One of the notable aspects that the patient should understand is that pernicious anemia is a nutritional disorder which then implies that they can play a key role to its management. The illness is primarily caused by the malabsorption of vitamin B12 coupled attributed to the severe deficiency of intrinsic factor (IF) (Annibale, Lahner, & Delle Fave, 2011). If the patient is essentially a vegetarian or does not usually use foods such as eggs, meat or milk, there is an elevated risk for development of pernicious anemia or colabamin deficiency. If the patient cannot change their dietary habits to help increase the consumption of foods that contain colabamin, then as the nurse practitioner, I would advise them to strictly remain on the regimen of vitamin B12 supplement for their entire part of their life since the condition is essentially irreversible. The absence of colabamin has significant impact on the energy levels in the body (Bizzaro & Antico, 2014). Thus, the patient will be required to avoid any strenuous activities or roles especially in the initial stages until a point where their body can indicate sufficient hematologic response. This however implies that the patient should only involve themselves in those activities that enhance their metabolic activity so as to avoid a completely sedentary lifestyle which in many cases becomes the starting point for other conditions such as overweight and obesity (Cattan, 2011). On the other hand, if the majority of the symptoms do not decline even on continued use of the supplements, the patient has to visit their care provider and thereby change the medication to regular injections which provide faster response. However, it is incumbent upon the patient to monitor their overall health, any new signs and symptoms and determine the extent to which the illness is developing or declining and thus contact the care provider (Andres & Serraj, 2012).
References
Andres, E., & Serraj, K. (2012). Optimal management of pernicious anemia. J Blood Med, 3, 97-103.
Annibale, B., Lahner, E., & Delle Fave, G. (2011). Diagnosis and management of pernicious anemia. Current gastroenterology reports, 13(6), 518-524.
Bizzaro, N., & Antico, A. (2014). Diagnosis and classification of pernicious anemia. Autoimmunity reviews, 13(4), 565-568.
Cattan, D. (2011). Pernicious anemia: What are the actual diagnosis criteria.World J Gastroenterol, 17(4), 543-544.
