Iron?

Im 17 mos out and experiencing weird lightheadedness and kind of dizziness like I'm going to pass out. I'm FREEZING cold much of the time. I have a dr appt next Wednesday and I've started taking vitamin c and iron to see if it will help until I get in to the doctor. 

Any ideas?  I'm thinking low iron??

Have you not taken iron all this time? What have your labs been like? By charting your past labs, you should notice a trend.

My labs have always been great. However, I have no fondness for the nutritionist at my surgeons office, so I'm seeing my primary who is by far the best doctor I've ever had!!  She'll get to the bottom of it, I'm confident.  I wouldn't have needed iron before if my labs were ok, right?

it depends... what was tested? the whole iron panel including ferritin ? or just basic blood test? 

If ferritin was not tested - you could have been using your iron storage without affecting the basic blood results.  

Is ferritin the same as 'iron saturation'? My labs don't say ferritin, but iron saturation.

nope. 

if it does not say ferritin - they were not tested.. 

IT is a must for us to get that tested. Ferritin is iron storage - like a saving account... that is directly connected to Iron level in the blood - when you iron drops - the body pulls it from ferritin.  so your stored iron may be dropping while your iron may be showing as "fine"... 

only when ferritin drops really low and we feel like crap... iot is typically too late to use oral iron to help.. and we end up with iron infusions... Unfortunately I learned that the hard way...

even with no period I ended up with very low ferritin... it took really 2 series of iron infusions and 2 years to stabilize me... 

i needed one more 2 years ago.. I do hope my ferritin is good enough this year...

That makes perfect sense. Thank you. 

Most docs are not good with our supplement needs. You can be in the low end of a normal range and they'll say you are ok, but you aren't.

Trends are super important. If you've had three sets of labs and the number has dropped each time, you might still be in range -- but not for long. It's up to us to recognize the trend, and increase the dosage. There are some things that can cause permanent damage once they bottom out.

why would you just assume low iron if it has been normal?

Dehydration also causes these symptoms. Are you getting 64+oz of liquid every day?

I'm not really assuming anything, just trying what I can to feel better until I see the doctor. Working on fluids also.