Exhausted and tired of feeling so bad.

I am 4 months pregnant. I have Hashimoto's Disease [On thyroid meds] and Anemia. On a regular basis, I have low iron, low hemoglobin but to an extent that I am able to handle it. I can not take iron pills. It kills my stomach, like hospital worthy pain.

This is my 3rd pregnancy. My last pregnancy my hemoglobin was low the entire time, and kept dropping. My OB did absolutely nothing about it and kept telling me I was fine. I did not know an iron transfusion was an option, so I never asked for one. When it came time to give birth in April of 2025, I ended up needed an emergency c-section. When I got the hospital, my hemoglobin was 83 g/L. After the c-section it dropped to 63 and an iron transfusion was ordered. That did not work and it dropped down to 46, a blood transfusion was ordered. When I left the hospital I felt horrible. My body was swollen from the c-section and blood transfusion. I looked weird.

Since the beginning of this pregnancy, once my family doctor noticed my hemoglobin was dropping again, I asked over and over for an iron transfusion and to get into an OB immediately, so they can send me somewhere to fix my anemia. I different OB and hospital as I had a horrible experience with the last one after birth, that's another story. I refuse to let myself end up in such a state as last time. Thank you to whoever donated their blood, but it was not a fun process to accept it, and it swelled up and bruised my arm all the way around my wrist like a bracelet and it kept me in the hospital longer than I wanted.

For three months I have been advocating for myself and asking about it, to no avail. I got sick of waiting and when I was told my doctor was on vacation, I said screw it and started calling places myself. I managed to get into a hospital, and get an OB and see them this morning within a 2 day span. It turns out that my doctor had not sent a referral for an OB and sent one to hematology in the same hospital, though I am being told that only the OB can get you in for a transfusion while pregnant, and getting in with them without an OB can take 6 months for them to accept you.

The OB checked me out, along with my last blood work and seen:

Hemoglobin 99 g/L [Low]

RBC 3.17 xE12/L [Low]

Hematocrit 0.299 L/L [Low]

Ferritin 20 ug/L [Low]

Immature Reticulocytes 20.7% [High]

Blood Pressure 83/49 [My resting BPM is around 95/60]

And absolutely no weight gain so far during my pregnancy.

I thank this woman because she finally pushed me through as an urgent referral to hematology for an iron transfusion as soon as possible. I can not wait for this. The worst symptom I have is pressure in my head causing bad headaches, day in and day out. Tylonel does absolutely nothing to help it. I have 2 kids, one being just over a year that I need to take care of and my anemia is killing me to the point that daily life is becoming extremely hard. I want this to be over.

NEVER stop advocating for yourself.

Call people yourself if your doctor is not doing things fast enough. Find your own hemotologist if you have to. I love my family doctor, but I do not think regular doctors take anemia and low hemoglobin seriously one bit.