Understanding Blackouts and Weakness: A Medical Inquiry

Question
Dear Samantha,

I am paul writing from the republic of malta.....I would appreciate if you could kindly help me.....as I was not feel well and suffering from frequent black outs and puffing when I try to walk quickly, go up the stairs etc etc....I went to my GP who examined me and told me that I have hypotension when I usually suffer from hypertension......so he removed all my anti hypertension pills.....however I was not satisfied and insisted that we perform some blood tests.....it was here that it resulted that I was anaemic and had a raised ESR standing at 37......he sent me to a consultant of his choice......this gentlemen again order that I have a blood picture test which confirmed that I am anaemic.....but his other tests that is CRP, fob.s and thaelessimia all resulted in range or negative.  Notwithstanding these results which somewhat reassured me he ordered that I do a colonoscopy and gastroscopy.  Do you agree with him? Could I be suffering from some sort of cancer that i cannot feel?.....all additional information is greatly appreciated.

sincerely hoping to hear from you soon I thank you in advance.




Paul Fava
Malta

Answer
Hi Paul.  Without knowing the actual numbers of your lab results, I don't know how severe your anemia is.  The first thing the doctor would want to do in cases of moderate to severe anemia is to find any source of bleeding.   The most common site of bleeding is the digestive tract, which is why he wants to do a colonoscopy/gastroscopy.  This does not mean you have cancer!!  There are many, many other causes for anemia.  Your doctor is doing the correct thing, in my opinion.  He wants to try to find the cause of the anemia, so he can help you.  Hope this helps.  Good luck!

Samantha