Diagnosed with anemia

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I just found out I was diagnosed with anemia, which could explain the malaise of the last several months, especially being out of work the past month and a half.

If you cook with cast iron you can usually get enough iron from that rather than supplements.

Not sure what that is.

Anyway, I have to go on a special diagnostic diet (which I've already been kinda on already): I'm supposed to avoid things like red meat, too much Vitamin C, horseradish and some other stuff.

I'm supposed to have cooked fruits and vegetables, fowl, fish, and some other stuff (which I've been kinda doing already).

When I have a bowel movement, I'm supposed to collect some of the stool. I'm supposed to do this for 3 bowel movements. They want to check for blood in my stool to see if that is the cause of the anemia.

Only problem is that I haven't had a bowel movement in a few days, so I gotta try to get one going, I guess. Usually, high fiber foods, plus lots of water and exercise help get the bowel movements going. So I guess I should jump and run around tonight to induce a bowel movement and collect my first stool.

Sounds gross, I know.

What really scares me is that I might have Crohn's disease (a common cause of anemia). My paternal grandfather had it (and I believe ultimately died of comlpications from it).

Crohn's disease would be an absolute contraindication to sex reassignment surgery.

I know one trans person who is having to live with Crohn's disease and the possibility she may never get surgery because of it. It's really sad.

Hopefully you just have severe IBS.I had to collect stool samples before a colonoscopy,it was gross.
Most people here use cast iron frying pans,but we call them skillets.If you cook acidic foods like tomato sauce in them some of the iron will leach into the food.
Eat prunes or drink prune juice to get your bowels ot go.There's an old joke,"never eat prunes when you're famished."If you eat a bunch,you'll find out that is good advice.
Good lock with the tests.

I just had a bowel movement, but I couldn't collect, as the stool was too dry. I guess I need to emphasize water and cooking vegetables to get that nice wetter stool, which would allow me to collect something.

OK, I found you need to collect from the toilet bowl, so I did. Collected sample no. 1.

Just collected my 2nd stool sample. I really want to find out what caused this.

Collected my 3rd stool sample today and sent it in. For some reason, despite drinking lots of water and eating lots of cooked vegetables, the stool was harder but also slimier. The stool is now clogging my toilet and I've yet been able to get it unclogged.

Anyway, I got the basis for the anemia diagnosis, a complete blood count done on me last week. I am a trans woman on hormones and female reference ranges were used on me, which are lower than male reference ranges--women need lower counts than men to be diagnosed with anemia. Red blood cell count was 3.8 M/uL, below the female reference minimum of 4.2 M/uL My hematocrit was 36.7%, slightly below the female reference minimum of 37%. Everything else on the complete blood count is fine.

Still waiting to hear back on anything like the cause.

Cleared the clog: It took use of a plunger (which only flooded the bathroom), a huge bit of drain cleaner for a while, several pots of near-boiling water, soap, more pots of near-boiling water, and then using the plunger again. After using it 3 or 4 times, the water finally drained.

Anyway, I wonder if there is some sort of ulcer or something that is causing the anemia. I don't menstruate, so that is not a cause.

I hope I don't have colorectal cancer or, if I do, I'm in the early stages. I read that can cause anemia; also, my uncle had it back in the early 90s and he required chemotherapy for it, so I might have inherited a genetic risk to it.

Here were the lab results:

Red Blood Cell count was 3.8 M/uL, below the minimum reference value of 4.2 M/uL.

Hematocrit was slightly low, at 36.7% (with 37% being the minimum reference value).

However, my hemoglobin was in the normal range at 13.0 g/dL (reference range 12.0 - 16.0), so I wonder if that mitigates the diagnosis.

"Mild anemia" was written in a note on the lab sheet. In addition to the stool test, the notes said they drew my blood to look at my iron levels, TIBC, and one other thing I can't read.

I would ask them to run some vitamin panels. Some deficiencies can cause symptoms similar to anemia (on top of your actual anemia symptoms). Vit D is the most common one. That will give you "malaise" like you have no idea. It is probably a good idea to supplement vit D/ be in the sun a bit if your blood level is less than 35ng/mL (not the 20 that is usually the bottom reference range). Their tests tend to give a higher value than you really have.