hello !
i am from india but living in the UK for a year now ....i am 30 years old and 3 months pregnant. my first trimester blood tests revealed that i am 'severely anaemic' with a HB count of 8.1 ....this dismayed but did not shock me as back in 2006 itself , i was found to have low HB of 7.6 and the doctor in india put me on iron injections (!) , i had no awareness of other underlying causes for anaemia , so i went back for another routine blood test ( one of those health check ups covered by office that u arent sure how seriously the tests are done) in a year and my HB was 10.5.
anyway , the NHS here seems to have a lot more awareness about non iron related causes for anaemia , i got a call this week asking me to come for a ferritin test and my husband to appear for a blood test later this week , they have also put me on ferrous sulphate 200mg tabs twice a day ( not helping the already existing pregnancy nausea)......i went to the doctor to try and understand what all the additional tests were for ....and he was very very vague at this point and just said they suspected thal in my case but still needed to do some more tests to confirm and determine what type etc ....they want my husband to be tested to find out if he is a carrier , and if he is , the doc said the haemotologist will meet us
i have been reading up on thal since yesterday .....in a way , my probable diagnosis made sense , i have always felt that frequent tiredness has held me back from being able to do more in life and now there seems to be a medical explanation for it ....i was good at school work and i make a good living , but i had to be forced to to do any sports in school and would often be exhausted at the end of the day ...i always thought it was nutritional deficiency as i certainly wasnt eating enough fruits and veggies when growing up .......rite now i have fingers crossed badly hoping that my husband is not a carrier , so that i can just focus on my diagnosis as i understand all thals even minors have difficult pregnancies , some requiring blood transfusions .....i feel tired all the time since getting pregnant with headaches even in the morning , though i am at home since last month , i can hardly find the energy even to cook to keep myself going ......