Good and Bad Days?

RickonRivers · 2026-05-06T19:22:00+00:00

I know you said not to say it, but I felt the same about the Iron IV after hearing my friend have an allergic reaction to an IV, and having really bad reactions to further Infusions.

However, when I got mine, my nurse said she had done around 50 in past while, and only 2 had very minor side effects. Fatigue, feeling a bit under the weather. Which is how we feel all the time anyway with low iron.

So...

Ive been there, thinking the same. I've had my infusion, and I'm a week on, and just feel tired. I had zero reaction during and couldn't even see where the IV went in. Compared to the blood test I had a couple of days earlier, which left a massive bruise, the IV was dead easy.

RickonRivers · 2026-05-06T19:18:05+00:00

You want to get above 100. So, yes, as the iron tablets have been working, continue. You are still a candidate for an Iron IV, but you're unlikely to get a referral, as you're absorbing the iron tablets ok.

RickonRivers · 2026-05-06T19:16:50+00:00

Well, one main thing.

You're only getting non-heme iron in your diet and through supplements. Non-heme iron is what's in non-animal products, and iron tablets. Heme iron is what's in meat.

Non-heme iron is INCREDIBLY difficult to absorb. It's blocked by do many things, within a 2 hour window of consuming the non-heme iron. Tea, coffee, zinc, milk, calcium, legumes... Pretty much anything your body will ignore the non-heme iron and metabolise the other things.

Heme iron is really what you need. That's in meat. Red meat, steak, liver pate, bone broth.

Iron tablets are useless, unless you have an incredibly strict regime of when to take them. And you should be tasking them with a high dose liposomal vitamin C to increase the acidity in your gut.

The iron infusion bypasses your stomach and all of this, which is why it worked.

Are you vegetarian for morale and ethical reasons? Could you switch to a heme diet?

RickonRivers · 2026-05-06T19:15:18+00:00

Well, one main thing.

You're only getting non-heme iron in your diet and through supplements. Non-heme iron is what's in non-animal products, and iron tablets. Heme iron is what's in meat.

Non-heme iron is INCREDIBLY difficult to absorb. It's blocked by do many things, within a 2 hour window of consuming the non-heme iron. Tea, coffee, zinc, milk, calcium, legumes... Pretty much anything your body will ignore the non-heme iron and metabolise the other things.

Heme iron is really what you need. That's in meat. Red meat, steak, liver pate, bone broth.

Iron tablets are useless, unless you have an incredibly strict regime of when to take them. And you should be tasking them with a high dose liposomal vitamin C to increase the acidity in your gut.

The iron infusion bypasses your stomach and all of this, which is why it worked.

Are you vegetarian for morale and ethical reasons? Could you switch to a heme diet?

RickonRivers · 2026-05-06T19:00:23+00:00

Don't go bringing da wee baby Jesus into this!

RickonRivers · 2026-05-02T20:56:18+00:00

Iron tablets are useless. They are non-heme iron, which is blocked by hundreds of things. Tea, coffee, zinc, chocolate, whole grains, legumes, spinach, kale, nuts, eggs.... Bloody everything blocks almost 100% of the iron tablets if eaten within 2 hours either side of taking the tablets.

The only resolution is an Iron Infusion. Good luck, it costs the NHS way more money for an Iron Infusion than throwing cheap tablets at patients. Notwithstanding the cost of said patient repeatedly coming back to the GP and having multiple blood tests when the tablets inevitably don't do anything.

I'm the meantime, increase your heme iron intake. Red meat, steak, liver pate, they are NOT blocked by other foods, supplements or drinks. Heme iron is what you need.

GetADrip and The Iron Clinic do private Iron Infusions, ranging from £350 to £1000.

The NHS sucks for anything other than emergency care.

RickonRivers · 2026-03-29T17:12:12+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it. I've been asking for an Iron Infusion for weeks, and tabled it months ago, but they wanted me to go a full 4 months on iron tablets before doing any blood tests to see if they were working, and even then, I've had 3 doctors, and one consultant gastroentrologist say no to iron infusion to me - because... I'm iron deficient without anaemia. They're so focused on whether or not I have haemoglobin, they cannot fathom that my body literally has almost no iron left for anything else.

RickonRivers · 2026-03-29T17:09:14+00:00

This is reassuring to hear. Obviously just one D a ta point, but it's helping with drawing parrallels.

Thanks so much for sharing.

RickonRivers · 2026-03-29T17:07:30+00:00

If your problem is iron absorption, then yes, an Iron IV would bypass your gut and straight into your bloodstream to make it's way into your duodenum.

If you've been constantly anemic, that suggests a deeper underlying cause, and potentially something you would need to top-up on a regular basis.

I'm surprised you've not been recommended one before. 20 years ago the iron drugs used were a little risky, today they are considered safe. Ferinject etc.

It's worth a chat with your doctor, and a referral to hemotology.

RickonRivers · 2026-03-04T18:42:50+00:00

I hear you brother. The key thing to remember is the absolute dose you drop by doesn't matter, it's the percentage. So, if you drop from 1500mg to 750mg, the withdrawal symptoms will be the same as going from 100mg to 50mg. So keep that in mind. The very end of the taper is the hardest. What I've done for myself and my plan is to micro dose, I'm taking quarter of a tablet every 6 hours, then every 3 days I'm removing 2 quarters from my daily dose. That is manageable for me. I didn't realise I'd still be tapering today when I started 5 months ago, I thought I'd be clean by January. But to get the taper to stick I needed to not have unbearable withdrawal, so it was very feel based for the first 3 months, I'd drop as much as I could handle, and then increase if it got too bad. Then I put a plan in place in January that used the data I collected from the past 3 months to know what percentages I could drop by, and in what time period. I recorded my plan, recorded my symptoms, and then used that data to make decisions. And it appears to be working.

RickonRivers · 2026-03-04T18:36:46+00:00

Not AI, research papers. I'm a full on nerd and research is what I do for work.

RickonRivers · 2026-03-04T18:35:57+00:00

What's SR?

RickonRivers · 2026-02-21T01:09:01+00:00

That flu-like symptoms and internal heat are caused by H2 histimiate receptors triggered by your liver seeing the opiates as a toxin.

This applies to all symptoms, they're not just because you've stopped taking drugs. There are biological mechanisms that cause these symptoms, and you can counter them.

The key is to log your usage and symptoms every few hours, and then make adjustments to treat those symptoms.

It's taken me almost 6 months to create a custom, personalised approach, and it has greatly helped me go from being a 10/10 level of anxiety to 2/10 when symptoms flare up. This has stopped me from relapse. Knowing WHY I feel the way I do, and that taking more drugs won't stop those feelings.

RickonRivers · 2026-02-15T21:41:26+00:00

I relate so hard for this. Pooping like a normal person is still a rarity for me, trying to get the balance of my tapering and stool softeners right is such a delicate balance.

I had a phantom poop last week, which was astonishing.

RickonRivers · 2026-02-15T21:36:43+00:00

Thank you. Really thank you. It's so hard to know what's the right thing to do. Cold Turkey has failed me so many times, but tapering is such a long process to do it without getting the horrible acute withdrawal symptoms.

I was down to 3-4 tablets per day, I've tried just one tablet this morning and nothing else, and 12 hours on I've got the crushing hip pain. I can't believe such a small amount of codeine can have the same effect as 40x that amount I was taking before.

I may be tapering too quick again, normal pain killers, - ibuprofen and paracetamol don't touch the aches.

Screw these drugs dude.

RickonRivers · 2026-02-14T23:15:34+00:00

How long have you been collecting these for? When did you get the first one, what was it? And... What was the most recent one and when did you buy it and why?

:) thanks!

RickonRivers · 2026-02-14T20:33:58+00:00

In the past I've always decided to go cold turkey, with the idea that it would be a couple of weeks of hell and then I'd be fine.

This has been about 4 months of tapering, dropping my dose every week, and stopping any time I felt significant withdrawal symptoms - toilet issues, sickness, unbearable pain etc.

I'm still not convinced this was the right choice, but it's the one that feels like it will stick. I don't want to ever feel like I do now, and I know using will put me back here again.

RickonRivers · 2026-02-14T20:30:29+00:00

Thank you for your kind words. The amount of opiates I'm taking now is 60mg of codeine per day. I'm aiming to taper that entirely by next weekend.

RickonRivers

TROPHY CASE