Went in for an iron infusion today and was thrilled to get my lab results. My CBC, iron stores, ferritin, B12 were all NORMAL! Since I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at age 19 and my doctor began monitoring me, I have always been anemic or border-line anemic, depending on disease activity. After my botched surgeries a few years ago, despite ongoing iron infusions, I became critically anemic and had to have several blood transfusions just to get me back to a functional level again. The last transfusion I had was in January of this year, just a week before I decided to make the radical dietary changes I'd been resisting for so long.
Since then, the CBC numbers have been on a steady increase until they first hit the low end of normal after three months on the diet. Now, after six months the iron stores have caught up and my doctor is comfortable reducing my infusion schedule down to just once a month and then pending the outcome of that, down to just quarterly.
I really can't say for sure what the cause of the improvement has been, but I suspect that eliminating gluten along with all grains has been the key. I have been tested numerous times for celiac disease and every test came back negative, but I am following the advice of this doctor now and plan on keeping gluten strictly out of my life from now on.
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