Help me help my son PLEASE! (with labs)

I will try to make this as short as possible.  I always knew something was wrong with my son Leo.  As an infant he suffered from recurrect resp, ear, sinus, and throat infections. The frequency decreased oncec he hit 5.  He had SEVERE acid relfux disease and deplayed stomach emptying as well as asthma.  I continually bothered the doctors to find an answer why he was so sick all the time and they basically dismissed my concerns because I was a young "new mom."  All they ever did was treat the symptoms and send us packing.  Granted my husband is active duty military and the healthcare they provide is just pathetic.  There is no continuity, we are luckily if we get to see the same PA or the occassional Dr twice.  Not once did anyone even bother to take blood.  Fast forward to now and he will be 7 next month.  We are still having growth issues as he is barely 40lbs.  He is pale and the circles under his eyes are getting worse as he gets older.  He bruises very easily and quite frankly he looks like he survived the holocaust.  We have been refered to a pedi endocrinologist however thier first appt isnt until May.  He has always been a "moody" child but its gettimg worse.  He is constantly complaining he doesn't feel well and SOB within minutes of playing.  Then two months ago he starts getting these awful stomach aches to the point he curls in a ball and cries.  He is missing lots of school so they refer us to a GI.  Thank God the first question she asked was if anyone had bothered to do any labs! We have now been referred to a pedi hematologist for thalassemia.  His paternal grandmother is from Greece and I know she has it as well as several other family members.  Unfortunately, I do not have any contact with them to get more information so I thought maybe someone here can help me.  Here are his lab results.  Im only going to post abnormal results.
Hgb 10.7 L
Hct 33.9 L
Rbc 5.75 H
Mcv 59.1 L
Mch 19.9 L
Monocyte 9% H
Mono absolute .7 H
Ferritin 13.5 L
Transferrin 373 H
Sed rate 2 L
AST/SGOT 51 H

Both the Iron level and saturation were within normal ranges.The pathology reviews RBC morphology abnormal. Hypochromic +3 microcytic +4 anemia with target cells and large plts  I feel so bad for the poor little guy because he has spent his whole life feeling awful.  I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help him feel better and lead a more normal life. What level does this look like based on his labs?  From the limited informaiton I foudn online it doesn't look like he would need a transfusion correct?  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and offer any advice.

Jessica

Welcome to thalpal Jessica - Yes, he will not need transfusion with his current HB levels.
From the blood results you posted - His RBC are smaller in size.

Has Iron deficienty been ruled out? If so, thalassemia (minor) could be in picture.

Don't worry - there are millions of thalassemia (minor) in this world and they just need to be better managed with the required nutrients and health information.

Jessica,

It does look like thal minor. However, thal minor normally does not produce such extreme symptoms. But, there is some possibility that would be revealed by two things. Is the spleen enlarged? Was his bilirubin level checked? I would say from the described symptoms that either it is a GI problem, or his gallbladder may not be functioning properly, and this is related to the spleen.

Thank you for the respsonse both of you.  We met with the GI yesterday, she believes he may have bleeding somewhere in the GI tract.  We are scheduling an endoscopy for next week hopefully.  I asked her about the spleen being enlarged she said that the labs do not show any signs of generalized inflammation.  Do you think this is something I shoudl pursue further with the hematologist?  I just checked his labs, his bilirubin was .2 range(.2-1.3). 

Any doctor can check for spleen size. Sometimes it is slightly enlarged in thal minors, due to hemolysis. However, with the low bilirubin level, it's unlikely that this is an issue.

Jessica
this group has very supportive.

If like have a look at the crohnsforum where I am also member and we discuss GI issues.  Heres wishing they find the source problems very soon.

Catherine