Large red blood cells

[Meg1612]

Hi everyone,

I’ve had my blood tests results today (because of multiple miscarriages, before inbetween and after my little boys) and they said that everything was in normal range but my red blood cells were quite large and were asking how much alcohol I drink - which is very little I never normally drink but I have one wine and lemonade every night since being on LE. They said that they got the same results from my blood back in 2012, I just wondered if anyone else has had this before and they found out why they had it? Because it definately - for me can’t be from drinking too much alcohol is there anything I can do to make it better? And is anything going to have an effect on my sway because of this? I don’t think my MC can be related to the blood cells because I have two healthy little boys

[atomic sagebrush]

Ok. Please don't panic over what I am about to say, the odds are very good that you just need some B12 supplementation but I do NOT want you to take that till the doctors get to the bottom of what is going on and I don't want to risk having you mask any health problems like a nutrient deficiency by taking supplements right now.

You need follow up care immediately, because there are some things that can cause that that are fixable, and then there are some things that can cause that which aren't good (by which I mean life threatening and these need to be ruled out), and coming from a person (ME LOL) who was put off by doctors for many, many years only to find out that lo and behold I actually do have something wrong with me, you have to push them sometimes - most times -to investigate when something isn't right.

My first guess is that you are B12 anemic but you shouldn't be B12 anemic at your age (as long as you have not been a vegan for a long time and never take any prenatal or multivitamins) Unless you were a chronic, severe alcoholic for many years. It's an unusual finding in a young woman, and actually it CAN contribute to miscarriages since super low B12 may make it harder for your body to absorb folic acid. Things may have been different/better when you conceived your boys and so I really urge you to get that investigated because it very well may be contributing to the losses.

First thing to do - make a follow up appointment and do not leave till they tell you what underlying condition you have that is causing this reading (and if it's "none", well, then let's just be sure they've actually ruled everything out becuase this is not normal for a woman your age! Don't accept "nothing is wrong" unless they have actually done something!) I also want you on folate ONLY, no folic acid, if you have a prenatal with folic acid in it stop and get one that only has folate in it. For now, let's cut back to 400 mcg folate since higher doses of folic acid can mask symptoms of B12 deficiency (which I usually do not worry about since most young women don't have B12 deficiency, but something more is going on here and thus you need to be off the higher dose folic acid/folate right away.)

[Meg1612]

Thankyou atomic, I find it crazy that you would take the time to write all of that to me and my own doctor has failed to mention it once in the last 6 years, I’m going to call on Monday for the second blood test which the said they “might do” if they didn’t get anything from my ultrasound but I will insist that they do it, I’ve tried googling folate tablets to get some as I only have folic acid but they all come up as “folate (folic acid) so I’m confused By that, I’m in the uk If that makes and difference I can’t seem to find any tablets that just say folate on them, I’ll keep looking thankyou for sending me that message I will update you when I know anything more

[Meg1612]

38694

[Meg1612]

Will these be ok? X

[squigglepink]

Your pic is tiny so i cant see but Im in UK, i bought these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00H7JYKHQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Meg1612]

That is the exact same picture lol! Thankyou very much, do you have the same thing? Or you just chose to get the folate instead of folic acid? X

[atomic sagebrush]

That is the exact same picture lol! Thankyou very much, do you have the same thing? Or you just chose to get the folate instead of folic acid? X

There are other reasons why people get the folate (like blood clotting disorders, recurrent unexplained losses, trouble processing folic acid, etc). What you have ~may~ be trouble absorbing enough B12 (this is also called pernicious anemia) and in your case taking folic acid can mask the symptoms of pernicious anemia and make it harder to figure out you have something else going on. Folate is better tolerated by your body and I just think it wise to make the switch for now until we know what is going on.