Anemia?

[Friedbrain]

Anyone have anemia that could be contributing to symptomology? I recently saw my famdoc and we talked about how I'm experiencing a lot of light-headedness, dizziness, had serious brain fog a few weeks ago, breathlessness upon walking up stairs, etc. That is when she suggested trying out midodrine, in order to see if increasing my bp would help with the symptoms (was out of town, and now my dh is out of town until Sat, and I'm not about to try it for the first time without him nearby!).

However, I received the results from new blood work a few days ago and was appalled to see that both my red blood cells and white blood cells were abnormally low (and my platelets were at the bottom of wnl). So, if I don't have enough RBC, wouldn't that contribute to my symptoms? Anyone else with dysautonomia anemic? The nurse said the doc wanted me to take vitamin D to increase my vit D levels, and re-test in 6 weeks. Um.....didn't understand that logic after looking at my results because my Vit D levels are wnl, whereas my blood cells were NOT! It won't hurt to take Vit D supplements so no biggie, but I'm concerned that I need to correct the anemia in order to facilitate improvement in the "getting enough oxygen to critical body organs" department!

Fwiw, my Vit B levels are ok. I'm trying not to worry about aplastic anemia, which is where my research led. My diet is not the greatest, though, because I'm so food-sensitive: many foods make me tired/crash and/or cause tachycardia, so I have a very limited range of foods that I eat. Logically, the answer is that I'm not eating enough (otoh, for years I've been ok on that diet), but none of the doctors I saw before were helpful in that regard. I promised my mom that I will ask my new famdoc to help me find a diet(ician) that will help me eat more while still feeling ok.

Thoughts? Thanks!

[Relax86]

Correcting anemia was a huge part of my recovery. I also had low ferritin. It took extra iron for me to correct. I also had to take it on an empty stomach in the am and another at the end of the day. I chose an iron with C. I also had to limit my blood testing at a time when I really wanted to explore what might be going on in my body. But blood volume was an issue so blood draws were killing me along with crazy menstrual cycles. Good luck.