Anemia Post-Op

I'm sorry everyone...I tried to post this in Post-Op but since I don't have a Hysterectomy date I could not. So please forgive me if this is in the wrong subject area. (Tried to find the one closest.)

Here is my question.

How soon after (Hysterectomy) surgery did your anemia improve to normal/good count?

I have been anemic for almost 10 years, with heavy bleeding for 13. Currently my hmg. is 10.6 and I have been on iron for over a year with only little improvement (10.5).

My Drs. (and I) are hoping that surgery will take care of this.

I would very much like to hear from those that have struggled in this area and how your Hysterectomy affected it.

i was anemic before my surgery but at that time i wasnt taking any supplements. i started taking them before my surgery and have continued on them. i know my levels are up, they told me after surgery. i just saw my doctor yesterday and she commented on how good i looked. she said when she saw me last fall, when i went to her to consult on a hyster, i looked pale and tired and washed out. so there has been a definite improvement for me and its only been 6 weeks. i know this isnt completely relevant to your question, but i hope it gives you hope for you after your surgery.

Hi lonesomeprairie.

I am 45 years old with a long history of anemia. I went against my doc's recommendation for a hyster and got a second opinion about a hyster but that's just me. I see a hematologist for my anemia since I have light periods. I do bleed heavy and prolonged if I take iron pills during my period, if I consume any type of soy products, and if I consume non-organic foods and meats. To answer your question, if your period is the catalyst behind your anemia then I learned from this site that it does improve post-hyster.

Are you certain that the oral iron is not the culprit here? Ask your doc for a referral to a hematologist instead of trying to consume the iron pills which may be excerbating your bleeding issues. The hematologist can give you IV iron which is normally done in weekly increments for six to eight weeks then you go off the iron. Afterwards you will be given oral iron to take, but I don't recommend that you take that when you are expecting your period. Oral iron gives me extreme diarrhea so it's not an option for me.

I think you came to the right place and I recommend that you do a query on "anemia" on this site and read the posts from the Sisterhood about anemia problems. I have also posted about my anemia in other places on this site as well.

I wish you the best and let us know if we can help further. Like I said, I have a long history of anemia and will gladly share my experiences with you about that one. The heavy periods...not so much the case with me.

Take care and keep us posted.

Good point Xen.

Very informative. It seems that when surgery is recommended to us that we are obligated to find the best alternative for us individually. You made a good point that a count of 10.5 is good maintenance. At that point I was still active w/o heart palpitations and the breathlessness--but again it depends on the individual. When it started to drop to 9 and declining is when I really got to the point where I felt something had to be done.

lonesomeprairie, Xen made some very good points! If your body can allow you to experiment you may find that tweaking your intake of iron processes might avoid you having a hyster. For instance, you may be able to have one IV iron infusion and oral iron maintenance. If after a year your levels aren't up it may be that the particular form or iron is not for you, OR it could be that taking oral iron during your period is actually causing you to lose more than if you avoided iron about 2-3 days prior to your period. You may see your periods lighten up as a result of trying different things over the course of a few bleeding cycles...just some things to maybe try.

If you decide to have the hyster this is a wonderful support site; however, as Xen wrote, your levels aren't dangerously low but just aren't ideal from a medical perspective.

Take care and keep us posted on how things are going for you.

Thank you for writing. I so appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Last year I decided to go to the Dr. to see what could be done about the anemia. We talked and she suggest a few things to start off. I would every once in a while bleed from my rectum so the reason for suggesting I have an EGC (down the throat scope) and then a Colonoscopy (I'm sure everyone knows what those are...). I had also previously done fecal tests. These came back good.

I didn't think I would go to all the trouble (and COST) of doing the EGC and Colonoscopy until she said that I had lost a liter of blood somewhere, from last years results to now...a year later, and that we needed to find out where it went. That kind of scared me. That's a lot of blood. I did the tests. Both came back good.

The next step was to go to a GYN. I put that off until January when I had a rather scary period. Heavy bleeding (which is normal), with the large clots (also normal) but this time I would have to hurry back to the bathroom not 15 min. later (also normal) holding the muscles inside me tight so the tampon would not fall out (not normal). I would hurry and get my pants, underware down...bend over toilet and out it came. That happened several times. And my period that month lasted 8 days compared to the usual 5. February was the same but back to the 5 day length.

I had noticed things were getting worse. Rather than the one day staying home by the bathroom it was two. Several times having large enough clots that you strained to get them to come out. I had dealt with heavy periods like this for over 13 years. I was getting tired. And the anemia situation I hated as it made me feel washed out, tired, run down. I have a terrible time concentrating (given up on reading as I have to go so many times to reread), even talking. You open up your mouth and it's not there...what you're looking for to say. I'm out of wind, just standing up and moving. I hate that feeling! And I don't do anything. That is SO NOT LIKE ME! Now, I sit and it doesn't even bother me that I'm "being lazy". I'm picky about my home and like it clean. I'm happy when I can at least get that done. Some days Supper gets fixed and other days...it doesn't. I want to be WELL!

I have taken the Iron for a year now and there has been so little improvement.

The GYN visit. A vaginal ultrasound was done showing a thick endo. lining and one small fibroid on the outside of my uterus. The endo. biopsy came back Tuesday evening as "normal". This is where I am at. Needing to decide what to do next. Which surgery.

The GYN feels that we should try the Thermal Ablation first. And see if that cures my problems.

Talking to my family Dr. yesterday (I called about the Iron Infusions) she thinks, and agrees with my husband, that having dealt with this for so long and that it might still end of being what I have to do later, to go ahead and have a partial Hysterectomy now. And not fool with it any more.

At first I didn't want to even consider doing a Hysterectomy. (I had no information about it at all and what I did have was not all right. There are different kinds of Hyster. surgeries.) My options were to me. Hormone Therapy, Thermal Endometrial Ablation and Hysterestomy. And like I said, the Hysterectomy was not one that I wanted to consider. I didn't want to do Hormone Therapy, so that left the Ablation. I started doing research and joined a group of ladies that talked about Uterine Fibroids. I wasn't very encouraged with what they were having to deal with. And it seemed, on a repeated basis. Doing one thing, only to have to go back and try something else/different. I DON'T want to do that.

The idea of not dealing with any more heavy bleeding, and not having the possibility of it growing back and having to do another surgery, makes the Hysterectomy sound like something I would MUCH rather do. Taking care of it in one visit. One trip. And not having to mess with it any more.

On the iron. I am taking 50 mg. a day. One tablet. I try to take it with orange juice so it absorbs better and not drink milk for a while later. (I drink quite a bit of Skim Milk a day. Along with lots of crushed ice.)

I did ask the GYN about there maybe possibly being "hidden" fibroids and if I should come back after I have had my period so they could look again. He said that there really wasn't any need as the Ablation would take care of any hidden ones. (That the liquid would cover them all.)

Oh ladies. I just don't want to fool with it anymore. I want to be done. Done with the heavy bleeding and this is a good way to do it.

Thank you again for your replies. I DO very much appreciate them!

lonesomeprairie,

I really empathize with your bleeding issue. I had rectal bleeding and a few years ago that made me anemic and although my gyno suggested that the anemia was from my uterus--at the time my periods were a normal five days normal flow. I dismissed the hyster due to the fact that I had continual rectal bleeding when I tried to pass a stool. Sometimes it was painful, sometimes it wasn't. I had two colonoscopies and two different gastros found nothing...nothing! Had a third one from my general surgeon, he found nothing. Guess what? The bleeding, it turns out from a trip to the ER, was from a B9 growth in my rectum that was making my stools difficult to pass. The way they found it? I was having extreme pain and heavy rectal bleeding so I had to have a body scan with and w/o contrast. The ER doc saw it immediately and I was in and out of surgery in three days.

I think the point Xen and I are trying to convey is for you to make sure that it is your uterus that's causing your bleeding (although the heavy periods are somewhat undebatable to a degree). Also, I learned from my new gyn that our uterine linings thicken as we age, so our age is a factor in a thickened uterine wall.

I have little experience and cannot say about how bleeding from the rectum is directly related to uterine issues so it does not make a lot of sense to me. All I can say is that if I'd had a hyster when my gyn first suggested it, I'd been w/o a uterus and still having rectal bleeding. The last gyn I saw told me that if I choose to have a hyster the second time it was recommended to me, that I had better know prior to the surgery that a hyster would solve my problems because I couldn't reverse my decision afterwards.

Regarding the ice chips you consume... according to my hematologist, cravings for ice is a symptom of a more severe anemial problem, so as Xen suggests, your other symptoms as well are a part of a more severe anemia problem.

The symptoms you have I had them all and then some, but my iron was at 8.2. The brain fog and forgetfulness, the lack of oxygen and heart palpitations, which are very serious since I learned the hard way that you can develop long-term heart issues--I have them now. You may even hallucinate, which I did. You will have dizziness and near fainting when changing any position. The lower your blood iron the smaller your cells become and the less oxygen they have. Sometimes you can have thinning hair, acne, brittle nails, and superficial stuff like that from severe anemia.

Perhaps the 10.5 is severe for your individual self whereas I may feel pretty good at that level. Even if you have the hyster, as my gyn told me, your iron would still have to be at a good level for your body in order to prevent issues during surgery; so, having at least one IV infusion with a hematologist might help. For instance, s/he may be able to discover why you have had rectal bleeding. A hematologist may also discover that you have pernicious anemia that's contributing to all of your symptoms, and that you may just need daily B-12 shots.

Myself and people I've met with severe anemia, they describe the symptoms you are having. It is not my intention to create conflict between you and your gyn by any means, and your bleeding issue, to be honest, sounds very scary to me, but you also need to know the source of your rectal bleeding. The hematologist might even conclude that you need the hyster, but s/he will also do tests to uncover your rectal bleeding source. S/He is a cancer authority who can run tests for things s/he has seen that your gyn may not have seen.

In the end the decision is yours to make and to live with and we are here to support you in whichever decision you make, but I was told that rectal bleeding is nothing to sweep under the rug.

Hugs to you because I know this is a tough one for you.

Take care and keep us posted so we can support you.