Hello from an old friend, antibiotics & surgery

*waves* remember me? I'm sure one or two of you will

I've been so crazy busy it's been a long long time since I checked in here...

Ok.. so last August I got a nasty infection and had to go on antibiotics I was on Amoxicillin and Clindamycin. I reacted to the amoxicillin and ended up covered in a very bad rash. Amongst all all the rash I ended up with some petechiae on my legs so I had it checked out - to my surprise my count was 140!

Highest I'd ever been before was 100 and I'm usually between 70-90. Anyway, fast forward to now I just had another count done and I'm back down to 85. So the question is did the antibiotics cause the rise? Or.. as my doc pointed out - maybe the infection I was on antibiotics for in the first place caused the rise in counts (I'd never thought of that possibility).

Anyhow, I'm also scheduled for eye surgery and my GP said they'll want to ... totally can't remember the term he used - my mind has blanked - but I assume he meant give me platelets before the surgery. My reaction was that's not necessary with my counts (70-90) but he insisted it would be.. so I'm wondering what other people's thoughts on that are?

I hope everyone's doing as well as can be expected.

Hey Beth! It must be old timers week - Gary popped in too after a very long absence.

My opinion - either the antibiotic or the infection could have caused the rise. It's happened to people many times and no one ever knows which did it because they obviously happen at the same time.

What type of eye surgery are you having? How soon before the surgery would he give the platelet infusion? I'm asking because transfusions don't last very long at all in people with ITP (a few hours usually), so it might just be a waste of time. That would be an unusual way to get counts up before surgery. During surgery, maybe, but with your counts may not be necessary (as you said).

I'm having strabismus surgery to try and correct an acquired problem that we can't seem to fix any other way - we've tried everything but it keeps getting worse.

I would assume it'd be something they do right before surgery but like you said, I really don't see how it's necessary - it's not like I've ever had any bleeding issues.. in fact the only times I've had petechiae my counts ended up being HIGHER than my "normal" so go figure!

I don't know how much bleeding there would be with strabismus surgery, but my guess is little to none. My ophthalmologist didn't even blink at doing cataract surgery on me when my platelets were in the 20s.

I'm one of those people whose platelets usually rise if I have an infection.

Beth - I've had strabismus surgery. Is it the one where they need to align your eye muscles? If so, that's exactly what I had done. The worst part was waking up with strings hanging out of my eye balls so he could tug on them and move the muscles. That part had to be done while I was awake because I had to tell him when things came into alignment. That part was a little hard when you can't have your glasses on, your eyes are swollen shut and watering. He then snipped the strings close to my eye ball and that was that. I went home. I would have been totally oogie about that but was too drugged to care.

It wasn't really painful, but I couldn't bend over without pressure for a week or two. My eye balls also were completely red, which grossed out my co-workers. I can't remember what my platelet count was, but the eye ball did bleed. I also didn't have any close vision for about a week, so working was difficult. More than you wanted to know?

I had it done in 1999, so maybe the technique has changed.

Thanks for that Sandi - your story pretty much matches up with what I'm expecting - I'll be having the adjustable sutures version too. I'm a bit concerned about knowing when my vision is in alignment when I can't see with out my glasses - don't want to have to go back for more surgery if we get it wrong!

Just got results back from more tests I had done - apparently my Vit D levels are low - wont' be able to see my doc about it till after my surgery though 'cause he's away.

If I remember rightly - there's some connection between ITP and Vit D right? Should I start a new topic for that?

Yup - that's the one. It WAS hard to have the muscles aligned when you can't see. I was still so drugged up too and that didn't help. I honestly don't know how he did it. I wouldn't say my vision ended up 100% from the surgery, but it was much better and I stopped seeing double for the most part.

There have been quite a few discussions about Vit D this week in other posts. Go ahead and start a new thread though - maybe it should have its own already. A lot of us have the problem.

Hi Tal!
My platelets always go up during an infection.