chronic itp, is it safe to ride in an airplane?

after years of ups and downs with itp of our only daughter.. we are planning to take a vacation and visit grandparents.However we are having second thoughts because we are warned by her first doctor that our daughter should not fly / ride in an airplane due to her low counts.. 24 to 59 only..

May i seek opinion from anyone in this forum who can share based on your experience. Can you also provide me with some travel safety tips..

Thank you so much.. happy holidays..

aireen

Hi Aireen,

This is a question that's been asked a few times over the years, so you might want to do a search on "flying". Here's one of the threads that came up, and has a number of replies:
www.pdsa.org/discussion-groups/13-general-discussion-for-parents/2280-air-travel-with-low-platelets.html#2

It seems that quite a few have flown safely, often with even lower counts than your daughters. When my daughter had ITP, I did not let her fly to visit her cousins like she usually did each summer. But, I wasn't scared of the flying part--just wasn't sure my sister-in-law would be careful enough in monitoring her. Plus, they live on a little island , so no nearby hospital. But, I would think if you're going with your daughter to her grandparents, it should be fine. it does seem a good idea though, to have a note from her doctor, describing what her condition is, what treatment is recommended and his contact information. I have heard that some parents have run into trouble because child abuse was suspected from all the bruising. It's surprising, and a bit shocking at how many doctors or ERs don't seem to know much of anything about ITP, and seem to either not take it seriously. Or, they overreact and freak out about it. Really, it sounds like your daughter's counts in in a safe range, as long as she's not having active bleeding.

April

Dear April,

Thank you so much for sharing... i'll also check the link you've cited.

The best suggestion I could make is that you really talk with your Doctor. Every kid is different and there are a lot of factors that are individual for each person. Like most people on this site, we have heard both sides of the answer so there is obviously nothing that is black and white. When all else fails, my advise is always to follow your instincts, they are rarely wrong.

Good Luck,

JJ

Hi

This is only my experience. We were also warned initially that my son shouldn't fly but after 6 months with no bleeding issues, we asked the consultant haematologist who said it was safe. So we booked a holiday from the UK to Spain. At the time of our holiday he had had 6 months of below 20K counts. .

Flight was completely uneventful both ways. Our main problem was that his count must have taken a nose dive when we got there, so we spent all week trying to persuade him to wear a t shirt to cover up all the bruising - I was worried about having to explain it to a spanish police officer or social worker!!!! We've been to Greece since then too, and also had no problems. We did take a letter from his consultant with us, and I had that translated into greek/spanish. My son always wears a medical ID band.

I have looked this up on the PDSA website too - they have just published some Q&A booklet about living with ITP which says there is no problem with flying.

Hope you have a lovely holiday

Ali

It probably depends on the child. We got on a plane after our son had had fairly stable counts at 56K to go see a doctor in another state. As soon as we got airborne we saw him crash right before our eyes (headache, and his other usual symptoms). We checked him when we arrived 1.5hrs later in the other state and he was down to 12K. We ended up having to drive home because he was below 5 by the time we left another day later. So personally, I wouldn't do it. But I think everyone is so different you really can't extrapolate something like this person to person. KWIM?

I have been in a plane a few times and a helicopter joy ride once and never had any issues, I didn't get my counts checked before and after though so I don't know if they would have dropped after the plane ride, I would fly again, but that's just my opinion, u have to feel comfortable with whatever decision u make. Just as an example instead if flying to your vacation spot, you drive an something happens and your nowhere near a hospital either??