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Low red cell counts

M

mkhopper

Didn't want to completely hijack the thread about being dizzy, so I thought I'd start a new one.

Has anyone else had a problem with low red cell counts when having their blood tested? Feeling dizzy, tired, have to stop and have a nap just by walking up a flight of stairs? After repeated blood tests and monthly iron infusions, we can't get my counts up above 9 for any length of time. My blood doc is getting irritated because we're just spinning our wheels. He gives it to me up top and I just lose it all at the bottom (pun intended).

I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy done last June (6/10). It was time for them anyway but they were also specifically looking for places where there was obvious bleeding which would explain the constant low counts. Of course they didn't find anything. "It could just be a very tiny trickle bleed. So small that we can't see it." There's not normally any obvious bleeding, but stool sample tests do show positive for blood.

Having another colonoscopy this week just to look around again, but I'm not confident that they'll find anything this time around either.

Whew. So, has anyone else gone through something similar and if so, any suggestions?
 
vonfunk

vonfunk

Bourbon Bandito
Location
Toronto,
I didn't notice this thread and answered you in the other, but I'll go into more detail here. I suffer from chronic anaemia.
I was in the exact same place as you last summer. I went in for my check up, the doctor took blood and then called me at 10am the next morning to say that my haemoglobin was dangerously low and that I desperately need a blood transfusion. I was told that I had a couple of hours to sort out what I needed to and that he would call me when my hospital room was ready. My haemoglobin was about about a third of what it should have been. I had the scope and my doctor couldn't find where I was bleeding. He said he noticed that some of the pseudo polyps looked red and inflamed and while there were no obvious ulcerations he said that it was probably a slow leak that they couldn't see.

I ended having several blood transfusions and iron infusions. Eventually the slow leak turned into a full blown flare which put me in the hospital.

You may want to discuss a quick round of prednisone to kill off the chance of it being a slow building flare.
 
M

mkhopper

Thanks for the info. Yea, I just came off a 5 month round of Pred.

I started at 40mg after dealing with an obstruction back in January, which, now that I think about it, was one month after stopping the iron infusions for awhile because it looked like the counts were starting to finally climb on their own.

Now I'm back down to 9.5 (at last check) again even after restarting the monthly infusions.
 
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