Brady's great count after many years!

I hope this will give some parents encouragement that things can improve even after many years. We finally got a count on Brady this week and he's at 89k! We probably haven't checked his count in 9 months or so - Brady hates to have it checked, he's been really busy with high school and sports and he hasn't had any symptoms so we've been lazy. The last time we had it checked he was at 60k, which was also awesome. But this is the first time I ever remember it going up without any treatment at all, so maybe this is really a remission.

I don't want to bore anyone, but a little background: Brady received his ITP diagnosis in January, 2002, after an MMR vaccination in December. Anyway - he has been through a lot of treatments, starting with steroids, moving on to WinRho, then to IVIG, then to Rituxan, back to IVIG, back to WinRho. The two treatments that always work for him are WinRho and IVIG but the side effects can be unsettling, to say the least. He was last treated about 2 years ago, with a lower-than-normal dose of Rhophylac (a WInRho-type product) because the clinic did not have enough to give him the regular dosage. Brady went up to his usual 300k after treatment and then was down to 50k or so by 3 or 4 months after treatment. But this time he didn't drop below 50k, like he usually did. He bounced around 50 or 60 and then we stopped checking for about 9 months and now the 89 - well, I'm going to just call it 90k!

We've been through enough to know that he will still need to be checked again in 6 months or a year or if he ever has symptoms but we are joyful and grateful for this respite. Who knows what did it - I always hoped that puberty would help him out and I think it probably has (he just turned 16), added with time and maybe the Rhophylac also.

For everyone going through the ringer and the ups and downs of treatments and blood tests with their kids - it really is true that things can improve even after many years. Not that you want to wait 11 years for a remission, but it can happen at any time, so hang in there. Brady now plays competitive basketball year-round, loves to snowboard, ski, wakeboard and will be getting his driver's license in a month - time marches on.

Thanks for letting me share my good news!

That's great news Brianna's counts are up this week 2

So glad for both families here! I know good to hear that high(er) platelets might be out there, near the pot at the end of the rainbow. Does give hope to those in the trenches. Congrats!

Great news, Beth! Thanks for sharing the story and the hope!

Hi Beth, don't know how I missed this post, but thats such good news Ali

Thanks so much to all who responded - it's so lovely that we can all share in each other's successes and happiness and I appreciate all the good thoughts for Brady.

Wishing for good counts and good health for all!

Thank you for your story. It is nice to hear from those that have "made it out on the other side". I needed this tonight. Thank you again for sharing.

I also have a Brady Strong name for strong boys!

Hello, great news about your son. I have a 17 yr old son who has had ITP for 5 years. He plays very competitive soccer. His counts are usually about 50,000 since his splenectomy 3 years ago. He has never had a serious injury at 50,000, but I still worry. What counts has Brady been playing basketball at--50,000? My son wants to play in college which is a whole other worry. (He tried every therapy under the sun until the splenectomy and none of them worked.) I don't know anyone else whose child plays competitive sports at that platelet level, so so glad to hear about your son.