ITP - related condition questions

I am a 69 year old male, diagnosed with ITP five years ago. I have steadily improved with treatment from an initial 11K platelet count. However, I am currently developing other immuno-related conditions, and I'm wondering if they may be related to the underlying cause of the ITP. My doctors can't seem to get interested in the possibility of a linkage and have brushed off my questions. So I'm wondering if anyone else has observed similar conditions. A couple of examples: Within the last four months I have developed Peyronie's disease, which is presently under evaluation (and hopefully treatment!) by a urologist. In the same time-frame, I have developed "trigger-finger" in my hand and problems with my wrist joints. From what I've been reading, trigger-finder is often connected somehow with the Peyronie's disease - strange as that might seem!

So, I'm wondering. Has anyone else heard of or experienced any association of ITP and Peyronie's disease?

Hello florida. Welcome.
Sorry, I can't help you. No such symptoms here. Never heard of either of those conditions. Seems your docs would look at all avenues with the pre-exising ITP. Let us know.

Hi Florida. While there is no direct connection between ITP and most other autoimmune disorders, having one makes a person more prone to having others. Quite a few of us have developed other autoimmune disorders prior to or after ITP.

Interesting..........thanks.

Dear Florida,

I am a female and I too am 69 years of age. I came down with ITP-low platelets were at 10,000. If I were you, I would Have your Hematologist run other blood tests. I also have Thalessima(Anemia)B-minor. This is genetic from Father's side of the family. They also call it Mediterranenon Anema. I have had a bone marrow test and it came back back negative. You need to me more persistent with your Doctors. We are talking about Your life."

I hope this helps you! Just don't give up! Keep a positive attitude because this helps very much.

Amelia/CT-Fl snowbird

Yes, i have have been hospitalized twice for itp and then this year i was told i have Peyronies. At the rate its going, i expect the deformation to cover 100 % in the next 6 - 12 months. Also several other autoimmune diseases: gastoparisis, 2 heard defects, chronic pain and fatigue to name a few.

Cant work. Disability denied. My life is over, but it just wont end. No income or insurance. To poor for OBAMA care. I can only afford the "free" clinic. Its not really free, they just give me a discount and rack up the bill and say they won't ever come after me for it. The only thing they are interested in is blood pressure and blood sugar. Anything else and they just stare at me with a blank look. My research pretty much concludes that I have CONNECTED TISSUE DISORDER. Don't ever tell a Dr that you've done any research. They get offended if you do, and will then do their best to not look into it. I can't get the clinic doctors to look at my recent stockpile of diseases as symptoms and give me a diagnoses preventing me from getting disability. They just think its normal for someone to start developing 1-3 new diseases or heard defect a year. Its tough when I think my doctors are stupider than I am. The disease is taking a long time to finish me off. And ironically 2 weeks before I was to become homeless the gastro parisis and my last meal caused my overdose to not flood my system and just slowly leached it out over a 30 hour period. So the disease saved my life. Go figure. And the "hospital" they locked me in refused to treat my pain so it was a week of torture suffering the pain and the physical dependence i have after years of pain therapy. Sure made me want to do it again when I got out, but I had swallowed it all and couldn't. 100+ freakin pills. Said I built up a tolerance.

Anyway, ITP showed me that without platelets blood will find its way out of my body. So I assume it leaks around inside my body too. Blood would just finds a way out of my skin. I no longer tell anyone when i see the symptoms. So reading about peyronies disease it suggested that damage could be cause by internal bleeding. Thats when I searched itp with peyronis disease and got enough hits to suggest that ITP could cause peyronis.

So Good luck with yours. I know what you are going through.

There may be something to this connectivity. I've had all three over the past seven years. First it was ITP, beginning at 11k. Then I developed trigger fingers on both hands . Then I developed Petronies. The itp has returned to almost normal with various treatments by a hematologist. the Petronies was treated successfully with interferon injections at the Cleveland Clinic. I've had several cortisone injections in my fingers and that condition has improved considerably. I had never linked these conditions until I read this thread. So, perhaps the all have a common root cause. Wonder what it is?

I am currently on steroids and have IVIG regularly about every 2-4 weeks. I have had 2 rounds of retuxan. Nothing has helped keep my platelets up. The Dr now wants me to go on Promacta. The steroids are really working on me and don't seem to be helping only making my glaucoma worse along with many other side effects. My question is, do you know anyone living with low platelets and off of all meds? I have changed my diet to more platelet friendly choices. This seems to be helping somewhat. I am thinking about trying to drop all meds and see what happens. Anyone tried this? ......and by the way, I not comfortable with Promacta at this point with the side effects.