Ferritin

[yence99]

Hello.
Back in Feb I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia. Had a colonoscopy where they found my colon cancer. Surgery was in March. Now 4 1/2 months later my CBC is absolutely fine, but my ferritin is still low at 13 (was 4 at the time of surgery). I just got my lab results today and won't see my doc until Friday. I was wondering if people have have any personal experience, i.e., how long does it take until ferritin levels are back to normal? Like I said, my free iron, my HGB and everything else is perfect now.

Thanks a lot.

[Pita]

Sorry I can't help you, I don't find ferritin on my CBC report and never heard of it before now.
I found this link to be a good explanation of ferritin for me: http://www.healthline.com/health/ferritin#Ferritin2

All I can say is patience till you see your Doc and good luck...

[Lee]

I think this is an answer only your Dr can answer. When I was diagnosed, my iron and anemia levels were just fine.

Lee

[Jachut]

If you've had a slow bleed, your body will have been using up all its stored iron to maintain normal hemaglobin levels. So you may not be "anaemic" but can have very low ferritin.

It takes several months to build it up again with supplementation. The fact that you've bounced back to 14 is fantastic, I'm sure your doc will be happy. Judging by Australian norms, you're back in the "normal" zone although you'd be much better off with it over 50 or so. You could supplement with iron to get there quickly but the rise in your levels so far would indicate that the iron loss has stopped and your body is absorbing iron well and that storage is building back up.

[nomoretacos]

I've had low iron stores for 10 years. I had my colon resection in March, going through chemo at the moment and recently had my levels checked and its at 50 so within the normal range. Im not sure what my levels were prior to resection but it wasnt within the normal range and I was taking iron supplements all throughout these years. I havent taken any supplements post surgery and it increased on its own to 50 so im very happy about that. I just cant believe I've probably had cancer for over 10 years...

[Jachut]

Blows your mind, doesnt it?

My first symptoms (and in hindsight they were very clear symptoms) were at least seven years prior to my diagnosis. Because I was a female in her mid 30's docs felt confident chalking it up to menstrual issues and never ever suggested a colonoscopy or FOBT or even just regular bloods. And even them, it took me 2 years to see a doc about the troubles I was having, so that's 9 years. After all that, I feel so lucky that I was still stage II