A.L.
Hi A.,
Im sorry that you are dealing with this right now. My now 6 year old son Alex, was diagnised with ITP when he was almost 2 years old. It started with unusual bruising, more than normal. I thought in the begining that was part of toddlerhood, but one day i took him to the Dr and he had a huge and unexplicable bruise on his foot. The nurse asked me a LOT of questions about it and seemed like she was not beleiving me when I told her I didn't know how he got it.I felt really bad, because I could see suspicion on her tone of voice. Then I realized this was not normal. I took him to his ped and they run a blood test for platelets count. When I saw 2 of the Dr coming back to explain the results, i knew something was wrong. His platelets count was 21000.
We went to a hematologyst at Children and he explained everything. basically he said,ITP many times gets better on its own, over time, it seemed like at that point his platelets were at its lowest. His count was borderline for treatment and he gave us that option or we could wait, have his P count twice every week and see if they started to raise on its own.We opted for that, keeping in mind the treatment in case i got lower the next time. He even warned agains some staringwe could endure and some judgmental looks(because of the bruises), which we felt...
Fortunatelly it was he same for the next two readings and the little by little started to go up, 31000;35000... In the mean time, I gave him Vitamine C with Echinacea (since this seems to be a disrder of the Inmune System), and food hight in Iron,and vitamine C like beets with carrot juice, spinach,beans, kiwe fruit etc.Anything that would boost the Inmune System. The Dr didn't beleive it could make a significant difference, but it couldnt hurt either, he said. That made me feel like I was doing something for my son,that was the only thing I could contribute with, the only thing I could control.It made the waiting period more bearable.
We had to watch his every move to avoid falls, which if he ever had follen from a foot hight could cause internal bleeding, we were warned. It was very challenging,with him being a toddler, and a very active one. It was hard but we did it.
Over a period of 6 months more or less, his platelets count went up to ###-###-####, which was normal.We breathed a sight of releive. He said to keep on watching him closely, for those bruises and for those little dots in his skin, which I thought in the begining, were flees bits or something ( we had a cat who took the blame), bleeding gums, etc. Thank God the P never went down again. We still check him every year.
The dr said that this could be a one in a life time thing or it could happen again. My mom did suffer from a blood disorder, so that may have been a factor, we dont know.
A., I share my story so you know you are not alone. If you have a good Dr, and is giving you lots of info, then trust him, and try no to overload yourself with information, specially online. Trust God. And if you'd like to talk to someone that has been there in some way ( I know every case is different), please don't hesitate to contact me.
I'll be thinking of you and praying for your son's healing.
A.
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