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Here's our story.... I came home from a deployment (I work disaster recover) to find my then 6 year old had faint bruising on her back. The hubs didn't notice. I took her to the doctor and the doctor drew blood. Thus our journey began.

Throughout the last year her platelets have consistently been in the 90s. So it was a just watch and monitor.

Beginning of January this year she actually peaked at 130k. Whoo who! So this past Sunday I took her to the ER cause she was having abdominal pain near her belly button and fever. She was admitted and appendicitis was ruled out. Turns out she had an infection in her small intestine near her appendix caused by a virus. On admission her platelets were 94 and white blood cells were 11.5. We were to go home Tuesday but that mornings blood work showed her platelets dropped to 22 and WBC went to 3.7. So her pedi called the hemotologist and a treatment for IVIg was started. Her platelets the next am was up to 48 but her WBC's dropped to 2.6. So then I was told she had to have 2 days worth of antibiotics. However Thursday am her platelets came up to 117 and WBC's increased to 4000. So she was released w/o any meds or restrictions. I also think they got her out of there cause they didn't want her to get sick as there was a H1N1 patient admitted Wednesday night.

So I was never told why the WBC's tanked. Anyone have any experience similar? As I understand it any virus she gets might cause her platelets to drop. Also is IVIg a cure all or can I expect her to have that treatment again. Thanks!

It's possible that the white cells dropped because of the infection. Whites uusally go up during an infection, but sometimes the opposite occurs.

IVIG is not a cure. It is a temporary treatment. It probably gave her the bump she needed until the infection is gone, then hopefully her counts will stabilize back to the way they were.

My white cells (neutrophils) always go down when I get flu. Anything else and it seems that they go up. They say it's a bit weird but I'm guessing that as most 'normal' people aren't checking their blood when they get sick, they don't really know what is normal and what is not. It just happens that we check more often.

Every time my son has a cold or flu, his platelet count drops. The reason is that when body is fighting infection, the immune system is woking at its best. My son had no luck with IVIG.

Sometimes with autoimmune disorders people can have more than just plts affected. Wbc dropping is a sign of neutropenia and happens sometimes with viruses. They have to treat for infection more vigorously if wbc are low because the immune system is not working well. As for IVIG it is only a 3-4week coverage. Sometimes it works long enough to let those with acute itp over it but for kids with chronic it only helps for a little while. My daughter has been shown to have chronic immune thrombocytopenia purpura with an IgM antibody that fights her plts. She has had IVIg and Winnrho multiple times. I love it because then we have at least 3 weeks were we dont have to be worried.