Newbie and question about flu shot.

I am new to ITP and to this discussion group and am really just looking for some reassurance. My ITP was very sudden. I am a 51 year old fairly healthy female. I had a CBC done on Dec. 1st as part of my annual check up and my platelet count was 167. Interestingly, my liver enzymes were slightly elevated, perhaps an indication of a virus? Anyway, by Friday I was bruising, by Sunday I had the red dot rash and blood blisters in my mouth (tongue, cheek and palate) and by Sunday evening I was admitted to hospital with a platelet count of 2 accompanied by a raging headache in my temple. They were worried about a brain bleed...thankfully there was none. Probably just stress induced. Im being seen by a great hemo specialist and am on 70mg of prednisone...which is making me crazy...but that's another topic.
I have one thought...On my GP visit, on the 1st of December, I had a flu shot. Then six days later I had the platelet plummet....I wonder if there could be a connection? I don't necessarily think the Flu shot caused the ITP, but I wonder if I had had a virus the week before (I had felt punky the week before my check up - aches and pains, lethargy, headaches) could the flu shot have been the tipping point? Any thoughts about that?

Tanya:

Any medication or vaccine has the potential to trigger ITP or any other autoimmune response. It is possible that the flu shot triggered it, but you may never know for sure. It's also possible that if it did, your ITP may be acute which means that it could resolve within a few weeks or months. Sometimes it can be a cascade of events that trigger ITP, such as an illness and stress within a shirt time period. Most people never know why it happened.

If that does not happen, it's okay. There are many ways to treat ITP these days and most people do get to a remission or at the very least, are able to maintain safe and stable counts. ITP can freak people out at first and turn your life upside down, but in time, it just becomes something to deal with that is a pain in the butt.

Are you responding to Prednisone? Yes, it is a nightmare. Most will whole-heartedly agree with that!

Thanks Sandy. I'm not sure what a "good" response is, but my platelets are up from 2 to 11 in a about a weeks time. I guess that's a start.will the side effects of prednisone eventually settle down? Right now I feel like a band of monkey's have taken up residence in my head and I am getting pretty nasty heartburn. From what I'm reading, it sounds like the prednisone is a long slow road.
The stress link to ITP is very interesting. Over the past fourteen months my husband was diagnosed with Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma (a tumor in the bile duct of his liver)underwent intensive chemo and radiation, received a live liver transplant from our eldest daughter and is now recovering well at home. Needless to say this has added an enormous amount of stress to my life and my doctor had just explained to me that she felt I was suffering some PTSD type symptoms as a result.
While the bruising is definitely improving I still feel very fatigued after the slightest amount of activity.

Tanya:

A good response would be counts jumping from single digits to the 200's or 300's in a week. Some people can take a bit longer but some just do not respond to Prednisone.

It's hard to function on Prednisone because of the side effects. I'm sorry to say that no, the side effects do not usually get better. As you begin to taper, most people get a whole new set of side effects related to withdrawal. That can sometimes be worse than the high doses. The good news is that it does end once you are off of the drug for a few weeks. In the meantime, strap in and hang on. You'll get through it; we've all done it. Nobody ever said it was easy though!

Sounds like you've been through a lot recently. Try not to stress about ITP. It's generally not all that life-threatening and most do fine, even with low counts. We're all here if you have any questions or need to vent. You'd be surprised how much a bunch of strangers can help.