Anyone know about too high ferritin?

[Terri]

I posted this on facebook too.

Needing iron/ferritin advice here. Before starting to prep for the DS I never paid much attention to labs. I have always been told I had low iron.

Well my preop iron showed 47 normal was 50-170. No ferritin was ran. At this time I had been taking 3 iron pills with vitamin C a day for 6 months. After DS on 6-12-14 when I tried to start taking my iron it didn't sit well on my stomach. I had PCP run ferritin (I was certain I would need infusions). It came back 196.1. So ok then. I go to surgeon for one month follow up. She feels that ferritin is not really that high so she orders more test. I still have not taken any iron post op.

I picked up results yesterday my iron is at 60 but my ferritin is now 269.9. Whoa! WTH is going on. That is almost 100 more in a week. Of course I googled high ferritin and came up with hemochromatosis. Waiting on dr to call but thought I would ask y'all while waiting.

 

[SHales]

I answered you on FB?? Having a cloudy day. lol

 

[Terri]

@SHales yes ma'am you did. I have those days often.

 

[Munchkin]

First thing I would do is stop adding in the extra iron supplements beyond whatever is in your multi. And iron numbers are not supposed to change that fast. I wonder if the lab made a mistake?

 

[Terri]

First thing I would do is stop adding in the extra iron supplements beyond whatever is in your multi. And iron numbers are not supposed to change that fast. I wonder if the lab made a mistake?

I haven't taken any iron since before surgery. I am going to ask surgeon for referral to hematologist.

 

[KathyF]

If I am not mistaken, high ferritin could also be from an infection or inflammation. Could be any number of things. Definitely see a hematologist about it.

 

[Parousia]

I was just going to post a question about this when I saw yours, lol. I will post separately anyway, because there are some other factors involved that I want to ask more about. Kathy mentioned inflammation and I know liver disease could also cause that result (maybe related to inflammation?)

 

[Terri]

I spoke to surgeons PA today for quite awhile. She thinks that this still may not be a true reading. She asked if I was ok with waiting to retest in a month, which I am. I am okay with it because what she said made sense. Within a month I had the DS, hernia repair during that and then had an endoscopy with dilation. She explained that my liver had been biopsied during surgery and nothing showed up on the tests. My liver had also had a lot of narcotics it had to filter during that month not to mention the weight loss. There was no sign of infection in the CBC w/diff or CMP.

 

[Parousia]

I spoke to surgeons PA today for quite awhile. She thinks that this still may not be a true reading. She asked if I was ok with waiting to retest in a month, which I am. I am okay with it because what she said made sense. Within a month I had the DS, hernia repair during that and then had an endoscopy with dilation. She explained that my liver had been biopsied during surgery and nothing showed up on the tests. My liver had also had a lot of narcotics it had to filter during that month not to mention the weight loss. There was no sign of infection in the CBC w/diff or CMP.

That does make sense . My Ferritin levels are high more than 4 months post-DS; you're still very early out. How are you going with your DS?

 

[Terri]

@Parousia, I am doing pretty well. I had a narrowing in the stomach that had to be dilated at 3 weeks out. I struggled a bit getting liquids in until I found what worked, which is hot tea. I feel like I need to be a little more imaginative in my foods. I seem to get to 50g of carbs quickly. I am eating about 1/2 of my protein and getting the rest from drinks. I usually am getting 90g a day. Thank you for asking.

I am glad you are doing better now and look at you already almost 1/2 to goal in 5 months. I hope to see you on here more.

 

[Parousia]

Glad to hear you're doing well . And great that you found the right drink to help you with fluid intake. That was a turning point for me, early on.

I don't worry about counting carbs atm; I just try to make sure I get my protein in. That is the most important, although maybe I would lose more quickly if I did count them! You could experiment a bit with it, and see if it slows things down if you increase your number of carbs if you're finding the 50 g difficult to stick to. Just make sure your protein intake isn't impacted. The optimum number of carbs does seem to differ from person to person. I'll start monitoring it a bit more closely myself once I'm more on top of life in general!

I hope to be on a bit more often in the future. I'm starting to cope with things a bit better, but that can change rather suddenly. I do enjoy these forums though, and it is nice to hear how everyone is going .

 

[JackieOnLine]

I was thinking the same thing last night, @Parousia - nice to see you back here.