Hey all, I have a pretty confusing (to me) situation going on right now and I'm hoping to find some insight. I am going to apologize for the length of this ahead of time. Sorry:[
In a nutshell: I'm 21 yrs old with thal minor, recently have been feeling way more horrible than normal with excessive hair loss and fatigue, went to the doctor, was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia and am now on iron supplements. AHHH. What follows is the more detailed report.
For the past three to four years I've been steadily feeling worse - tired, depressed, pressured, panicked, looking very pale and being cold all the time etc., all of which I've attributed to my thal minor that I was diagnosed with as a 2 year old. My dad also has thal minor and has had some but not all of the same symptoms I've been experiencing.
Well when I was two, the doctors kept saying that I was iron deficient and put me on supplements to raise my blood count. The supplements barely touched me, only raising my count by one point, and eventually I went to a doctor that told me I had thalassemia and it was normal for my blood count to be how it was and I shouldn't have any symptoms. So up until I turned 18 I was fine, but like I said, since then it's been a steady decline with more and more symptoms increasing in their intensity.
A little history of the last 6 months:
Five months ago I started experiencing terrible joint pain. I had a hard time getting out of bed and couldn't use my thumbs or exercise for about two months. My fingers and thumbs are still sore every morning and I can't bend them completely. I attributed this to stress, and so did my doctor.
In November I had my wisdom teeth removed and had a horrible recovery, I was weak for two weeks after and wanting to sleep constantly. I looked unhealthy and on the verge of death (haha). I've had two other similar surgeries in the past four years and had recovered fairly normally from those, but I found I never really felt like myself after my wisdom teeth removal, always tired and lazy feeling. I'd wake up after a solid ten hours of sleep, eat breakfast and want to go back to bed, whereas before I'd always been at my most energetic at that time.
2 months ago I returned to the doctor for the persistent joint pain and for the fatigue, and I had a blood test and then he referred me to a hematologist after saying that my platelets/hemoglobin was low.
Then, about 6 weeks ago, my hair started falling out rapidly. And I mean rapidly. I'm getting chunks of strands falling out everywhere, and I have about half of what I did 3 years ago. Like I said I've had hair loss for the past 3 years, but never like this. This is AWFUL.
So I went to the hematologist, he took more blood samples, I went to a follow up with my regular doctor who had received the blood sample results and he said that I had developed iron deficiency anemia. I said wait - everything my dad's doctors have told him goes against that, that people with thalassemia minor are at risk for iron overload, and that too much iron is toxic to people like us with thal minor. But the doctor said my iron was low and that I definitely did not have an iron overload, and then told me that I should take iron supplements. He recommended Pure Absorb, vitamins, and healthy eating with a lot of meat.
OKAY so this is where I ask the questions. What the heck? Is this remotely normal? I seem to have most of the symptoms of iron deficiency anemia, and it would make sense with the blood loss I've experienced, but I was always under the impression thal balanced out iron deficiency cause it makes the blood hold on to it? I'm taking the iron supplements and I do definitely feel more energized, but my hair is still falling out like crazy. Some insight/advice/sympathies please!
Edit: don't know if this is the right area to be posting this, but I'm a noob and this is the only topic I could find with iron in the title... please put it in the right spot if there is one!