General information

I am a 67 year old female who has had low level platlets for about 10 years now but always withing the lower safe range until February of this year when I woke up with those little red dots all over me and bruising and went to the ER and had a platlet count of 2000. I was treated with platlets with no result and also gamma globulin with no results and then finally after 10 days in the hospital they removed my spleen. I was sent home with a platlet count of 350,000 and prednisone. My hemotologist tappered me of the prednisone over 3 months and then I was medication free for 3 months. Just before my final check up, I had blood work done and my counts dropped to 12,000 in August. I have been on prednisone since August and my counts had risen to 279,000 in October and then dropped to 24,000 in November. I am on 6mg of prednisone and am concerned about long term use and the side effects which are really bothering me. I have Hashimotos thyroid, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and had my gall bladder removed 15 years ago. I also have IBS with constipation and this has been aggrevated since the prednisone. Does anyone have any ideas? My doctor is conservative as far as treatment because I am not that old and most new drugs only have a 5 year study on them. I retired a year ago and had a great first 6 months but now I am depressed, anxious, and not very happy about this disease and how to deal with it. Any help will be appreciated

Hi bearable - you will get more responses if you post this in the Adults With ITP section - either in Newly Diagnosed, General ITP Discussion or Treatment section.

Sorry your splenectomy didn't work. Your blood pressure is under control with meds right?

Are you on 6mg of prednisone or 60mg of prednisone now? [60mg could explain the depression, anxiety and unhappy feeling - all of us who have been on a high dose will attest to that].

I like that at the age of 67 you said "I am not that old" - no you are not!

Most people in your situation go for the newer meds such as N-Plate or Promacta. They have actually been used for at least 10 years and most people have great results with few side effects. Splenectomies are rarely done these days because of the TPO's. If I were you, I'd discuss them with your doctor. I can't tell you how many people went through all the meds only to end up on a TPO anyway. When they finally did it, they wondered why they didn't do it sooner. Life gets a little easier at that point. They are usually used to maintain counts of 50k, not to normalize counts. That is generally a good, safe number.