Low ferritin

A bloodtest after I was bitten by the tick revealed that I was severely iron deficient. Looking back, I am sure I was iron-deficient at least 3 months prior to the bite, if not more.

A gastro-doc found no cause for it, I was given 5 rounds of iron-IVs, tested 3 weeks later and all was well.

Lately, with heart continuing to carry on, I went to the GP and she did a blood test. Liver & kidneys ok, but some odd things : hemoglobine (transports oxygen) is still normal (was very low a few months ago), serum-iron, the same, still normal, but the ferritin (iron stored in the liver) has plunged from 43 to 7 in the past 6 weeks.

The GP had absolutely nothing useful to suggest other than "you are heading for anemia again, better start taking iron pills" (they did nothing for me last time, only the IVs helped).

So I'm either not taking it up or am using it too fast. Guess it explains my losing hair too.

I'm on 2x 200mg Fluconazole as LLMD suspects candida. I read somewhere that Candida feeds on Ferritin, could this be it?

My LLMD is on his Christmas break, so I can't ask him until next week (he's not seen the bloods yet), so I thought I'd ask here if anyone has any thoughts or experiences?

When I first found my LLMD, he did consider babesia as a possibility (because I'd recently been iron deficient). However, it would have to mean that I'd been infected by babesia before I was bitten by the tick that gave me borrelia, and thinking back, I was not in a tick-environment where I could have contracted the babesia...

Having said that, he started me on clarithromycin and plaquenil, a combo that would zap babesia as well as borrelia, to cover all bases. (I came off this and onto fluconazole recently as I was having heart issues)

What complicated things was that prior to me finding the LLMD, I saw an infectious disease specialist at a Univ. Hospital, who said she'd test my blood for ehrlicia. Long story short, I realized she was useless and then found the LLMD, and was waiting for the results. Well, they never came, some babbling excuse about the lab misunderstanding her, and by the time this came up, I'd been and gone to my LLMD (he's a 2 hour drive away in another country, so I can't just "pop back in"). So I was never tested for Babesia in the end.

Did your husband have a low red blood cell count? (mine's normal, it's just the ferritin that's low).

No, I can't say that I have symptoms that would be specific to babesia, things like being tired, achey joints, etc... can be attributed to Lyme, candida or babesia really. The strongest symptom I have had, and thinking back, this was probably present pre-tick bite, is that my heart-rate it constantly too fast.

I'll add babesia to the list of things to tell him when I can speak to him next week though, so thanks for pointing it out.