New here: stopping Requip with Dilauded

[abart]

Hi Beth.
It's not. I checked my paperwork again and it is 18.
Is that bad?

[ViewsAskew]

Hi Beth.
It's not. I checked my paperwork again and it is 18.
Is that bad?

18 is incredibly low for one of us. Beth will reply, too, I am sure. We need a minimum of 50, some say 100, and some of the Johns Hopkins docs say that can even be higher.

I personally need closer to 300. Mine was 16 or 18 the first time I checked it. The next time it was 8. Oral iron got me up to about 40, but didn't help. Iron infusions, though, have. I have had 3 or 4. And, due for another.

[abart]

It isn't a typo. It's right off the lab report. I read it to Dr B on Friday and he didn't seem concerned.
Maybe I'll ask for the infusion.

[badnights]

Have you talked to him about that ferritin value yet? Maybe Dr B didn't notice that 18. It's low even for someone without WED/RLS, as Ann said. If you're not in danger of hemachromatosis, you would probably benefit from oral iron - one or even two pills of 325 mg ferrous sulfate or gluconate (with 60-65 mg elemental iron each pill). Take on an empty stomach if you can tolerate it, with a 500 mg pill of vitamin C or C-rich food or beverage. C helps absorption, which can be erratic.

Low serum ferritin is correlated with increased symptom severity (and with increased likelihood of augmentation). the Johns Hopkins doctors who pioneered the treatment of WED/RLS with iron infusions have said that some of us need ferritin even as high as 300; meaning, that's how high the iron-storage protein ferritin has to be in the blood before the brain gets enough iron.