Hello doctor, I am a 58-year-old man and I had a CBC with differential 10 days ago. I donate blood about every two months. I have been taking daily Metamucil for about three months and testosterone shots. My level is 930. All other tests are quite normal except HDL cholesterol which is low. I stopped drinking alcohol three months ago and anion gap was 6. I am on 12.5 mg of Atenolol, Amlodipine 10 mg, Irbesartan 300 mg once per day for hypertension. My BP is 123/76. I had flu-like symptoms at first with no congestion two weeks ago. I have bad joint and muscle aches. That went away. Now, I have fatigue, slight shortness of breath with numb hands and feet at night in bed. I have experienced symptoms of fatigue, slight shortness of breath at rest, hands falling asleep when I wake up at night. Even though the RBC is normal, do you think that the lab test below indicates iron deficiency anemia? The results of the CBC are as follows:  WBC	3.47 K/uL 4.00 - 12.00 K/uL	L   RBC	5.70 mil/uL 4.50 - 6.00 mil/uL   Hgb	12.8 g/dL 14.0 - 18.0 g/dL	L   Hct	42.1 % 40 - 54 %   MCV	73.9 fL 80 - 98 fL	L   MCH	22.5 pg 27 - 33 pg	L   MCHC	30.4 g/dL 32 - 37 g/dL	L   RDW	15.1 % 11.5 - 15.0 %	H   Plt	183 K/uL 150 - 450 K/uL   Differential type	Automated   Abs neuts	1.86 K/uL 1.80 - 7.80 K/uL   Abs immature grans	0.00 K/uL	0.00 - 0.05 K/uL   Abs lymphs	1.12 K/uL 0.80 - 3.30 K/uL   Abs monos	0.37 K/uL 0.10 - 1.00 K/uL   Abs eos	0.09 K/uL 0.00 - 0.40 K/uL   Abs basos	0.03 K/uL 0.00 - 0.20 K/uL   Neuts	53.5 %   Immature grans	0.0 %	0.0 - 0.6 %   Lymphs	32.3 %   Monos	10.7 %   Eos	2.6 %   Basos	0.9 %
Hello. From these test results, you appear to have microcytosis and hypochromia of the red blood cells. This is most commonly seen in iron deficiency anemia. I would suggest you take iron and folic acid tablets thrice daily after meals for at least a month. As for the numbness of hands and feet, this could be a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency. Are you a vegetarian? If so then this could be a reason for the numbness. The other symptoms that you have described are consistent with iron deficiency. I would also advise you to not donate blood until your blood iron levels and ferritin stores are normalized. For more information consult a hematologist online -->