Improving fatigue with iron supplements

After starting mercaptopurine a little over a week ago, I have suffered the worst case of fatigue that I can remember. I had put it down to the new drug, as it is one of the listed side effects, and after looking on forums such as crohnsforum. www.crohnsforum.orgI found that many people have experienced this. However  my most recent blood test showed that my haemoglobin count and ferritin levels had dropped. Could this be the reason I have been so very tired this week?

I have started to take iron sulphate supplements on the advice of my GP. 200mg a day. This can upset the gut somewhat, so whether or not I can tolerate it remains to be seen. I hope this will improve and help me to function day to day. I have a very full life, with a full time job, two children, a house to maintain, and a dog to feed and walk. Not to mention a number of other interests and hobbies I would like to persue. When I am fatigued, it can be as much as I can do to get up and dressed without feeling like I could do with a sit down. Most of the time I can ignore the feeling and keep ploughing through, but it takes the joy out of everything, and makes every task arduous. It's like you spend every moment walking through treacle!

The national association for crohns and colitis has recently completed a four year research project on fatigue in ibd, the results of which are published on their website; wws.crohnsandcolitis.co.uk
 They have created a questionnaire which you can fill in to help measure whether you are suffering from fatigue and to what degree it is affecting your daily l life. I found that I scored fairly highly in this, probably not surprisingly! I guess what I should do, is take my iron for a week or two, and then fill in the questionnaire again, and see if I have improved. I'll keep you posted on this.

Of course, the other question is, why am I anaemic? Is it my diet, as I am currently on low residue to try and reduce my symptoms. Is it that my bowel is not absorbing the iron very well, or is it that I am losing blood? (Of course it could be a combination of all three of these!)