Anyone had their RA cause anaemia?

hurdygurdy

I lost the url for this forum, so I'm extremely glad to have found you all again!!

Trying to cut a horribly long story short, my blood Hb level dropped to 5.8 (it should be 11.5 for a woman), and I was on the verge of having a blood transfusion, followed over the next couple of weeks by an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, to see if there was internal bleeding, which would account for the anaemia.

For various reasons which I won't go into, otherwise the post will be a mile long, when I went in for the transfusion today, they didn't do it, but took more blood from me and sent me home.

The doctor called me this afternoon and the haemotologist has decided that the anaemia is being caused by the RA, which instead of attacking the joints, is now (also?) attacking the red blood cells. I have spoken to my GP this afternoon, who gave this condition a name and said she'd not come across it since she was at medical school. (I wish I'd thought to ask her to spell it out for me so I could look into it).

Anyway, I am today starting on 60mg Prednisolone, plus Lansoprazole 30mg and Adcal D3. I'm to take these for 10-14 days during which time I will be sent an appointment with the haemotologist when Decisions Will Be Made!

Just wondering if anyone else had had this condition or have heard of it?

scattered

RA can cause anaemia of chronic disease, but I've never heard of what your GP described. It makes sense though - RA is systemic, so it can effect any part of the body.

Whenever I flare I become mildly anaemic. Never severely but my doctors are very careful about monitering it.

I hope you get some answers soon.

roczko

Hi

This past couple of months I've been affected by anaemia. My MCV was low and my platelet count was around 108. I've just finished a 4 week course of vitamin B12 injections as that was low too.

All has been put down to RA and the way it can cause systemic problems.

Still not feeling so good either but that could be the heat :roll:

Take care of yourself.

Patrick

bevman

I had animia due to my RA in september last year i also had scopes to see weather there was any other underlying problem i was then assest for TNF after spending two weeks in hospital.My blood count took a while to come back up but it has although my blood count was also 8.5 they were all convinced that it was the RA that was causing it i was having a bad flair up.hope you will be ok Laurence

karinak

hurdygurdy wrote:

I lost the url for this forum, so I'm extremely glad to have found you all again!!

Trying to cut a horribly long story short, my blood Hb level dropped to 5.8 (it should be 11.5 for a woman), and I was on the verge of having a blood transfusion, followed over the next couple of weeks by an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, to see if there was internal bleeding, which would account for the anaemia.

For various reasons which I won't go into, otherwise the post will be a mile long, when I went in for the transfusion today, they didn't do it, but took more blood from me and sent me home.

The doctor called me this afternoon and the haemotologist has decided that the anaemia is being caused by the RA, which instead of attacking the joints, is now (also?) attacking the red blood cells. I have spoken to my GP this afternoon, who gave this condition a name and said she'd not come across it since she was at medical school. (I wish I'd thought to ask her to spell it out for me so I could look into it).

Anyway, I am today starting on 60mg Prednisolone, plus Lansoprazole 30mg and Adcal D3. I'm to take these for 10-14 days during which time I will be sent an appointment with the haemotologist when Decisions Will Be Made!

Just wondering if anyone else had had this condition or have heard of it?

Hi, Mine was 8 and told that was low and eating lots of iron rich foods and taking suppliment aswell, mine has gone up to 9.5, RA comes cap in hand with anaemia so ive read but i have been having dreadful heavy periods where i cant travel far for 1st 3 days without padding up and being near a loo!,GP said this does not help.
Watercress is enriched with iron,kale and beef (although some say beef aggravates arthur!??
hope you feel better soon Karina x

soozyquoo

5.8 that is so low, you must feel weak at the knees. My lowest ever was 8.2 and they wanted to bring me into hopsital to investigate, like you the drs thought it was bleeding tummy, but had endoscopy and found nothing wrong.
RA is horrid let alone being anaemic, I was off work for 4 months and felt awful. lets hope you get better soon, just realx and rest as much as possible.
love soozy