Quote:
Originally Posted by rose
Jeff,
I appreciate your understanding words. That means a lot to me. 
If you malabsorb, eating more food with B12 in it will do no good (unless you like huge amounts of liver every day  ).
If your MMA is high after taking 1000 mcg B12 daily for weeks, either your B12 was so depleted that your MMA was much higher before, or you should consider a kidney problem.
1000 - 2000 mcg oral B12 daily is the textbook (well edited) dose for people who lack intrinsic factor or may be heading that way.
It's wonderful that you have a doctor who cares enough to look into potassium and to bother with exploring reasons for your suspected B12 deficiency. Most doctors wouldn't even know to check parietal cells and intrinsic factor antibodies if they did care to look into it.
Be clear though, in case the doctor isn't. What you are taking is treatment for malabsorption, even severe malabsorption of absent intrinsic factor.
Best wishes, and I hope to see you around here more.
rose |
Rose:
Understood about diet. No liver on my plate in any amount!
The Dr. and I are both clear that the treatment is for malabsorbtion. The short list of symptoms I gave him combined with his physical exam was convincing for him. He also did distinguish for me that I'm not experiencing true peripheral neuropathy so much as some parasthesias.
Meanwhile, I note an increase in fatigue following that mid-morning dose of B12, which tells me the body would like to rest and repair. I get a decent rebound in energy mid-afternoon, but I'm frugal about how I expend my energy as I know there's a ways to go before I am repaired and replenished. As I said, I'm in it for the long haul, and I've been through enough brain injuries to know how to wait and be patient while the body does its thing.
As to iron/ferritin: Serum iron was 113 in a reference range of 40 - 155. As I'm considering ordering another full chem panel (I want a re-read on that potassium) I will pull a ferritin level for good measure.
Thank you for everything.
Jeff