The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

From too much to too little

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TIBC Saturation (total iron binding capacity)
Average – 20-55%
My current levels – 23%
To be kept below – 50%

Ferritin levels (protein that stores and releases iron)
Average – 30-300 ng/mL (for a man)
My current levels – 11
To be kept below – 50

My level back in March after 6 months of blood taking - 4

It appears I'm still anaemic, 9 months after they realised they'd taken far too much blood from me when treating my haemochromatosis (see Iron Levels and Still Anaemic for the back story).

The good news is I don't have to have any more blood taken off me for a while. The bad news is I have no idea how much of my tiredness is CFS and how much is anaemia. Not that I suppose it makes that much difference - I was tired before they started bleeding me.

And I guess it puts a definite end to my Black Pudding Emporium business idea...

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24 comments

Midnitefyrfly said...

I don't have a lot of insight for you, Kim. Getting to the bottom of medical afflictions is tiring in and of itself, much less when one is CFS and the other one is known to cause marked tiredness.

I would try to save some of the energy you have left for your next idea of entrepreneurial genius. Black Pudding Emporium had serious potential!

((HUGS))

Anna van Schurman said...

Does human blood taste a lot different from sheep's blood or pig's blood (my people use the latter)? I am very curious. Don't tell the dude. He worries when I say things like this.

Helen said...

Hey Bearded One - the only thing I know about Black Pudding, I discovered from the ever so educational Goodies - Ecky Thump episode. Sounds like a plan. Maybe you could get Bill Oddie to endorse them??

Library girl said...

Mum has this kind of fun with her blood sugars. Doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason for their sporadic behaviour. Her chart is like watching a game of tennis. Very vexing (my new favourite word for the week).

Fay Campbell said...

I reckon leaches need work, too.

Pat said...

I'm glad you don't have to have more blood taken. Does it ever occur to them to apologise?

Anonymous said...

you might have more fun with leeches, Kim :)

snoble24 said...

i am anemic as well and at least one a week i have to take a hour or longer nap. i just cant stay up i cant do anything. my doc has me on pills for my b 12 and i get tested every 3 to four months and it always comes out the same. she says its just something ill have to live with becuase she cant do anything about it and its not hurting me any so its fine. she belives my anti pychoics coud also contribute to my energy lows and highs. but i have to take my medication and what im on right now is the ones who have worked the best without bad side affects.so if you gotta be tired sometimes dont worry about it just live your life as you gotta and rest when your tired if you can. its really no big deal

emma said...

Just been going back through some of your posts to try and work out what this blood letting business is all about. I like the mutant X -men, wilderness exploring (with turd compass) kind of thing - interesting.

Turns out haemochromatosis rang a bell in my head - bing bong - from house md - diagnosis - too much of the idiot box for me obviously (I blame Dimitri who watches the bloopers on youtube).

Do magnets stick to you? May be Uri Geller (who currently has his own Greek TV show - presumably he must be short of a bob or two)has some similar Heavy-Metal-Mutation(a rock band?)which explains his cutlery impairment?

Black pudding - yuck.

Kim Ayres said...

Midnitefyrfly - well I thought the Black Pudding Emporium had huge potential - ideal for vegetarians as no animal would be harmed in the making - but no one else seemed to share my grand vision. I could have taken over the world!!! Mwahahahahah...

Anna - to be honest I have no idea - personally I can't stand black pudding. So the only blood I've tasted is my own - nose bleed getting tinto the back of the throat sort of thing - and it tated rusty

Helen - here's a link to some Australian Black Pudding Stockists

Library Girl - at least I know why my levels went from way too high to way too low - annoying, but not vexing...

Fay - maybe they should form a Union to campaign for their rights to work

Pat - if we lived in the US I daresay I could have sued them for malpractice. But as I seem to have avoided all those cheap lawyer adverts, it doesn't occur to me.

Sang - perhaps I could train them to do tricks and start up a travelling leech circus!

Snoble24 - if your meds work without the bad side effects, then that's a good thing :)

Emma - I was a kid in promary school when Uri Geller became a sudden worldwide sensation. I remember some of my friends could bend cuttlery, but I never could.

At least it stopped me getting into trouble in the school dining hall...

BB said...

Speaking recently with a nurse at my local health center, she told me an interesting story.
She said that If for some crazy reason she would fall into deep sleep like cinderela and when waking up she didn´t had any sort of calendar except the sugar level charts from the from patients in these present days of December she would automayically know she was close to Christamas.Why??
The blood sugars are all very high in this time of the year.

Whitney Lee said...

Since you had comments disabled on your last post I am leaving my comment on this one.
My husband deals with some of the things mentioned in your list. I want to thank you for the reminder that what he most needs from me is my patience. When you are on the other side of these problems (as I am) it is often easy to lose sight of that.

Suz said...

I am sorry you are having to deal with that. My husband had a false case after taking Prednesone. After a few months, the iron levels returned to normal and he is fine, or he would be subjecting himself to the vampires, too.

Hope you feel better soon.

Stella said...

That's a bummer Kim, I hope you get your levels up and your black pudding idea is gross!!!!

Katie Roberts said...

Rusty nail sandwich coming your way.
(I wonder if they let you send them)

:)

emma said...

I seem to remember me and my brother attempting to bend the silver ware:-) My brother claimed he could do it of course. If some of your friends could do it does that mean you were at an X-men school?

So what's the doctors advice now they've taken too much blood? Red meat and spinach?

Kim Ayres said...

bonequinhoda bic - she might be able to tell by the blood alcohol levels too...

Whitney - patience, love, understanding and a well thought out, long term strategy will do it for most people. But then you know this from your own experiences - happy anniversary :)

Suz - I just looked up Prednisone - it looks like a pretty hefty thing, not used lightly. Hope whatever your husband's condition was, it's under control

Stella - but funny :)

Katie - beacuse rusty nails could be used in a nail bomb, and Al Qaeda members have been known to eat bread, so we'd probably both get arrested as suspected terrorists...

Emma - the doctors are giving me no advice at all. Because I naturally absorb more iron than most mere mortals, I'm just being left to recover naturally. If I started taking iron supplments they'd only start taking blood off me sooner

Katie Roberts said...

Hi Kim,

reminds me of a friend who sent an inventive new years day party invitation which included an asprin (headache tablet) in them...

she then wondered why so many never arrived and those that did were opened and re-sealed (minus the asprin)

molasses?

Helen Mac said...

Hi Kim

I wanted to comment on your last grumpy bastard post which I felt was VERY well said.

Winston Churchill suffered from the arrival of his "black dog", so do I. I feel you have to embrace, go with the flow and wait.

Tiredness is a symptom too though, sorry.

The iron thing is strange though. Have you tried any complementary therapies?

Enjoy your kipping!

CorZa said...

Doctors have tried to cure my mums low iron for quite a while now. She currently takes about 10x the suggested ammount and is still anemic. Good luck to your doctors, with waking you up. ;)

Helen said...

Hey Bearded One - thanks for the link - looked it up, read a paragraph or two and thought I might like a good old fashioned heave - Yew!!! I do remember another quote from The Goodies (or maybe Ripping Yarns) "My mother's Black Pudding was so black, even the white bits were black" - (meant to be said in a very broad accent - not as smooth as yours!)

Falak said...

What is it with medical institutions and mistakes??????? These days the two seem stuck together like siamese twins . Hope you get better soon! Do people seriously make pudding out of pig's blood???!!!

Helen Mac said...

I used to enjoy black pudding until I saw a TV programme about prize puddings and how they were made. I had to leave off it for several years until I forgot what was in it. Please don't remind me!

Kim Ayres said...

Katie - that's kind of scary...

Helen's Angel - the iron thing is a genetic mutation (see Haemochromatosis label on sidebar)

Real Girl755 - sorry to hear about your mum's condition. From everything I hear, taking high level iron supplements has some farily unpleasant side effects

Helen - that's a Yorkshire accent. Mine's a generic, Southern English accent, which I picked up from my parents.

Falak - absolutely they do - look up Black Pudding on Wikipedia - and in chip shops you can buy them covered in batter and deep fried.

Helen's Angel - don't look up how they make haggis then...

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