Raising iron levels

Anyone have issues with raising their iron levels? Taking iron supplements triggers major histamine dumps which disrupt my sleep. The only thing that helps calm this is simultaneously supplementing quercetin, however I’ve tried this for the past few months, taking iron +vit c every other day in the morning, and 500mg of quercetin later in the day. My levels actually dropped from 19 to 10. I have been on a vegetarian diet for the past year, and don’t want to give that up as I feel better otherwise. Don’t know what to do at this point.