New to this

Hi, all. My name is Alex, I'm 30. So back in late May when I went to do my blood work (I hadn't done blood work in something crazy like 6 years) my doctor emailed me after saying I had 2 abnormalities: extremely low vitamin D and platelet count of 114.

He said in an email "platelet count is mildly low - lower than last time. This could be why you are prone to bleeding. It's mild though and there's not much you can do for it except to monitor it a couple of times a year. We don't really know the cause of it - usually it's a condition called ITP. Sometimes taking aspirin can cause that to happen but a lot of times we never find out why."

I freaked out and asked about leukemia and cancer and he said my white blood cells were normal. I am going again this week for blood work, for the first time since late May, to check on my platelet count. Should I worry? Is 114 ITP? Should I do other tests? I can't tell from his response whether he think it is ITP or not but he did say to monitor. All other things in the blood work were normal. I don't think I have any bruising, as far as I can tell.

Sorry for the long post! Just kinda freaked out about this and I live sort of halfway across the country from my parents so not really used to dealing with stuff like this on my own.

Thanks for any info or help!
Alex

Alex:

Your counts are nothing to worry about. ITP is generally defined as a platelet count consistently below 100. Although normal is considered 150 to 450 on most lab references, 114 is perfectly acceptable. You should not have increased bleeding at that count. Platelet counts can drop temporarily due to a recent virus or infection, or possibly due to an antibiotic or herbal supplement. Your counts may rise on their own, stay the same, or drop lower. I wouldn't spend one minute worrying about it unless you see symptoms such as bleeding gums, large, unexplained bruises, gushing nose bleeds or very heavy periods. If you see any of those, you should have a CBC to make sure that your counts have not dropped. Even if you do get to a point where you might have to treat someday, ITP is not the end of the world and can usually be managed.

Aspirin does not usually cause ITP, but can cause increased symptoms such as bruising because aspirin is a blood thinner.

I have chronically low D levels and have been using Gummies. They have been working better than the high dose Vitamin D scripts I have been using for years. Did he tell you the D level?

Good luck with the CBC and let us know!

Thanks, Sandi! This is very helpful. He didn't tell me the D levels but put me on a really high dose of D because he said my level was "extremely low." I guess we will see this week when I do blood work if my levels improved but I am worried about the platelets, only because he brought it up. He did say "mildly low" and "borderline low" but he does want me to follow up and see how they are.

Can you tell me more about ITP and what living with it is like? Is it a major health risk? It seems like from what I am reading that people can live totally normal lives and it doesn't effect life expectancy or anything.

I will try the gummies! Thank you again for replying.
Alex

Alex:

Everyone has a different experience living with ITP depending on how low their counts go, the symptoms they have, and whether or not they easily respond to treatments. Some have a more difficult time than others, but eventually most do get to a point where ITP becomes more of a pain in the butt than a scary thing.

I was diagnosed in 1998 and had up and down counts for 8 years. I treated on and off during that time period. My life was still normal....worked full time, ran my 3 kids around and cleaned my house. The only thing that was different was that I did it with treatment side effects and sometimes low counts. My lowest was 3. I just decided from the start that I would keep things as normal as possible, so I did. I will not say that it was easy; it wasn't, but I never thought I would die from it. I think I missed five days of work during those 8 years; 4 of them were because I had Rituxan infusions that took most of the day. I went into remission after that and have had normal counts since.

People with ITP do have a normal life expectancy. If anything, the treatments cause more harm than the low counts due to the risk of infection and a higher risk of future cancer due to repeated immunosuppressants.

If you get to a point where your counts are low, we will be here to help you through it. It's a good sign that you haven't shown symptoms in all this time. Sometimes counts will tank in a matter of days or weeks once they start going down.

Hopefully they check your D again so you know where you're at. You should ask for copies of labs, they can be helpful for future reference. I get my D checked every 4 months because as soon as I stop the script, they fall back down again.