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Hi everyone!
Here I go again. Another blood test at the doctor's office and still having iron problems. I have been diagnosed with celiac disease 2 years ago. I am diligent on my gluten-free diet, love my gluten-free diet and wouldn't ever intentionally eat gluten. I have been accidentally glutened approximately 3 times in the 2 years that I have been gluten-free. I think I have probably had CD most of my life, since childhood, but only found out about it at age 51. Anemia was something that I had battled for about 12 years before diagnosis. Anemia was the only blatent symptom that I had for CD. Now I see that I had a few other symptoms as well, but they never were things that I didn't think of as "normal." Since most things I've read say that it can take up to 2 years for the intestines to heal after going on a gluten-free diet, I stopped taking iron about 6 months ago, figuring that I am healed now and would be absorbing iron from the foods that
I eat. I eat my fair share of green veggies and beef, other meats and eggs, so I figured I would be getting enough iron. My last blood test results were hemoglobin 12, ferritin 32 so things were looking up. I had a ferritin of 4 at diagnosis and my hemoglobin fluctuated around 10-11 even with taking iron.
This most recent blood test showed a normal hemoglobin of 12.9, which is a good number for me. But my ferritin was back down to 8 and my iron saturation was also low, though I don't know that number. So my question is: Am I not absorbing iron as I should be because my intestines simply cannot heal from extensive damage done over the years? Could this be refractory sprue? Is anyone else out there having this same problem with iron absorption years later after going gluten free? I am thinking of calling my GI and having another scope done with a biopsy to see if my intestines have shown any improvement since my diagnosis. I'm also back on iron pills, much to my dismay, because taking iron 2-3 times a day is a real pain in the butt for me, trying to take it on an empty stomach and not having foods that interfere with iron absorption gets old. I'm sick of taking iron pills since I've taken them for what seems like forever. I guess I also
should mention that I am still menstruating, which I guess could be a contributing factor. But there are other women my age still menstruating that don't have low iron.
Any insight that you can provide on this subject would be greatly appreciated. I will summarize. I thank you in advance for any input! I will, of course, discuss this with my internist, but sweet as he is, I'm not sure he will understand how the healing process of CD goes. I figured I could learn more from all of you.
Thank you,
Denise
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