My name is Tony and I have been having recent problems with my health over the past 3 months or so. My problem was that I was getting really tired, rarely being able to stay up an entire day without taking a nap and feeling very lethargic. I went to a hematologist and they said my red blood cells were haematyzing sp?(destroying themselves) and that it might be related to my thalassemia disorder (low red blood cells due to genetics) as my liver and kidneys were fine (MRIs and ultrasounds for that).

So over the past 3 months or so I've had 7 phlebotomies and a scheduled for another 13 but have yet to feel any better. If it helps, I've also had high feratin that is slowly coming down with the phlebotomies, as my RBC are slowly coming back up (still not near normal).

I also chosen to not eat meat (besides seafood) before all this, more for moral stances, but also because I felt the excess of iron might contribute to high feratin levels, as my dad had taken iron pills (bad advice from a doctor as he has thalassemia too) and it put him in a similar situation as myself.

So now I am sitting here still unsure what I should look into doing to help my situation. The doctors still have no idea what could be the cause of my blood haematizing itself and how thalaseemia contributes so was just wondering if anyone has an idea or relative that might have any experience or knowledge with this. I do have a pile of paperwork from the doctors too if you have any questions on counts or CBCs and what not, but ya any advice or helps is much appreciated.

Sorry for the ramble and thanks for the help in advance,
Tony