Christine wrote:

What can i do to get my iron up instead of iron pills?

Your doctor must have given you the crap pills. There are better sources
of supplementation available at your local vitamin shop. Go there, and
look for a bottle of 25mg pills that says "gentle iron" on it, "high
absorption" and that come in veggie capsules.

Get those, go home, and take 2 of them with dinner. At dinner, eat 1oz
or more of red meat and drink OJ (or take a vit. c pill) to help
absorption. Alternatives to red meat are clams, which are actually much
higher in iron - if you can handle clams, go for it.