Would you like some red wine with your iron deficiency?

May 16, 2008

If you read my putrid gas post - you'll know I recently had iron infusion

treatments and have up-ed my oral ferrous sulfate supplements.

Another beneficial thing I noticed after the treatments is that I do not crave

red wine like I use to. Yes, I know we should not consume alcohol in any form

as MGB'ers - but I've already admitted to behaving badly. I'm not making lite

of it either. This was getting to be a BIG problem for me. About 2 years

ago, I started to drink like I never had (pre or postop). I attributed it to

the stress of work. While I found that disturbing, I decided to ignore it, but

when I realized I was still craving red wine almost everyday after I hadn't been

working for several months I couldn't ignore it any more. Alcoholism does

not run in my family - but being a food-aholic, I had an understanding of the

space I'd entered into. I recognized I didn't choose to have wine daily -

I CRAVED it.

Since my infusion treatments I still wish my irritability would go away, my

memory would improve, my fuzzy thinking would clear-up and I'd be filled with

enough energy to jump out of bed after 8 hours of sleep - but I'm absolutely

GRATEFUL for the fact that my craving for red wine has completely gone away!!!

SOOOOO, I have another question: Could a craving for red wine (or any

alcohol) indicated an iron deficiency, Dr. Rutledge? Besides the fact that we

just shouldn't be drinking (!!!), if there is a link between alcohol and an iron

deficiency maybe PostOps can recognize it as a red flag and know they need to

increase their iron supplementation before they get into trouble like I did.

May 17, 2008

Same here again. Before my transfusion I was craving beer. We don't drink in

my family but twice when I went out to dinner I had a beer and the next time

I had two beers. I was just craving it so. Then when I was home (not working

because I was so low on iron) I was fantasizing about drinking beer! I was

thinking about going to the corner gas station for a 40 oz!! Anyway, right

after my transfusion I have not had any thoughts or cravings for any beer or

other forms of alcohol.

This is why this support group is so important. We need to know what others

are going through so we don't feel alone. I find these common facts amongst us

fascinating.

B

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