Question about anemia

Well I finally get to meet with the surgeon on Tuesday. I've had my ultrasounds and all my blood work. I just had my endo. biopsy the other day (oh and it HURT bad for ME, and I got a charlie horse in my thigh while it was being done.. SO NOT fun! LOL!)
Ok... so my doctor tells me that I have an enlarged uterus (adenomyosis??) and fibroids. Ovaries looks good to her, she said. I'll know more when I meet with the surgeon. And she informed me that I am severly anemic. Ok.. this was news to me about being anemic... which all makes SO much sense to me now. So.. I buy a multi vitamin and am taking that now. What else should I be doing? Are they even gonna preform the surgery if I am anemic?? I'm worried about that. Anyone else severely anemic and had surgery anyway?? What did you do to help with your iron?
SO... sorry so long for some simple questions... lol
Will know my surgery date on Tuesday... super duper excited about THAT!!! I just hope she can do this while I'm so anemic.

I found out the morning of my surgery (TVH, A&P repair, sling) that I was anemic. The anesthesiologist seemed concerned, but my surgeon said she didn't want to postpone the surgery since I was due to start my period again and my last period was extremely heavy and lasted 9 days. They talked to me about the potential need for a blood transfusion if I had much blood loss, but I didn't need one. Now I'm recovering (surgery on 2/5) and am on an iron supplement. The good news is that you have some time before your surgery to get your iron levels up. Be sure to eat plenty of iron rich foods also. Best of luck with your surgery.

I would have to say talk with your surgeon and family doc. See what he or she would like you to do in order to help boost those iron levels sometimes they can put you on a massive dose of iron to help. Other times a multi or just eating iron rich foods will do, but talk to them about this. But with losing so much blood with our awful periods we do become that way sometimes and it should get better after surgury recovery. My grandma had to take iron for a while even without anything like we are going through because of anemia and she was scheduled for another surgury so they jsut got her levels up and she was fine!

Oh, thank you so much. Congrats on your hyster as well.
Yeah, I'm definately going to be talking with my doctor in more detail on Tuesday. When I found out from my regular GYN the other day, I had JUST had my endo. biopsy done when she's telling me all this stuff and my head was just spinning. So I didnt ask her alot of questions. But I WILL be asking the surgeon when I see her on Tues.
I'm hoping all I have to do is just keep taking this multi vitamin. Its so funny reading all the symptoms of anemia... I have them ALL! Restless Leg Syndrome, dizzyness, shortness of breath, tinitis, pale skin... all of that. I think I've had it for some years too... thats what scares me the most!! And now I've been having heat flutters twice in the past week. I just pray this hasnt gone too far and that just a multi vitamin will solve it. I want this surgery ASAP!!!!! I have adenomyosis with SEVERE pain!!! Fibroids on my cervix too... aint this just so fun!!! LOL!
Thanks again girls...

There are two numbers they look at for anemia; hemoglobin and hemocrit. Hemog should be above 12 and hemoc should be above 33. I have had severe anemia for three years. My levels are 8.1, and now, 26. I take liquid iron, B-12 injections, B-6 and am on the pill to help control the bleeding (although I am still bleeding). If your doc didn't say you were too low for surgery, then great. However, you DO want your levels to be as high as possible. So, do take the supplements. If you can't handle straight iron (and honestly it isn't fun)- try a prenatal vitamin. Eat iron rich food and boost your vitamin D intake to aid in absorption.

Good luck to you!
Jean

Hello there,
If you need to increase your iron levels, taking a slow release iron supplement is easier on your stomach and causes less problems with constipation. Also taking a 250 mg supplement of vitamin C with your iron will increase the amount of iron you are able to absorb. One should avoid calcium and dairy products containing calcium for one hour before and after the iron supplement as calcium decreases your absorption of iron. A daily stool softener such as Colace can be beneficial while taking iron supplements to prevent constipation.

I went into surgery with severe anemia. My anemia was causes by my fibroids, adenmyosis and severe periods. I was actaully one of the factors that promted them to get me in as quickly as they did. My iron counts kept getting worse every month, despite all the supplements in the world.

Three weeks post-op, and I am already starting to feel the differences of my iron stores replenishing. I have also not had a migraine in three weeks, which is amazing in itself. I would have had my period one week post-operative, and wow, what an amazing experience not to have to go through that!

I am looking forward to my first summer in years, where I will have the energy to finsh a task that I have started in the same day, and not have to take a nap because of exhaustion.

Well if you like clams, a serving of whole baby clams will give you 90% of a days requirement(I was eating a whole can a day). I also was on the iron pills and they still had blood waiting for me just in case as mine was very low too.

I had a sore tongue, and found out that is also a symptom of chronic anemia. Weird. Ferrous sulphate made me nauseated so I took Hema-Plex. I also took some liquid thing (iron from plant sources) from Whole Foods. Six days before my surgery I had a major hemorrhage and I was so afraid my doctor would postpone the surgery but she said the longer we postponed it the more likely I was to bleed, which was true. By then I was actually going into shock from blood loss. Very scary. So she just gave me one final transfusion during the surgery.
I haven't had my levels checked since my surgery but I plan to go to a Red Cross blood drive next week. I used to give blood all the time and then I started getting rejected due to low iron. So next week I can maybe pay back some of the blood I took from the bank (12 units total) and I can find out where my iron level is.

Hi. I just got home from the hospital today. I am also anemic and my hemoglobin was 8.8. My anesthesiologist seemed concerned because I have since found out that with surgery your iron levels can go down so they did give me two units of blood. Also as soon as I found out I was going for the surgery my doctor told me to take iron pills twice a day which I was doing. I got them at the health food store and they are more natural than what you would find in the regular drug store so I did not have any problems with constipation. After the surgery my hemoglobin is still at only 9 and I will have to stay on the iron pills. I hope this helped. Best wishes and good luck with everything.