***Disclaimer*** I am not a medical doctor and this advice is not intended to be taken as professional medical advice. I'm sharing some things that I tried which worked for me. I am not telling anyone to do what I did.
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I wasn't really scared when I first found out that my platelet count was too low because I felt fine. I didn't feel sick and I was still going about my life and my business as usual. I was clued into a possible problem in late October 2011. My platelets had dropped to 90,000 so my nurse practitioner sent me to a hematologist and he had me do a spleen scan, which came back fine and a bone marrow biopsy which came back normal, as well. When I went back to see him for the results of the bone marrow biopsy my platelets had fallen all the way down to 25,000. This was the Tuesday before Christmas and the time when I really got scared. The doctor told me that my blood wasn't clotting at all. He put me on 40 mg of prednisone to be taken each morning with 10mg Nexium. Prednisone can cause ulcers and I couldn't take a chance on having any internal bleeding. He showed me spots on my hands and legs which I thought was a rash, but it was actually petechiae and a result of blood vessels leaking under the skin because my platelets were so low.
So, I started the prednisone and nexium. By the time I went back to the doctor my platelets had increased to around 50,000. He was excited about that, but the prednisone made me feel horrible. I was training for a stressful position as a customer service rep with an insurance company. Every day, like clockwork, my head would start to pound about 10 a.m. It lasted until I got off at 4:30 p.m. and would usually be gone by the time I got home. The doctor said that it was the prednisone coupled with the stress of the job. I would go to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. My face and chest would be so flushed I didn't hardly recognize myself and my blood pressure was staying high all of the time. Sometimes I couldn't get to sleep until 2 or 3 in the morning.
His initial excitement with the prednisone died down when I went back to him a couple of times over the next week or so and he saw that the most the steroids brought my platelets up to was 50,000. A few days after New Years my platelets fell back down to 33,000 and he advised me that the steroids were not working and he wanted to try immune globulin treatments (ivig). I had a treatment that same day and one a week later. I came back each week and my platelets were slowly climbing. The highest they got after the ivig treatments was in the 90s. Then they started to fall back down again. Towards the end of January or beginning of February he decided that the ivig didn't work as well as he had hoped it would and he wanted to try yet another treatment. I don't even remember what it was called but you have to be on an iv for 7 hours and you have to do it four weeks in a row.
I had researched for countless hours on the internet and at the library since I was first diagnosed so I asked him to please allow me to try one of the herbal remedies that I heard about before doing any more expensive iv therapy. The herbal remedy is papaya leaf and I had read many success stories about cancer patients and dengue fever patients taking it and it increased their platelets by a good amount. He agreed to let me try it and advised me what signs to look for in case my platelets dropped really low again. I knew to look for the petechiae developing on my body, too. I ordered the papaya leaf that same day and started it a week later. When I saw him one week after being on the papaya leaf my platelets had jumped to 94,000 from 50,000 two weeks prior. He was still a little skeptical that it was the papaya leaf because he had never heard of it but told me to keep doing what I was doing an come back in two weeks. When I came back in two weeks my platelets had falled down to 78,000. I was advised to not quit taking the papaya leaf if my platelets decreased so I kept taking it and began researching some other things that I thought might be causing it.
I found several sites on the internet that had lists of things that people were claiming had caused them to develop low platelets. Almost every one of those lists had aspartame on them. This was something that I consumed a major amount of and thought that it would definitely be worth a try to cut it out of my diet. It was difficult at first because I was consuming 3 to 4 cans of diet soda each day, plus eating treats and gum that contained aspartame. I cut aspartame completely out of my diet. I also found out that gluten sensitivity can cause autoimmune. I knew that something was confusing my immune system and causing it to eat up my own platelets so I cut out all wheat products, as well. When I went back to the doctor two weeks later my platelets had increased from 78,000 to 173,000. I was so happy and excited. It was a major breakthrough for me. Two weeks later they were 183,000 and two weeks later they were 170,000.
Now I can go back for labs once a month and on the third month I will see the doctor. I pray that this continues to work for me and that he will send me on my way when I see him in July. It just goes to show you that you really do have to take charge of your own health. If I wouldn't have researched and found out what I did he would have had me taking more expensive iv treatments that we don't even know whether they would have worked or not. If you want to try the papaya leaf extract it can be purchased from Amazon. I have included the link below. I take one of the capsules each day and the bottle lasts me two months. I also purchased the tea bags, but I've only drank the tea a few times.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Programs I've tried to lose weight
There's no way in the world that I would be able to make a full, complete list of all of the programs that I've tried to lose weight but here goes:
1. Ayds diet candy - early teens with no substantial loss
2. Dexatrim - mid teens with no substantial loss
2. Fastin diet pills - 18 years old, around a 20 pound loss
3. Early 20s - extreme caloric restriction, around a 40 pound loss
4. Early 30s - Adkins, without supplemention, lost 40 pounds in one month, down to 180, got pregnant and weighed 260 when I delivered
5. Early 40s - McDougall program, lost 27 pounds in one month. I probably would have done great if I would have stayed on this program, but I let family (ex-inlaws) who thought they knew all about medicine to talk me out of it, saying that it wasn't healthy to not eat animal products
6. Late 30s, early 40s and mid 40s - Weight Watchers - I think that I could have done better on this program, too, if I would have stayed away from bread, pasta and high fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately, the program doesn't take into considered how wheat affects different people and HFCS is just a no-no for some (me).
These are just the programs or products that I remember trying. There have been countless times over the last 30 years that I have said "okay I'm going to do 1200 calories a day and exercise every day" only to fail after a week or two. My highest weight that I remember was 283 in the fall 2004 and the lowest weight that I remember was 160 in my early 20s when I did severe caloric restriction. I weighed 170 - 180 when I started college in Fall 1984. I had to go to the doctor the next Spring because I was sick and I weighed 203. That was the first time that I had ever seen the scales go over 200 and I was devastated. I was 19 and weighed over 200 pounds. When I went for my first prenatal visit with my son in February 1991 I weighed 208. When I divorced my first husband in October 1992 I weighed 240. When I got pregnant with my daughter in 1998 I weighed 180 because I had just lost 40 pounds on Adkins. When I married my second husband in 2002 I weighed 230. I gained 50 pounds in 2 years. After we divorced in 2008 I went from 270 to 230 doing low carb and lost it in about 8 or 9 months. I went up a little bit over the next year and in August 2010 did low carb seriously and lost down to 210 in a few months. The holidays rolled around and destroyed me. Fast forward a year to this last Christmas when I had to take steroids for over a month and I got back up to 250. Right now I am at 238 and so ready to get started with my hcg diet. The mail man is supposed to deliver today. I'm doing sublingual and already have my b12 and colloidal silver. I'm really pumped about this!
1. Ayds diet candy - early teens with no substantial loss
2. Dexatrim - mid teens with no substantial loss
2. Fastin diet pills - 18 years old, around a 20 pound loss
3. Early 20s - extreme caloric restriction, around a 40 pound loss
4. Early 30s - Adkins, without supplemention, lost 40 pounds in one month, down to 180, got pregnant and weighed 260 when I delivered
5. Early 40s - McDougall program, lost 27 pounds in one month. I probably would have done great if I would have stayed on this program, but I let family (ex-inlaws) who thought they knew all about medicine to talk me out of it, saying that it wasn't healthy to not eat animal products
6. Late 30s, early 40s and mid 40s - Weight Watchers - I think that I could have done better on this program, too, if I would have stayed away from bread, pasta and high fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately, the program doesn't take into considered how wheat affects different people and HFCS is just a no-no for some (me).
These are just the programs or products that I remember trying. There have been countless times over the last 30 years that I have said "okay I'm going to do 1200 calories a day and exercise every day" only to fail after a week or two. My highest weight that I remember was 283 in the fall 2004 and the lowest weight that I remember was 160 in my early 20s when I did severe caloric restriction. I weighed 170 - 180 when I started college in Fall 1984. I had to go to the doctor the next Spring because I was sick and I weighed 203. That was the first time that I had ever seen the scales go over 200 and I was devastated. I was 19 and weighed over 200 pounds. When I went for my first prenatal visit with my son in February 1991 I weighed 208. When I divorced my first husband in October 1992 I weighed 240. When I got pregnant with my daughter in 1998 I weighed 180 because I had just lost 40 pounds on Adkins. When I married my second husband in 2002 I weighed 230. I gained 50 pounds in 2 years. After we divorced in 2008 I went from 270 to 230 doing low carb and lost it in about 8 or 9 months. I went up a little bit over the next year and in August 2010 did low carb seriously and lost down to 210 in a few months. The holidays rolled around and destroyed me. Fast forward a year to this last Christmas when I had to take steroids for over a month and I got back up to 250. Right now I am at 238 and so ready to get started with my hcg diet. The mail man is supposed to deliver today. I'm doing sublingual and already have my b12 and colloidal silver. I'm really pumped about this!
Diagnosed with ITP
In October 2011 I was diagnosed with ITP. I had heard of it once before when my girlfriend was diagnosed with the same condition, but I really didn't understand what it meant. Routine labs for my thyroid check revealed that my platelet count was 97,000 and it is supposed to be between 140,000 and 390,000. She sent me for additional lab work and then that one came back even lower I was referred to a hematologist. He explained to me that low platelets can basically be caused by one of three things: the spleen is sequestering your platelets and not allowing them back into the bloodstream, or your bone marrow may not be producing enough platelets, or it could be drug-induced. The first thing he did was send me for a spleen scan to determine if my spleen was enlarged. That test came back fine. Then he did a bone marrow biopsy to see if platelets were being produced and that came back fine. Incidentally, the same day that I went for the biopsy on November 16 my platelet count was 170,000 which is well within range. The same day that I had the bone marrow biopsy my fiancee informed the doctor that I take a lot of herbs so he made me promise that I wouldn't take anything except for my Armour Thyroid until we could find out what was causing my platelet drop.
Because I had just started a new job I decided to wait a month before going back to get the results of my bone marrow biopsy. The hematologist told me that if he saw something to be alarmed about he would give me a call. I wasn't having any active bleeds so there wasn't any concern about me bleeding to death. The doctor also said something that day that really troubled me. You see I had already spent countless hours studying at the library and on the internet so that I could understand what ITP was and how it could be treated. I asked him the day that he did the biopsy what would happen and what treatment avenue we would take if my marrow biopsy came back okay. He said that would mean that my body was chewing up my platelets because my immune system was working in overdrive and that we would hit it with steroids. Hit my immune system with steroids? Are you kidding me? Apparently that is the accepted protocol in my situation.
When I went back for that follow up visit my platelets were alarmingly low and I had petechiae on my hands and legs. I thought that it was a rash but the doctor explained that it was a result of my platelets being so low and the vessels were rupturing under my skin. He put me on 40 mg of prednisone to be taken every morning along with 10 mg of nexium to be taken at the same time. Apparently when you take that high of a dose of prednisone it can cause a stomach ulcer, which would be a very bad situation with low platelets and the inability to clot. I was very scared. Here it was the week before Christmas and I my platelets were 25,000 and I didn't know how in the world this happened or what could be done to change it. I had heard so many bad things about being on long term steroid treatment, but I didn't have any choice but to start the treatment or I would end up in the hospital with an internal hemorrhage. That same day we discussed the possibility of the ArmourThyroid, which I had only been taking for 6 months, causing an autoimmune reaction so he took me off of that and put me back on 75 mcg of Synthroid.
Because I had just started a new job I decided to wait a month before going back to get the results of my bone marrow biopsy. The hematologist told me that if he saw something to be alarmed about he would give me a call. I wasn't having any active bleeds so there wasn't any concern about me bleeding to death. The doctor also said something that day that really troubled me. You see I had already spent countless hours studying at the library and on the internet so that I could understand what ITP was and how it could be treated. I asked him the day that he did the biopsy what would happen and what treatment avenue we would take if my marrow biopsy came back okay. He said that would mean that my body was chewing up my platelets because my immune system was working in overdrive and that we would hit it with steroids. Hit my immune system with steroids? Are you kidding me? Apparently that is the accepted protocol in my situation.
When I went back for that follow up visit my platelets were alarmingly low and I had petechiae on my hands and legs. I thought that it was a rash but the doctor explained that it was a result of my platelets being so low and the vessels were rupturing under my skin. He put me on 40 mg of prednisone to be taken every morning along with 10 mg of nexium to be taken at the same time. Apparently when you take that high of a dose of prednisone it can cause a stomach ulcer, which would be a very bad situation with low platelets and the inability to clot. I was very scared. Here it was the week before Christmas and I my platelets were 25,000 and I didn't know how in the world this happened or what could be done to change it. I had heard so many bad things about being on long term steroid treatment, but I didn't have any choice but to start the treatment or I would end up in the hospital with an internal hemorrhage. That same day we discussed the possibility of the ArmourThyroid, which I had only been taking for 6 months, causing an autoimmune reaction so he took me off of that and put me back on 75 mcg of Synthroid.
My Jumbo Eye-Opener
It was August of 2004 and I was substituting for the secretary at a primary school that I subbed at as a teacher sometimes. I don't guess I realized how bad I felt at the time, but looking back it's a wonder they didn't have to carry me out in an ambulance. I remember the day quite clearly even though it has been eight years ago. I was wearing a blue jean dress - one that didn't touch my body anywhere, kind of like a tent. My head started hurting really bad and my vision seems a little blurry. The principal told me to go to the clinic and have my blood pressure checked. When the nurse saw what my pressure was, she got this really grave look on her face and told me to go straight to my doctor. My doctor just happened to be close by and was actually at a clinic that I worked at for over a year when I first moved to town.
I went there and explained that I had been sent from work because my bp was high. When the nurse assistant sat me in the area that they use to draw labs and took my pressure it had gone down a little. She went to tell the doctor what my pressure was and left my chart on the counter. I opened the chart and looked at the first doctor's note I saw which was from my last visit only a few months prior. My eye was drawn to the area at the bottom of the page where the doctor puts the main diagnosis or the cause of the problem that the patient presented with that day. Mine said "morbid obesity". When I read those words it was like a punch in the gut. They recorded my weight that day as 283 pounds and put me on thiazide for my blood pressure.
I thought back to a day 13 years prior when I went to the obstetrician for my first prenatal visit with my son. The note that he wrote on me the first day he examined me contained the word "obese". I was 24 and weighed 208 pounds. That was the first time I was ever presented with that ugly word in relation to my body. I mean I knew that I had some weight to lose, but I didn't realize that it was enough for a doctor to label me as "obese". If I would have gotten my head out of the sand and been prompted to do something about my weight when I weighed 208 I might have forgone the "morbid obesity" diagnosis. When I googled the term that day I found out that the excess weight that I was carrying would lead to health problems that would eventually contribute to an early death.
I went there and explained that I had been sent from work because my bp was high. When the nurse assistant sat me in the area that they use to draw labs and took my pressure it had gone down a little. She went to tell the doctor what my pressure was and left my chart on the counter. I opened the chart and looked at the first doctor's note I saw which was from my last visit only a few months prior. My eye was drawn to the area at the bottom of the page where the doctor puts the main diagnosis or the cause of the problem that the patient presented with that day. Mine said "morbid obesity". When I read those words it was like a punch in the gut. They recorded my weight that day as 283 pounds and put me on thiazide for my blood pressure.
I thought back to a day 13 years prior when I went to the obstetrician for my first prenatal visit with my son. The note that he wrote on me the first day he examined me contained the word "obese". I was 24 and weighed 208 pounds. That was the first time I was ever presented with that ugly word in relation to my body. I mean I knew that I had some weight to lose, but I didn't realize that it was enough for a doctor to label me as "obese". If I would have gotten my head out of the sand and been prompted to do something about my weight when I weighed 208 I might have forgone the "morbid obesity" diagnosis. When I googled the term that day I found out that the excess weight that I was carrying would lead to health problems that would eventually contribute to an early death.
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