TOPIC:

Hi, please forgive me if this is a bit long but I want to give you the full story as I'm desperate for advice.

I found out I had itp during a routine blood test in my first pregnancy in 2009. During the pregnancy my levels were around the 40 Mark and I was told there was nothing to worry about. I went in to labour and everything was going well. As I got to the final stages though.. Pushing ( sorry if too much info ) my baby's heartbeat dropped. In the end they performed an emergency c section. I was put to sleep as they didn want to risk an epidural. Anyway, my baby girl was born an they took her blood straight away to be tested. Within an hr sh was rushed in to special care. Her levels were at 1. She was so poorly.. They gave her brain scan after brain scan checking for bleeding on the brain. Amazingly, she came through fine. Our doctors told us it was a miracle an that they didn expect her to survive. After 6 months of infusions she was healthy and had started producing her own antibodies.
Since I gave birth things just went down hill for me. My levels were falling through the floor. I tried every treatment and nothing worked. The only thing that worked temp was ivig. The infusions were lasting 9 days then my levels were falling back down to 1.. I was then bleeding very heavely from numerous places so they decided to admit me every 7 days for 3 days worth of ivig to prevent my levels going too low. In the end I opted for a spleenectomy in September last year. I couldn't carry on the way I was going.. Thankfully, the seems to hav worked. My levels have been around the 100-150 Mark.
As a result of everything we have been through, we were advised against any further pregnancies due to the seriousness of what I've been through. We agreed as I never wanted to go through nearly losing a baby again.
I've been on the pill since this but have now just found out I'm 4wks pregnant. I'm devistated. The thought of going through this all again.
What are the chances the itp will rear it's ugly head due to the pregnancy? I know how lucky we were last time and I knoyou only get so many miracles in your life. The thought of losing my baby is tearing me apart and I need to ge all facts before we make any decisions . Please help

Redgirl:

I'm so sorry for all you've been through, I wish I had some really good news for you. The only thing I can tell you is that nobody knows what will happen. There is no way to predict how things would go with a second pregnancy. Everyone is different and every situation is different. YOu could have a very easy time with everything going perfectly or you could have a repeat of the last pregnancy. It's possible that you may be more responsive to treatment since the splenectomy; that has happened to others. But it is also true that splenectomy is not a cure and antibodies are still being produced that could cross over to the baby.

Most of the time, women with ITP have successful pregnancies and births and if there are problems, they are dealt with fairly easily. Your situation seems to be on a different level than most. I sincerely hope that everything works out for you, no matter what you decide.

Hi,
I had some complications during my preganancy and when I had my little girl 4 months ago. I didn't find out that I had ITP until months after I gave birth (either I didn't have it then or I just didn't know about it). When I found out that my little girl could also have it she had to have a couple of blood tests to check her levels. That was the most horrible thing in the world. She was in so much pain and that was just the blood test, not any infusions. People say that labour is the worse pain you will ever go through, but after what we went through after and are still battling, I would go through another 100 hours of labour instead. I'm new to ITP, so I'm certainly not qualified to give you any medical advice. All I can say is that I might know how horrible it is to go through what you went through and it sucks, no doctors can truly understand. Everyday I look at my gorgeous little girl and think about how lucky we are to have such a wonderful healthy little baby. Hopefully the spenectomy will have helped and everything will be a million times better this time around. Good luck

I think it all depends on you. I was my healthiest I have ever been while pregnant. Still now Im healthy with no meds. My son is 7 months old and has had no platelet problems what so ever. I even had an epidural and c section with no problems either.