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.