Anemia cancer scare

Posted , 3 users are following.

Hi,

I'm a 35 yr old female and I found out I was a little anemic and iron deficient at a regular checkup in July 2018. I mentioned to my dr I was having restless legs very bad and was slightly more tired than usual. She decided to test my ferritin. It came back extremely low at 5.2. My hemoglobin was down at 10.2. She had me start taking iron, initially childrens vitamins with iron but I later switched to Blood Builder (MUCH more effective).

Now I started the copper iud 1.5 year ago, notorious for causing heavy periods. And from Dec 17-well last month when I had it removed- they were HEAVY. At least 3 times heavier than I had ever experienced. I also let my dr know that I had experienced rectal bleeding but had been to a different doctor a few months prior to address. They said probably just my hemorrhoids and did a stool test which tested negative. My current dr said, ok glad you went and to let her know if it kept up. Well it did, and in September she wrote a prescription and gave specific advice on how to control them. To keep the story short, I was eventually referred to a colorectal surgeon for further investigation, she found lots of hems and a fissure (joys of childbirth), but due to my anemia has scheduled a colonoscopy. She said "all of those things can certainly cause anemia, but we are seeing an increase in young people with colorectal cancer" !! what a terrifying thing to tell someone who is anxiety prone.

My hemoglobin is great, now at 13.6, and my ferritin is slowly but surely building back up. BUT I can't get out of my mind that the bleeding isn't something more sinister. If I hadn't experienced anemia this year she likely wouldn't have insisted on a colonoscopy since there were obvious sources of bleeding.

Basically, finding the iron deficiency has felt like a domino effect of feeling that my health is failing and that I may have cancer. I have never had any health issues in my life until this.

Additionally, I feel like I'm in a vicious cycle, because the Blood Builder pills, while not too hard on the stomach, still cause things to be a little harder than normal, therefore never improving my other issues.

I am very anxious and looking for experiences/ advice!

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1 Reply

  • Posted

    Hi Lou,

    Did you have your colonoscopy yet? I don't want to alarm you, but my mother had colon cancer and her most telling symptom was anemia. Please let me know if you have any questions. But, please get the scan.

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