u/Any-Sense-4121

Background: I recently found out that a long list of symptoms can be explained by B12 and iron deficiency. I'd love some guidance around how to explore this with the nhs or otherwise...

Symptoms (the classics): fatigue, brain fog, breathlessness, hair loss, nail ridges, low mood, anxiety, extreme post-exercise exhaustion, energy crashes after eating.

The numbers

• Active B12: 56.7 pmol/L
• Ferritin: 23 (was 16 in March, NHS marked it normal, no action 🙃)
• Haemoglobin: 117 (was 112 in March, NHS also marked as normal, no action)
• have lots of other numbers but not sure which are relevant! (I'm trying to work my way through the b12 guidance doc but I won't lie, the brain fog and fatigue are making that slow work atm)

Why I don't think it's dietary

I eat a varied whole foods diet, meat, fish, dairy, eggs. I'm currently taking a B12 spray while I investigate further...

GP appointment Tuesday: I'm going to ask for the following

Tests for underlying causes:

• Intrinsic factor antibodies
• Gastric parietal cell antibodies
• Coeliac serology
• H. pylori stool antigen test
• FIT test (an iron infusion consultation asked me a question about blood in stool and now I'm retrospectively thinking I do...)

Treatment:

• I'm going to ask for the B12 injections straight away whilst we investigate the source.

Questions for this community

• Should I be asking for any other tests?
• Will I get resistance to getting the injection while we investigate? What should I be pushing for?
• Best route to unbiased holistic advice. Should I be trying to get a referral to a haematologist?

Thank you so much for being such a welcoming and active community (that we all wish we weren't a member of haha)

Background: I recently found out that all of my crazy symptoms (you name it, I have it. fatigue, hair loss, breathlessness, brain fog, nail ridges. all of them except the ice eating one!) can be explained by B12 and iron deficiency. Obvs all the classic ignoring of symptoms (and actual hard facts!) by the GP- had tests done in March and whilst some were even out of the NHS reference ranges, they still marked them as 'no action'

numbers: Ferritin 23 (and was 16 in March), Active B12 56.7, Haemoglobin 112.

Please review and provide feedback on my next steps!

1. GP meeting: I've got a GP appointment on Tuesday. My consultation with an iron clinic (that I subsequently chickened out going ahead with the infusion) suggested I ask for the following from my GP

a) Tests for underlying causes of B12

• Coeliac serology
• FIT test (I think I may have blood in my stool. pushing to get this tested urgently...)
• H. pylori stool antigen test
• Intrinsic factor antibodies
• Gastric parietal cell antibodies

b) Treatments

• I am also going to ask for the b12 injection course whilst we investigate the cause of the deficiency
• I will also ask for an iron infusion and about the different types (although if we don't have time I'll focus on the b12)

Questions for this group: Should I be asking for anything else?

2. Private Iron Infusion: Everyone says it's impossible to get iron infusion from NHS. I can afford to pay for Iron infusion privately. I recently found one in London that was reasonably priced (£500 for consultation and iron but it's Ferinject and I'm scared after reading the scare stories). I have now cancelled the infusion (was going to be tomorrow).

Questions for this group:

• How do I get comfortable with an infusion? I feel like I'm stuck in a loop of not trusting the NHS because they have to care about cost; not trusting private practices because they will just say their injection is the best one; reading scare stories on here because on these forums we over-index on side effects
• What's the best way to get unbiased advice- a haemotologist? A private GP? Can't work out the best route

Thank you so much for being such a welcoming and active community (that we all wish we weren't a member of haha)