I was told in the ER a few days ago that I was anemic, and perscribed iron pills that seemed to be (as far as I can tell) equivelant in dosage to a store bought suppliment I have (he mentioned if I had an at-home suppliment, that I could take that). I was told to take them three times a day. Well, I hadn't been taking my iron suppliment before that, so I thought I should just start out taking only ONE, which I take in the morning. But at night, almost every night, I'm getting headaches and a feeling of faintness (I was also told I probably had thyroid problems, and to get that checked out next, so those may be related to that).
Well, when I started taking iron one time in the morning, I seemed to do better during the day. One day I neglected to take the iron, and I felt just awful all day, so I started up again the next day, taking just one pill per day. But as the headaches and faintness came back again tonight, as they seem to be doing nightly, I thought maybe I should take another iron pill, (making a total of TWO today) since after all, my doctor in the emergency room told me to take THREE a day, to get my iron levels up. The reason I had been taking only one, was that I was really scared about possibly building up too much iron in my system, in case the diagnosis was wrong or something.
However, pretty immediately after I took this second iron pill (which is the first time I had two pills in one day), I got this weird tightness in my head, neck and chest, and more head pain. Can anemics overdose on iron? Have I taken too much, even though my doc said to take three, and I've only had two total today (one about mid day, and now, around 11 at night)? Should I be worried? Or are there symptoms I should watch for?
I was in pretty bad shape before the ER, with rushes of faintness to the head with almost any physical activity, but also really low on energy, and with a sickly feeling, especially in the chest. (Which is part of why I went.) So it's hard for me to know what are symptoms brought on by something new going wrong, and what is just my condition as it already was.
As far as I can tell, the dosage of what I have, and what was perscribed should be pretty much the same thing, but I'm also worried about how it might be effecting my thyroid problems if that is indeed another problem I have, as was suspected in the ER. I am also a coffee drinker, and know that this can block iron absorption. Is this dangerous? (I just had a cup, though it was only half caff. Still the coffee has caused the faint feelings to come on before, so I know that even that by itself can really mess with me, especially at night.)
I've just been so sick lately with faintness and lack of energy and such, I don't know what to think. The last few weeks have been a nightmare of these kinds of symptoms. Anyway, I took the second iron pill about an hour ago, and the tighness is as bad or maybe even worse than it was, originally. Any help or advice would be appreciated!