will give you a mini-dose, which isn't going to help a whole lot. It is often done to make sure you don't have any adverse reactions to the drug. So my first round of venofer was four weeks, one per week. After that, each round was three weeks, once per week. If that full 3-4 week round did not show high enough results, I had to wait a month before starting another round. Partially to monitor how well my body was rebounding on its own after getting the extra iron, and partially do to concern over building up too much of something that was in the infusion - that your body needs a break.
Once my hgb was finally up to 9, the venofer treatments seemed to show a noticiable effect after about 5-8 days. When my hgb was in the 5's - 8's nothing seemed to make me feel like I had any more energy. So you are starting a decently high value that the infusions should help within a couple of weeks.
It is interesting reading other people's experiences. Several people report having benadryl with their infusion - either orally or more often IV as a preventative measure. Some people report the process taking 45 minutes, others say 2-3 hours. SO there is defiinately variation in the actual delivery. YOu may wish to check Monday morning how long they expect the process to take if anyone will be waiting to see / hear from you afterwards.
One final note- and I do not mean to scare you by this - it is possible to tolerate the infusions well and then suddenly develop an adverse reaction to them. I didn't really know this, so I was really shocked to have an adverse reaction to Injecotfer after having it at least 5 times previously. And that the reaction occurred five minutes after walking out the hematologists door. I immediately returned and they were able to turn things around with a couple of saline/ Benadryl IVs.. was ok within an hour but they wheeled me over to the adjacent ER for 4 hours of observation before releasing me. So just make sure you are self-monitoring how you are feeling for the first hour after an infusion and that if you feel at all odd to get medical help. The treatment was quick and easy since I started it quickly. Just don't ignore any unusual symptoms, and consider waiting 10-15 minutes before driving away, just in case.
Good luck Monday!!!!