Gi bleeding may be asymptomatic which may give you a tarry looking black
stool. I would suggest an occult blood test on your stool. The blood work
would also help in determining further testing is needed. I would be
interested in your BUN /creat ratio and red cell indices with retic count.
They all give hints as to what may be happening.

Why change your medication before you have had this sorted out?
I suspect you take the aspirin for your "heart" - and the vitamins for your
homocysteine....so probably "someone" has put some mind work into your
medication...you are taking this for a reason - has the reason vanished?
If you stop taking the aspirin - and your feces occult blood tests are
negative, what have you then proved?

I'm curious as to why you're taking 350 mg of aspirin a day. Both my
mother and my husband have been advised to take aspirin daily due to
high blood pressure, but they have been prescribed a "baby" aspirin dose
of 81 mg/day. Was this amount prescribed by a physician or did you
decide on the dosage? Either way, I think this needs to be reported to
your doc and the dosage discussed with him.

Iron should only be prescribed by a doc for a male your age. A CBC
(complete blood count) can give your physician a lot of information. If
you have a Hct of 39% (equalling a hemoglobin of around 13 gm) that's a
tad low for a man. There are MANY reasons for low hematocrits. I would
suspect that the ARC did a "spun" hematocrit when you donated (or the
drop-of-blood-in-the-blue-stuff [can't remember what it is]) and you
need to be rechecked with better methodology. The doc can get a lot of
clues from a CBC that just a spun hematocrit cannot give you. A low MCV
(mean corpuscular volume) means small red cells. There are other indices
reported with a CBC that can help the doc determine what's going on with
you.

http://web2.airmail.net/uthman/blood_cells.html and

http://web2.airmail.net/uthman/lab_test.html (scroll down for CBC
interpretation)

will give you some good (but technical) information about complete blood
counts. Hematology is a very complicated subject and there is no one
answer to the problem of low hematocrits.

Good luck. Let us know how things come out. Lab people are always
curious about this stuff.

Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
Microbiology (but did Chemistry and Hematology once upon a time)

Thank you all for your responses.  I decided to see a doctor tomorrow,Thursday
six days after my blood donation.  I was going to wait another week but
I have become too anxious about the possible problems.  I was on vacation,
two hours from my home and since my older son was going to take a bus down
tomorrow, I decided to come up, see a doctor and take him back with me.  In
addition, I seem to be running a very slight temperature today between 98.4
99.1.  Of course that has gotten me much more anxious than the original
finding.  In particular I am concerned about neoplasms of the white blood
cells.  I don't feel any signs of tenderness or I tend to be very anxious
and think the worst but as a biochemist who studied cancer for a number
of years, it is perhaps not unreasonable.  

With regard to my vitamins and aspirin, they are self prescribed.  I have
chosen the higher dose of aspirin because, there was a study several years
ago which indicated that the higher dose was more effective in preventing
colon cancer.  I take folate for the homocysteine lowering effect.  

I have stopped taking the aspirin but have no real evidence that I was having
occult blood.  The stools were not particularly black or tarilike.  

I will keep you informed.  I hope for a CBC, BUN, creatinine tomorrow.  
Wish me luck,
Richard
References: <cfmgm0$j3u$1@news3.bu.edu> <Df2dnSKdf5AnX4LcRVn-hg@buckeye-express.com>

Organization:

JEDilworth <bactitech@nospamhortonsbay.com> wrote: