ITP Rollercoaster up and down the platelets go!

Welcome to Steven's Web page.

Steven was Diagnosed with a rare blood dissorder called Ideopathic Thrombocytopenia Perpura in Nov 1998 at age 7yrs.

His first cbc ( complete blood count) came back with everything normal except the platelet count. In this Picture Steven's platelet count was 87k ( thousand)
Should be 150,000-450,000.
Steven's count was 8k.
I was called at midnight and told to get him to the nearest hospital. Another cbc was done 1k,
Some general guidelines I was given..
20k- increased chances of a brain bleed.
50k- no contact sports. (gymnastics, hockey, rollerblades etd) basic rule of two feet on the ground..
He was given 2 rounds of IVIGg, and by the 2nd day his counts had risen to 59K.
We were told that chances were (80%) this was a one of and there would be no re-occurance.. Well that was not to be, 3 weeks later he was back in for another treatment. This time Prednisone,again, counts dropped 3 days after stopping his course of pred to 8k. So it was decided between Mike, I and Dr Blanchette that Steven would go back to IVIG. One year after diagnosis it is considered a Chronic Dissorder.
Steven was in for treatments every 3-4 weeks for the first 1.5 yrs, then for no known reason his counts started to stay up longer and less treatments were neccessary.. Then for about 6 months he was back again to 3-4 weeks. Now his last treatment was over 2 yrs ago..His counts do still drop but just not quite low enough for a treatment.

Steven has been approved by the Make A Wish Foundation of Toronto to have his wish granted.. Steven has asked that our basement be turned into an Arcade/Games room. So when his counts are low, he doesn't ahve to miss out on fun with his friends.

Love, Hugs and Platelets
Lynn - Steven's mum (13)


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TERMINOLOGIES
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Basophils (0-1.0) - The number of basophils increases during infection. Basophils leave the blood and accumulate at the site of infection or other inflammation. There they discharge the contents of their granules, releasing a variety of mediators such as histamine, serotonin, prostaglandins and leukotrienes which increase the blood flow to the area and in other ways add to the inflammatory process. The mediators released by basophils also play an important part in some allergic responses such as hay fever and an anaphylactic response to insect stings.

CBC - Complete Blood Count

Eosinothils (.4) - White blood cell readily stained with eosin. Eosinophils are believed to function in allergic responses and in resisting some infections.

Hematocrit (HCT) - The hematocrit is the proportion, by volume, of the blood that consists of red blood cells. The hematocrit is expressed as a percentage. For example, an hematocrit of 25 percent means that there are 25 milliliters of red blood cells in 100 milliliters of blood. A low hematocrit is referred to as being anemic. There are many reasons for anemia. Some of the more common reasons are loss of blood (traumatic injury, surgery, bleeding colon cancer), nutritional deficiency (iron, vitamin B12, folate), bone marrow problems (replacement of bone marrow by cancer, suppression by chemotherapy drugs, kidney failure), and abnormal hematocrit (sickle cell anemia). Higher than normal hematocrit levels can be seen in people living at high altitudes and in smokers. Dehydration produces a falsely high hematocrit that disappears when proper fluid balance is restored. Some other infrequent causes are lung disease, certain tumors, a disorder of the bone marrow known as polycythemia rubra vera, and abuse of the drug erythropoietin (Epogen) by athletes for blood doping purposes.

Hematologist - A hematologist (hee-ma-TOL-o-jist) is a doctor who specializes in treating diseases of the blood.

ITP - Idiopathic (Immune) Thrombocytopenic Purpura is an autoimmune disease where the body mounts an attack against platelets. They are marked as foreign by the immune system and eliminated in the spleen and sometimes, the liver.

MCHC - Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration is a calculation of the percentage of hemoglobin in the RBCs. Decreased values point to hypochromasia, decreased oxygen- carrying capacity because of decreased hemoglobin inside the cell. Hypochromasia is seen in iron deficiency anemia and in thalassemia.

Petechiae or Purpura (symptoms of ITP) - small purple spots on the skin where blood has escaped from veins or capillaries.

Platelets - Platelets are small, irregularly shaped components of our blood. They are required to maintain the integrity of our blood vessel walls and for blood to clot. Without a sufficient number of platelets, a person with ITP is subject to spontaneous bleeding or bruising.

NOTE: A symptom the hematologist looks for is spontaneous bleeding in the mucus membranes on the inside of the mouth (called blood sores) or in the gastro-intestinal tract (called fissures). With a low platelet count (less than 10,000), it is possible to have a spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain).

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
All are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Even the ones with little purple spots!

Journal

Sunday, September 28, 2008 5:46 PM CDT

GREAT NEWS!!!

Steven has had ITP for almost ten long years now..
FINALLY he is now officially ITP free.
okay, we all know that ITP may or may not go into remission, and there is no way of telling how long said remission will last.
He is now off the sick kids books and will be seen by family doc only...lol

This suits me perfectly as when we went to sick kids it ended up being almost an all day affair.

I will continue to update every so often, but as you can tell updates are getting further and further apart..

Love Hugs and Platelets to all

Lynn

Hospital Information:

Toronto Sick Childrens

Email address  : itpmum@rogers.com