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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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How Can Iron-deficiency Anemia Be Treated?

Hi. I ve been having iron-deficiency anemia for quite some time now (maybe 10-ish years, I m currently 20 years old) and I m receiving both intravenous iron and oral iron 3x daily and I m still iron deficient and still anemic and my hematologist/oncologist dr isn t sure why and isn t sure if she should do a bone marrow biopsy on me. I do have gastroparesis and heavy periods but my periods are extremely irregular. One time, my period was nonexistent for 13 months and nobody knows why, then came back for like 2 days, then skipped for another 6 months and finally came back this October for a day and a half but haven t had it since. My moms side of the family has a long history of blood and lymph cancers amongst other things like Leiden Factor V and endometriosis and my mom had a post partum cerebral angiopathy vasculapathy or whatever and I guess we are just a family of rare so you never know what can happen. Anyways, my hemoglobin, hematocrit, mcv, iron, and ferritin levels were all low despite both the iron supplements. Not sure exactly how low though. I do also have a really high sed rate and really high c reactive protein and normally a high white blood cell count. Not sure why on all of three of those. I d like any help I can get. My primary isn t much help, he doesn t really know what to do and my hematologist/oncologist is also at a stand still until she actually decides if she wants a bone marrow biopsy or not. I also do have weird reactions to things like not being anesthetized with local anesthetics (and really difficult to sedate I guess, because it just doesn t affect me unless they give me crazy doses) and also most prescription medications not working unless in ridiculously high doses. And that s not just pain meds (and yes, I ve been called a drug seeker/abuser when I ve asked for an increase when it wasn t working), it s basically any medication. It s basically like my body is drug resistant except in really high doses. I have chronic pain all over, especially in joints and in my back. It s been there ever since I can remember when I was a child. I was always made fun of because of how I ran because my knees hurt so bad that they d lock up and I d always try to get doctors notes to get out of gym class. They never found anything wrong. Also have had severe upper right abdominal pain since October 2015. Got my gallbladder taken out in an emergency surgery but that didn t really help. Was in the hospital for 4 days because it was so infected I had to be on IV antibiotics. That was in April 2016. Also have persistent sinus tachycardia since feb 2015. I ve seen it get up to 230 on ER monitors, on a holter monitor it went between 40 and 199 so I guess not even that is consistent. I ve had a lot of health problems and nothing really connects everything but I have been doing some research and I found that mitochondrial disease is probably the closest fit. Brought it up to both my primary and my hematologist/oncologist and they both don t know much about it so they didn t have any advice. Sorry if this is all too much information, I just feel like the whole story is necessary to the question. Thanks for reading. Hope to hear back.
Mon, 9 Jan 2017
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General & Family Physician 's  Response
Hi,

Mitochondrial disease requires cytoligical and enzyme studies. There are numerous of them but less likely at your age. You need to get deworming first of all. Take albendazole before sleep and repeat after 3 weeks. Also make sure yon't don't have thalasemia or genetic blood disorders. Get peripheral smear done.

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Regards,
Dr. Ankit
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How Can Iron-deficiency Anemia Be Treated?

Hi, Mitochondrial disease requires cytoligical and enzyme studies. There are numerous of them but less likely at your age. You need to get deworming first of all. Take albendazole before sleep and repeat after 3 weeks. Also make sure yon t don t have thalasemia or genetic blood disorders. Get peripheral smear done. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Ankit