My Doctor Is Horrible. Is Yours?
I decided to check up on my doctor.
I asked a nurse that I am tight with to go get 5 months worth of my records.
I discovered that my doc was telling me I didn't need a phlebotomy when
the records indicated that I did need one. According to the records,
she has done this repeatedly. She is actually killing me. That really pissed me off.
She doesn't seem to believe in maintenance. She makes me wait until irreversable
damage is done before she will order the phlebotomy. She just refuses to drain a
little blood periodically to keep my counts down. I have to wait til the damage is
done before she will do anything.
Remember... A complete physical must include: Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC)
and Serum Iron (SI). Divide the SI by TIBC for percentage of Transferrin Saturation TS.
Normal range: 12-45%. The same blood may be used to measure Serum Ferritin.
Normal range: 5 to 150.
4. If TS is elevated, the individual should begin treatment. Some literature suggests
treatment when ferritin alone is elevated. Giving blood does no harm, and instead is
beneficial to health. About one-fourth of patients have iron-loading anemia (low hemoglobin).
Treatment is the same unless the anemia is so severe that blood transfusions are required.
Maintaining a hemoglobin of 10 or hematocrit of 30 percent makes the patient treatable
with bloodletting. Severely anemic patients require iron removal by an iron chelator, Desferal.
All anemic patients benefit with B complex supplements, including folic acid, B12 and B6.
Know what your counts should be. Ask someone to get copies of your records.
If you see that your doc is messing with your well being, jump in his/her face and
let them know you are not gonna put up with any bs. Or else!
Genetic Hemochromatosis
I asked a nurse that I am tight with to go get 5 months worth of my records.
I discovered that my doc was telling me I didn't need a phlebotomy when
the records indicated that I did need one. According to the records,
she has done this repeatedly. She is actually killing me. That really pissed me off.
She doesn't seem to believe in maintenance. She makes me wait until irreversable
damage is done before she will order the phlebotomy. She just refuses to drain a
little blood periodically to keep my counts down. I have to wait til the damage is
done before she will do anything.
Remember... A complete physical must include: Total Iron Binding Capacity (TIBC)
and Serum Iron (SI). Divide the SI by TIBC for percentage of Transferrin Saturation TS.
Normal range: 12-45%. The same blood may be used to measure Serum Ferritin.
Normal range: 5 to 150.
4. If TS is elevated, the individual should begin treatment. Some literature suggests
treatment when ferritin alone is elevated. Giving blood does no harm, and instead is
beneficial to health. About one-fourth of patients have iron-loading anemia (low hemoglobin).
Treatment is the same unless the anemia is so severe that blood transfusions are required.
Maintaining a hemoglobin of 10 or hematocrit of 30 percent makes the patient treatable
with bloodletting. Severely anemic patients require iron removal by an iron chelator, Desferal.
All anemic patients benefit with B complex supplements, including folic acid, B12 and B6.
Know what your counts should be. Ask someone to get copies of your records.
If you see that your doc is messing with your well being, jump in his/her face and
let them know you are not gonna put up with any bs. Or else!
Genetic Hemochromatosis
posted by W.Pat at 3:01 PM
2 Comments:
I am dealing with that as we speak. My levels are elevated and my genetics test came back positive. Hematologist saw me and sent me away with no recommendation of treatment, just to check my iron panel again in 1 year. I am in their face and told both my gp and hematologist that I want treatment because I was lucky enough to find this early when I have no symptoms and I want to keep it that way. Why would I want to wait until i have damage? They really just don't get it.
When I was 1st diagnosed 4 months ago (no thanks to the doctors who knew I had thyroid, intestinal, heart, hormonal, etc symptoms for YEARS: I found the answer online & asked for the iron panel) the GI doc I was referred to initially refused to phlebotomize me w/a serum ferritin of >500 until the genetic test "confirmed a diagnosis of hemochromatosis." I was stunned. He stated that it wouldn't hurt my other conditions to wait as long as 10 more weeks, if that's what it took to get the genetic confirmation. I strongly disagreed w/him, but he only conceded to give me one phlebotomy before the other test result. At the time, I was having chest pain, and it appeared I was close to a heart attack!
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