Along with your B12, do you ever have issues with iron? I am chronically anemic. I cannot absorb iron (or keep it in my body for that matter) to save my life. Any doctor I ask says it's not an absorption issue and shouldn't be related to my j pouch and I say that's BS and it most certainly is. I have had quite a few iron infusions, then I am good for a bit but then over time it just drains right out of me. And I do not have any bleeding what so ever. Not sure where my B12 stands....

I take my Bs in a liquid form that I buy from a big vitamin chain store...they have either Bcomplex or B6 or B12.
As for the iron, there are different types...
My 2 best friends are so chronically anemic that they faint at the slightest provocation...then they discovered a product called Eurofer...and for some reason it works better than all of the other suppliments that they have tried. You need a scirpt for it I think...it is behind the counter at Costco in both the States and Canada.
Sharon

Hi Marianne, sorry I don't have advice about the iron. I was anemic when I had my colon and was bleeding quite a bit so I had a few Venofer infusions, but my iron stabilized after the first surgery and I haven't had any trouble since. The j-pouch shouldn't cause iron absorption issues directly, but you need adequate folate and B12 in order to absorb iron (e.g. B12 deficiency causes pernicious anemia). I would look up your test results, I'd be very surprised if you haven't been tested already for B12 and folate levels.

Does anyone else know what an appropriate daily dose is for B12? Or share how much you take?

When dealing with an absorption issue you really have to do some trial and error - pick a dose, try it for a while, and see if it's doing the trick. No two people will have identical absorption problems. B12 is pretty safe.

Liz, pernicious anemia doesn't have anything to do with iron, as far as I know. It's possible to have both B12 deficiency and iron deficiency, but they separately cause very different anemias.

Marianne, it would be perfectly normal for you to have bleeding approximately monthly. Unless you're menopausal, that's where the iron is going. Getting the replacement iron onboard is a separate problem, not always easy to solve.

I'm currently trying to get my Vitamin D levels back to normal. Ordinary defeciency treatments haven't done the trick, so I'm trying higher doses. My urine gets more expensive every day.

why don't you self inject? My GI has me self injecting B12 weekly since my jpouch was removed.

IRON is absorbed in the duodenum.
My Ferritin levels are usually at a 4, very anemic so I get infusions.

I have used the b12 patch before, b12patch.com

Also injecting B12 isn't the best. You just piss it out.

Whoops, I think I did some free association on the anemia question. Scott is right, ignore me

My GI doesn't think my levels are low enough to bother self injecting... Maybe next time if my levels haven't improved enough I will push to self inject though, I used to do my own mtx shots so it would be easy for me to do.

Guess it's just wait and see for now. I am happy to report that since adding 50,000 IU Vitamin D twice a month my levels are finally >50 for the first time ever. We'll see how the B12 goes