Lab Retest Results

Just got off the phone with my PCP's office. My lab results are back. I had my usual 18-month post-op labs drawn in May and the PA at the surgeon's office didn't like my levels for Prealbumin or Ferritin, so she wanted me to adjust a couple things and be retested in a month. So I had blood drawn last week. Ferritin May results = 36 June results = 23 Prealbumin (closer to 30 is better for RNY'ers) May results = 24 June results = 24 Vitamin D (ideal is 80-100 for RNY'ers) May results = 39 June results = 104 Instructions I received on each: Ferritin -- the PA told me to stop taking my iron pills because my "iron" levels were fine (iron was 94 with ideal being 80-100) and we needed to increase ferritin so her idea was to take away the iron pills because they might be masking the ferritin levels. However ... From all the research I've done, the only way to increase your ferritin levels is to take iron supplements. So when she told me to do this, I had a feeling she was coo-coo and that my numbers would fall even further. But I thought, "it's only 4 weeks, what harm can come?" Well... the harm is that instead of just having a low-ish number on the ferritin scale, now I'm deficient. Dang it! Prealbumin -- this is a meausre of how well my body is using protein and other nutrients. It's been low since surgery but the Nut never caught it. The PA was highly concerned about the low number even though I'd been able to increase it on my own by supplementing extra Vitamin A. At one year it was 21, but with the addition of Vitamin A I was able to bring it up to 24. The PA had me stop the Vitamin A four weeks ago. My Prealbumin number has remained the same even though I've gone from eating 100g protein/day to 150g. Vitamin A helps to synthesize protein in the body. I'm not happy with these results cuz it's pretty dang hard to eat 150g protein every single day! Seems like a lot of work for the past month with absolutely no benefits. Vitamin D -- nobody seemed to care that my levels were in the low 30's or high 20's over the past 18 months. So I took some drastic steps and started taking 50k IU Vitamin D every day for a month. I told the doc's, but they didn't seem overly concerned about it at all. So all on my own I've brought my Vitamin D levels up where they need to be (RNY'ers should be around 80-100). I've backed off on the 50k dose and hopefully that nice 104 number will be maintained over time now that I've been able to get it up there. SOooo..... I'll be calling the surgeon's office to see what their next brilliant suggestion is for the ferritin and prealbumin. I have some of my own research to do on the topics so when I talk to them I can have a better idea of what the right answers need to be. ~Pam