Sign Up Today!

amitabhroy68 · 08-25-2008, 11:47 PM

my sister has suddenly become very pale and weak. her blood test indicated a haemoglobin level of 6. doctors have further advised blood morphology and other tests. we are getting it done. meanwhile can somebody advise me on the possible causes of such sudden low haemoglobin levels. what are the possible causes?

MandyPandy · 08-26-2008, 07:22 PM

Sorry that your sister is suddenly ill. When was the last time that she had a complete blood count study done? I really do not know all of the causes of low hemoglobin but I would think that the #1 reason would be possible internal bleeding (if it really has happened all of a sudden vs a long building thing she just found out about. She could also have a bleeding ulcer or something in her stomach area that could be causing her to blled.

There are other types of anemia that are not due to internal bleeding such as iron deficency anemia and B12 deficiency anemia which will eventually cause the same results I beleive although it usually takes longer to develope. If there is a lack of iron or B12 one can develope anemia based on this. There are also other forms of anemia which are caused by ones red blood cells attacking theirselves and killing the red blood cells that they have.

Did they give your sister any blood transfusions when they found out how low she was. I found out i had a hemoglobin count of 5 and had to get 3 units of blood. In my case I have very low anemia because I had weight loss surgery 5 years ago and my body no longer has the part of my intestines that absorbs the iron correctly as well as B12.

Has your sister recently had any surgeries, or given childbirth.

Hopefully they will find the cause soon so they can start treating it for her.

Good luck!!!
Amanda

sawbuck44 · 09-08-2008, 05:18 AM

How is her stools? If they are black, look like coffee grounds, and tarry, could be a bleed somewhere. My mom had a colonoscopy that was normal a few months ago. She was supposed to go right after that for a gastroscopy (small intestine viewing). We didn’t go because they thought that ‘it was just a trace’ of blood in her stool and that it could be caused by Plavix. Long story short, she just got out of the hospital and had this test done. She went in because she was dizzy, pale, short of breath, and dark stools. They found a dieulafoy’s lesion in her small intestine. They injected it with meds because it was infected, cauterized it so it would stop bleeding, and removed a blood clot. I would say get a colonoscopy and if nothing is wrong there, get a gastrocopy (sp?) – get stomach scoped.

Sign Up Today!

Join Our Newsletter

Whoops,

Thank You