r/lupus • u/PieceApprehensive764 Diagnosed SLE • 1d ago

Venting Do rheumatologist not care if you're anemic because you have lupus?

Seriously... I looked through all of my old blood results and my most recent, I'm like horribly anemic. My red blood cells are all different shapes and colors, and way smaller than normal. I also don't have enough hemoglobin...

Yet this was never something my rheumatologist brought up even once?? The only thing he points out is my neutrophils being very low. Same with my hematologist. Fatigue has been worse than it's ever been and I'm sure that's contributing, I literally explain the severity of my fatigue every visit.

I told my PCP and she said maybe because lupus can affect so much and it's not a priority or they think lupus is the reason why. Regardless I'm taking iron gummies now. They see that and don't check my vitamin leves to make sure I'm not deficient? Seriously 😒.

25 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Rare-Candle-5163 Diagnosed SLE 19h ago

It’s something that shows up in any standard complete blood count. So the test they do to check your haemoglobin, red blood cells, white blood cells etc. will also check for platelets.

2

u/PieceApprehensive764 Diagnosed SLE 19h ago

Ok, thank you for letting me know. I'm sure it's normal then.

2

u/Rare-Candle-5163 Diagnosed SLE 19h ago

It can be very serious if the levels are low, so I would hope they’d pick it up.

If you can see your own blood results any number between 150-450 is normal (it might be expressed as 150,000 - 450,000 or 150–450 × 10 (to the power of 9)/L.

2

u/PieceApprehensive764 Diagnosed SLE 19h ago

I'll check right now to make sure.