Recipes to help with anemia

Greek yogurt - you can add peanut butter powder, like PB2 to up the protein amount even more. Oikos Triple Zero has no added sugar, sweeteners or fat and 15g of protein per cup for the vanilla flavor - which is good with the PB2. Any red meat/poultry/pork/fish/eggs, fortified cereals, nuts and nut butters, beans, spinach, the addition of dairy to other protein - like a cheeseburger, cheese omelet, turkey and cheese sandwich, etc. Had an easy meal last night - pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, and kale salad with orange sections and goat cheese. I also like to make a Greek type salad with roasted chicken breast and garbanzo beans added to greens, green pepper, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, and little Feta cheese. During chemo, every 21 day cycle, after the first week I ate a lot of burgers and steak as my hemoglobin fell pretty quickly - I was always borderline low even prior to treatment.

I have the double whammy of mild anemia and GERD. Back in 2013, I had some erosions in my esophagus & stomach exacerbated by overuse of NSAIDs (weaned off opioids after knee replacement surgery), and they resulted in a small GI bleed; I've had a hiatal hernia for at least 25 years and it's grown to “medium-size" per my latest EGD. (No erosive lesions this time, though). I was placed on iron supplements because I already eat iron-rich foods. So in order to better absorb the iron, I need to eat acidic foods—which aggravate my GERD. My PCP pulled me off my PPI, saying it prevents iron absorption (after a brutal couple days of rebound despite substituting H2 blockers, which interfere slightly less, I went back on it tonight). So I have to precisely time my iron & vit. C not to aggravate GERD, but ensure that my stomach is otherwise empty. If I wait less than an hour to eat breakfast, I might as well be flushing the iron pills down the crapper.

And of course, losing weight is essential to curbing GERD. Unfortunately, the foods that help me do that actually either aggravate the reflux or interfere with iron absorption. And low ferritin levels (a feature of anemia) impair thyroid function, which in turn inhibits weight loss and induces weight gain—just what I need when I'm already on letrozole.

We ruled out both upper & lower GI bleeds, and it's extremely unlikely anything's going on in the middle (e.g., an AVM in the small intestine, which is fairly rare). So I think I'll keep taking my PPI (Dexilant) and ask for an iron infusion.