Health Scare - or Hypochondriac ?

[cacunn]

Hey low haemoglobin level is the same as iron low blood, (for the record I am not a doctor and don't even play one on TV). I can remember the TV commercials for Geritol for those with Iron poor blood.

As said before it is probably just a swing in your diet/vitamin levels. Make an appointment with your doctor to ease your mind and just in case. Pick up some vitamins - with iron - and take these for a while.

I have given over 3 gallons of blood, before there were more medications than blood in my veins. Each time they would check the iron level. I asked once about this and they said that it was normal for the iron level to cycle. The normal reason for a drop was diet/vitamin issues and nothing else.

As suggested go eat a stake and have some Guinness. They both should help. If not have another Guinness.

[Abax]

The last time a doctor told me I had a serious problem (revealed through bloodwork), I was initially upset. When I had my bood re-tested a short time later, the life-altering condition had mysteriously disappeared and was written off as an anomaly (translation: a laboratory error).

Next time a doctor tells me I suffer from something serious, I will check on it, but I won't worry unless a few other doctors confirm a persistent condition.

Abax

[Ozman1944]

Hang in there Alex;
Unfortunately you got this kind of medical news at a "delicate' age. When it slowly begins to dawn on us that it's now not a case of "Should I ever die' but "WHEN I die'.

And everything can now become a major worry if we let it. Creepy at first, but you get used to this truth and cheerfully move on. (I think that's why us older types get more daring & laid back - we realise time is catching up soon, and we've been 'proper little persons' long enough.
Go to the Quack at once and get checked out. I reckon you'll be told there's nothing to be concerned about.
Everything's going to be just fine. Enjoy yourself and have fun. Time isn't going all that fast. And we're all in the same boat, yes?

[gilmore]

... Others here must have come through this point in life too, when for the first time in their lives you stop to consider the possibility of serious illness or death. Please tell me how I can expel these morbid thoughts from my mind and get back to normal life and let any necessary tests and treatments take their course without worrying about the eventual outcome.

I was diagnosed with HIV some 22 years ago, had the first and only AIDS-defining illness in 1999, a touch of cancer that I was told would kill me. (They were mistaken. It didn't.) It hasn't been fun, but there are advantages in at least somewhat coming to terms with one's mortality earlier in life than most have to.

The worst part of a potentially life-threatening illness is the time between symptoms/diagnosis and a treatment plan. There is a mantra that the remedy for the initial uneasiness that we all experience is education, education, education. Overcoming uncertainty is helpful not only in becoming an informed, empowered partner (along with your MD and staff) in your health care management, but also understanding your disease and what the options are has the effect of giving one a sense of empowerment and amelerioates the initial feelings of helplessness that we all experience.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First, you need to see your MD for a physical, and start all those monitoring programs that we all should do as we get older, such as annual prostate exams and a colonoscopy every 10 years starting at age 50, monitoring whatever else we are at risk for, such as high cholesterol, etc, if you don't do that already. These days most cancer can be cured, and most cardiovascular problems can be dealt with, but the key to success is early detection. It's just something we have to learn to do as we get older.

[heartofglass]

Eat some greens...that will help

[Pleater]

When I started to lose weight I bought a bottle of multivitamins and minerals, take one a day.

Within days I felt like a new woman.

And a new man too - it can have that effect.

I was eating loads of mixed veges and salads, that could have contributed, and no processed food which cuts out a lot of things people were never designed to eat.

Hippocrates (he of the Hippocratic oath) said 'let food be your medicine'.
These days I suspect he might have said 'don't let food be your poison'.

If you don't get the right vitamin, you can't absorb Iron, I think it is vitamin D - without Calcium you absorb all the fat in your diet.

It's a shock to the mind to find out there is a flaw in the system - it ranks along with losing a so called permanent tooth and spotting the first gray hair.

It is no use to sit and dree your weird, lad - first assess yourself - if you were bleeding into the gut then you'd most likely have dark, almost black stools. Second, review what you do to yourself - or don't do - food, drink, exercise, stress, worry, lack of sleep - it all adds up. Third see your doctor, though you can trawl the internet - however in some states of mind that can result in diiscovering that you have at lest five fatal and maybe the same number of debilitating illnesses, so not always advisable.

Fourth, even if there is something seriously wrong medical expertise is such that it can often be cured, stopped in its tracks or at least reduced in effect.

But getting better won't happen unless you do something about it. Worrying yourself to death counts as an own goal.

[demobud]

I will echo Arlen in that I am off and on anemic and have been since I was a child. I too have been turned away for blood donation (our church does a drive once a quarter) for low iron. Go to your doctor, get some tests done, but don't worry, it wil only add stress to your situation.
Good health!

[Robinhood]

The truth of the matter is that you are going
to die. Get used to the idea and then get
on with living. Let the doctors fret over
your conditions. If they can delay the
inevitable, it gives you a little more
time. Do what you need to do, and do
what inspires you.

[highlander_Daz]

alec
firstly stop worrying, stress will only make things worse, my wife used to get anemic but she now takes iron tablets and multivitamins. and some light excercise to get the heart and lungs working as well as eating spinach.

I have no medical qualifications whatsoever so obviously Im just letting you know what worked for the Mrs.

go see the quack !!

[Clockwork John]

I wish you the best. I hope this turns out to be nothing.

Here's some good advice I've been given over the years:
All men die, but not all men truly live.

Don't worry about how or when you're going to die; worry about how you're going to live.

This next one may be a bit morbid, but I like it:
Live in fear of death, for a life lived in fear of death is a life of reflection and repentance.