Recent labs after 1st donation, not as expected
Confirmed homo c282y.
It has been exactly 30 days since my first Red Cross donation. I did another phleb today at the doctor's office. My ferritin went up, but my other labs improved. Doctor says sometimes ferritin will not drop until serum iron comes down first as the body will use circulating iron for new RBC before pulling from stores. Besides my first donation, only other thing I did was cut out red meat 100% and only eat chicken and fish. I also changed my vegan protein powder to a whey isolate which eliminated 5mg of non-heme iron.
Overall not too upset. I had a head cold for about a week in April so maybe that raised ferritin. Not sure exactly. I was hoping to see ferritin in the 200s.
My 5/14 labs are not fasted. I had a big breakfast beforehand. Can't remember if I was fasted for the 1/14 labs.
Hematologist visit/labs: 01/14/2026 Iron 195 ug/dl Sat. 90% Ferr. 318 ng/ml UIBC 21 range 155-300 TIBC 216 range 250-450
*1 pint whole blood donated on April 14th*
Hematologist visit/labs: 5/14/2026 Iron 161 ug/dl Ferritin 370 Sat. 69% UIBC 72 range 155-300 TIBC 233 range 250-450
Hemaglobin stayed steady at 15.8. That has not moved. wbc stayed steady at 3.8.
Good news is DR agreed to test copper and ceruloplasmin. No results yet.