Good news re iron depletion
Posted , 3 users are following.
Thought I would share this as it may be helpful to those starting this journey.
I am diagnosed with genetic hemo...two copies of C282Y.
I am asymptomatic, age 70, female, 115 lbs.
In mid Oct blood test...ferritin...1010
I gave a pint of blood every two weeks
Nov 12th and 26th
Dec10th and 24th
Blood test on Dec 27....ferritin..525
Pint of blood given
Jan 7th and 21st
Blood test Jan 24...ferritin....460
Pint of blood given
Feb 4th and 18th
Blood test Feb 20th....ferritin....330
My hemoglobin levels never got below 12.5 . I did not
alter my diet other than avoid iron enriched foods.
I am now going to go every 3 weeks and monitor ferritin until I break 100.
I feel very fortunate to have these results and I wish you well on your journey.
1 like, 14 replies
sheryl37154 jax15282
Posted
Congratulations, and you are so lucky to be asymptomatic. You have a non aggressive version of homozygous C282Y to have reached only 1010 at 70 years of age untreated. Some people with the less aggressive homozygous H63D would reach that level by age 70 if untreated.
You will find it more useful to measure your iron loading capacity by having your blood tests shortly before vx. This will give you a truer reading of how you are going.
jax15282 sheryl37154
Posted
not aware that there was " aggressive and non -aggressive versions". Where do I find that info?
jax15282
Posted
Also could you expound on how having my ferritin checked shortly "before" v x could be truer..? we are talking minimal time frame...
sheryl37154 jax15282
Posted
Ok, forgot you were not up to the 3 monthly maintenance stage yet. So mine are 3 months apart just before (a few days so I get the results) my next vx.
sheryl37154
Posted
As you are going to vx every 3 weeks, you will probably be tested every 6 weeks. So you will still get a better picture knowing how much you are loading before your vx.
sheryl37154 jax15282
Posted
Any official description of GH generally lists the genetic HFEs and their propensity to cause differing levels of iron overload. In France, homozygous H63D is not even accepted as a condition to be treated. S65 - forget it in most, if not all countries. Only homozygous C282Y, and compound heterozygous C282Y/H63D, are generally accepted as causes of overload that causes health issues. Not that I agree with it.
Then within those, even homozygous C282Y, some people don't load iron at all and are asymptomatic and some drs tend to lead with this as an excuse to not investigate further.
I am homozygous C282Y, my husband is homozygous H63D (ferritin level 550 at 50 years old - no symptoms), and son is compound heterozygous C282Y/H63D with a ferritin level of 772 at age 22.
If your homozygous C282Y was aggressive, and you were not menstruating when you were younger, your ferritin level would have become very obvious at <40 years old. Or, as soon as you started menopause, your levels would have taken off to a high level quite quickly.
jax15282 sheryl37154
Posted
Be cause of my encouraging iron reduction amounts I have opted to go with vx every 3 weeks instead of 2. However I will have ferritin tested within a few days of each vx, not so much to monitor loading , but to monitor breaking 100 and then I will test bimonthly to monitor loading.
Curious to know what your ferritin level was at diagnosis and how long, how much, how often until you were deironed.
sheryl37154 jax15282
Posted
At diagnosis, my ferritin was reported as >999 (they did not test with a high load in mind as I was a female). I had been donating blood about every 3-4 months before I knew I had GH.
They did not test TS% back then. I had a hysterectomy and I started loading with symptoms at 6 weeks after surgery but my dr ignored it - for 9 years! I was staggering and slurring with fatigue, foggy brain, and had a lot of body pain, and eventually my hips broke up with avascular necrosis. I was told my blood was so thick with iron that it could not get into the finer capilliaries that fed the bones. So the hip bones died and broke up.
First vx 16/7/98, ferritin 27 at 25/10/99, after weekly, then two weekly, then monthly, etc. vx. I was still on two weekly when it went to <50 (which is when we are classed as de-ironed). It went up to 152 Jan 2002, then down, and another jump up in 2004 to 173, and my TS% was always in the high range, Serum Iron all over the place, Hb always in healthy range. Blood tests were all over the place, timed just before I saw haemotologist. I thought this was rather stupid as there was no pattern to follow. Then when I could make my own decisions, I found it better to find out what my bloods were before I vx'd.
My last ferritin was 11 with no problems at all, but I had suggested to my haemotologist that I reduce vx quantity to 350mls, but the nurse forgot and took 450. I have found it necessary to keep to 3 monthly to keep my TS% down but thought I would try the lesser quantity taken. Any time my haemotologist increased the time between vx, my ferritin skyrocketed. I would have arrythmia, etc, and I would have to go back to every two months for two years, so I said no more, I was not going to vary the time between vx again.
You will find that if you have even a simple cold, the infection will send your ferritin levels up. But it will reduce naturally when the cold is gone, so no extra vx are necessary.
It can be a rollercoaster ride and often it is when you look backwards you see the perspective. I record everything on a spreadsheet. I did not at first and I don't think I got every blood test results but it has been 21 years for me to look back on now.
A late diagnosis and the consequences of this has been very regrettable, so I always encourage people to get a diagnosis and treatment as early as possible, if they express symptoms.
Good luck.
jax15282 sheryl37154
Posted
Alarming when you indicate " ferritin skyrocketed" what kind of numbers are you talking about?
sheryl37154 jax15282
Posted
Not as alarming as it sounds - sorry. As you can see in my previous response, it went up to 173 and 152 on two separate occasions from <50. 80 and over gave me arrythmia and chest pain. Later I was to find that >50 gave me arrythmia, etc. I experienced this before I found my ferritin was higher, so it is not psychological. So those levels affect me in a very negative way. I now keep it in early 20s. It has been as low as 13, and last test 11 as previously advised. It is not harmful to be that low because it is ferritin, not Hb.
tom_70042 jax15282
Posted
well done to you sounds similar to me
i got down from 1200 to 55 over 6 months Aug 2018 to Dec 2018 with weekly vs and since then only had one vs in 2019 when i crept above 100 so was happy with that
only problem for me is that the treatment has caused a massive onslaught of arthritus in the form of pseudogout look it up
its hard to control they ate trying different drugs to suppress the immune system nothing working yet
its apparent that lots of us develop this complication so if u get stiff sore in hip and back or knees get it checked
stay healthy keep moving i try but its getting harder i find hydrotherapy helps
best wishes Tom
tom_70042 jax15282
Posted
nice to see Sheryl commenting again hope you are keeping well down in Australia been awful watching those bush fires
sheryl37154 tom_70042
Posted
Thanks Tom. I am a long way from the bush fires as we practice control burns during winter in the state I live. The media included all the control burns as currrent wild fires in their reports which made it look like the whole of Australia was on fire. We hope the affected states will go back to control burning from now on. Eucalyptus trees are very volatile too.
Have you noticed that there is not as many enquiries on this forum as there used to be?
tom_70042 sheryl37154
Posted
glad u guys are safe thats great seems the media are now more concerned with coronovirus
yes i have noticed the lack of posts on the forum i have my next tests next month then follow up with consultant in April so i will keep posting when i can i am committed to this forum
have a nice weekend all our 3 sons will be at twickenham tomorrow hopefully to watch our ireland team beat england i cant do the walking anymore so its the tv seat for me
still they are all coming for lunch today makes their mum and me happy suspect they are keeping an eye on me
all the best Tom