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Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:28 pm
by AllyB
Hi there

This is a truly horrible situation you are in - frightening and potentially harmful - I really do think you did the right thing going to the Gynae and I hope that they can help you asap! You need help now and for what it is worth, I agree that your doc should not have fobbed off such heavy bleeding - there are good iv drugs that can be used in the short term to stop the bleeding, but the root cause needs to be established - now.
All the best and keep us posted if you can - I am sure that the 'experts' will be able to investigate and normalise the situation - I will see if I can find the link for side effects of interferons re: heavy bleeding that I read (also my GP has 3 other ms patients who stopped interferon treatment after a couple of years because of this problem, so she is careful to question me on my cycle) and also see if I can find anything on your other meds about this.

Take care

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:33 am
by ewizabeth
Laura,

Did they check your blood to see what your iron levels were? When this was happening to me, I became pretty severely anemic, and the pills and temporary fixes wouldn't stop it. They tried doing a D&C and cauterization procedures too. I had a huge fibroid tumor, although benign, wasn't responding to anything.

Keep us posted, I hope you'll feel better soon!

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:38 am
by jimmylegs
e, i asked the same question earlier and it sounds like laura's iron levels are fine so far. seems they're keeping an eye on that, so that's good.

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:43 am
by ewizabeth
jimmylegs wrote:e, i asked the same question earlier and it sounds like laura's iron levels are fine so far. seems they're keeping an eye on that, so that's good.
That's good, but I hope they keep checking them. At this rate her iron levels could drop quickly. I was completely unaware of how bad off I was, and had just tolerated this problem as it got worse and worse over a couple of years.

Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:52 pm
by jimmylegs
ya i know, women are more at risk anyway without this exaggerated problem making it even worse.

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:04 am
by laura55
Hiya, thanks so much everyone for your replies. I did have my iron levels tested initially, but not since. I certainly feel very weak and dizzy, and quite sick as well? However I do take my multi vit and minerals daily, do you guys think I should double it for the minute?

I had a scan yesterday, they found a 'growth'. The nurse thinks it is most likely a polyp, or a fibroid, or a tumour, which she said was unlikely. I went back to my dr today and have a further gyno appointment at the hospital on 15th Jan, for them to find out exactly what this is.

At least I'm getting some answers now. Thank goodness, the bleeding has slowed a bit, it's not as bad as it was. This would be due to the tablets my dr gave me to stop the bleeding.

Thanks again for all your messages, take care, Laura xx

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 11:21 am
by jimmylegs
glad to hear that the medication is helping and that they're keeping up the pace to figure out what the situation is.

about the iron level, did i already say on this thread that iron tests are squirrely when you have an inflammatory condition? so your serum results can make your tissue stores appear higher than they really are?

if you get a test result anywhere down in the 40s i would say go for some extra supplementation. my doc recommended that i take iron every day for 3 or 4 months when my serum ferritin level went down to 36 (that was a couple weeks before they dxd ms, so they weren't thinking about inflammatory scenarios at the time either).

i think my pills were ferrous sulfate, 325mg, one a day. they can bung you up a bit, but if you take a couple days off here and there and switch to magnesium, that ought to help.

so, maybe see what a current iron test comes back with and then you can decide. fyi, i don't think there's enough iron in your typical multi, to bring someone out of a possibly deficient situation.

keep us posted!