Q&A

Question

Anemic after donating blood?

Hi everyone! I found out last week that I have iron deficiency anaemia. My haemoglobin was 10.5g/dL, my iron was 25/dL, and my ferritin was 4.8ng/mL (honestly not sure how bad that is for anaemia). The only real symptoms I’ve experienced are fatigue (I can’t get through most days without needing a nap in the afternoon because my energy crashes) and worsened tachycardia and shortness of breath. I had donated blood the week before my CBC and iron panels were done, so I’m wondering – did the blood donation cause the anaemia? Or potentially worsen it? I’m assuming my haemoglobin was fine when I donated, or else they would’ve rejected me. Just curious if anyone else has had similar experiences.

Answer

It usually takes a few weeks for your body to recover, if you are low on iron and donation depletes you. This is especially true if you have side effects of the donation.

I am hoping they did not bleed you, knowing you were iron deficient. It will take a few weeks to recover, but I’ll call your doctor if it worsens.

I regularly donate blood and sometimes receive deferrals due to low hemoglobin levels, but at other times, I can donate without issues. It always lowers my haemoglobin levels into deficiency, but generally should also go back up with time. I always ask at the donation centre what my haemoglobin level is, and sometimes they will show me the machine with the number. The truth is that if you are on the border of the lower limit, you will become deficient for a while, so if you did the blood test soon after the donation, your blood work would surely show deficiency. I’d ask your doctor to repeat it in one month.

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Question

Does anyone else have to lie down all the time?

Just looking for someone to commiserate with; I have celiac disease, so I’ve struggled with anaemia most of my life and have had to get several infusions in the past. My celiac is not well under control this pregnancy; I’ve messed up a lot. Venofer was the first they tried on me, and I reacted badly. I did well with several infusions of INFED pre-pregnancy.

Now I’m 35 weeks pregnant and have anaemia, ferritin level 12, hematocrit 33.4, and iron binding capacity of 459. OB wants me to get an infusion, but the haematologist said it’s too risky since I reacted to Venofer in the past. INFED hasn’t been studied enough in pregnant women. Iron pills do nothing for me. I’ve been taking 694% of the daily recommended dosage of iron, and it’s just plummeted since my last infusion.

I feel so exhausted that I get up to clean something, but then I lie down in bed every five minutes to rest. I worry about giving birth and losing too much blood, which could lead to death or a blood transfusion that would make breastfeeding my baby difficult. Since the haematologist won’t help, my endocrinologist offered to do the infusion for me, but I feel scared. I’m only a month out from having this baby, and she’s fine, so I don’t want to put her life at risk. I want what’s best for her.

I want to get my house in order and as clean as possible before the baby arrives, and I feel too weak and tired to do anything. I’m bored out of my mind lying in bed. On the days I have energy, I tend to do too much and wear myself out. I hate this. How am I supposed to have the strength to give birth?

Answer:

Hi, I’m so sorry you’re struggling. Have you talked to your doctor (or mental health provider, if you have one) about your fears for the birth? I want to say first your concerns are valid. However, maybe it would help to talk to them and see if they can alleviate or address some of your concerns and anxiety. While I don’t have celiac, I am anaemic and have had two kids. I was anaemic during pregnancy but did not require infusions. During one of my births, I stayed awake for two nights beforehand, and I surprised myself by managing it even while feeling so exhausted. My anemia and being 35 weeks pregnant leave me feeling so drained. Do not beat yourself up about being unable to do a lot.

I type this as I lay in bed because I’m too exhausted and light-headed to work. I am somewhat dreading picking up my kids from school because I have no energy, and I’m not even pregnant!

Support and Reassurance

Anyway, you are not alone, and doing the best for you and your body right now will help your baby. Just like the baby takes what it needs from you now, it will find a way to be born!

Oh, also, regarding blood transfusions, talk to your doctor, but I know more than one person who had one immediately after birth and successfully breastfed. It’s also quite common for there to be problems with breastfeeding at first, but that can be worked on after. Both my babies struggled with it in the first few days/weeks and went on to exclusively breastfeed.

Anaemia worsens my anxiety, leading to cycles of stress, especially regarding health issues, which, in turn, exacerbates my anxiety. So, if you can think about ways to address your health concerns around birth and destress, maybe that will help.

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Question

Anaemia causing forgetfulness

I (M31) have had anaemia now for the past 4 or 5 years. Before I was diagnosed, I was experiencing terrible short-term memory loss. You know when you go to do something, you go into another room to do that thing you set out to do, and then once you get into that room, you completely forget what it is you went there for? That would happen multiple times throughout the day.

Thankfully, I stopped having those frequent forgetful moments after my diagnosis and once I started taking iron supplements. However, recently, due to being in a very demanding master’s program and dealing with some depression, I’ve been forgetting to take my iron every day and notice the forgetfulness coming back. I know that, of course, all I need to do is get back into taking it every day, but I was just wondering, does anyone else’s anaemia cause them to forget things often? I wish there were a cure for this.

Answer:

I can help you here

The trick to creating a pattern is to remember something exactly when you need to do it. If you tell yourself that you need to remember to take your medicine before bedtime when you normally take it in the morning, you are going to forget. So you need that reminder to do this new thing when you normally do it.

Here’s what you do

Wherever you go in the house to take your medicine at the appropriate time and place, go to that place and leave yourself some reminder that you know what it is, what it means and what you need to do.

For example, if you take your medicine while putting on your clothes, you might put a note where your clothes are. If you take it in the shower, then put a note in the shower. And so on.

You will soon start to form the habit of remembering again, and then you can remove the reminder.

You can also set an alarm or calendar event on your phone. Still, when that goes off, you will be off doing something else like eating breakfast or taking a walk, and you don’t take your medicine during those events, so it’s not very helpful to form the habit, but it will help you to remember.