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Daughter of Dad Diagnosed with ITP 3 years 5 months ago #69272

mfw4jc
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Hi there. My dad is 63 years old and lives alone. He was just diagnosed with ITP in March. He lives in a different state. We are thousands of miles away and I just worry about him. His platelet level this week was at 20 and last week it was at 27. He is currently on Nplate injections once a week. Can you die from this disease? His doctor says he is not dying, but he acts like he is. He is very depressed and thinks this disease is going to get the best of him. He says he can't do anything. He feels like his life is over. Is this disease a death sentence? I am just trying to learn more about it.
Thanks in advance. God bless all of you and I hope you are all getting better.

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Daughter of Dad Diagnosed with ITP 3 years 5 months ago #69275

mrsb04
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ITP since 2014. Retired nurse. My belief is empower patients to be involved as much as possible in their care. Read, read, read & ALWAYS question medics about the evidence base they use.
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mfw4jc
No it is not a death sentence. It's a shock when one is first diagnosed. There are people on here who have had ITP for years. I'm in my 60s, have had it for 6 years now and lead a perfectly normal life. I don't let it rule my life I rule it.
It can take a while to find a treatment that helps. Is he seeing a haematologist ? If not he needs to get one. ITP needs managing by a doctor who knows what they are doing.

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Daughter of Dad Diagnosed with ITP 3 years 5 months ago #69277

MelA
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Please let your Dad know ITP is not the end of the world - I've had it since 1989, I'm now older than your Dad. We moved to Tokyo very shortly after I was diagnosed with a count of 11,000 & dropping, and then to Hong Kong before returning to the States. Only thing I've quit doing was skiing, and that was because I liked my bones the way God had made them not because of ITP. It is a shock at first as mrsb said - heck all of a sudden one gets smacked with something they have never heard of before and now needs to deal with it. If your Dad is showing signs of depression will his insurance cover counseling - or can he freely talk with his hematologist about it?

You are a wonderful daughter to find us - my son found this group many years ago for me. You keep coming but also let your Dad know we are here and we are going through this too!!

Keep us posted!

"Instead of wasting your time worrying about symptoms, just get it checked out" -Nieca Goldberg, MD

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Daughter of Dad Diagnosed with ITP 3 years 5 months ago #69352

karenr
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Diagnosed in 2000, at 59, after being on moderately high doses of NSAIDs for arthritis. Splenectomy and rituxan both failed (2004). Did well on prednisone till summer 2018--then terrible reactions. Promacta since 11-19.
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Seconding the responses already made. I was diagnosed 20 years ago at age 59. ITP has been inconvenient in some ways--especially the treatments of it--but it didn't prevent me from traveling and many activities (pre-Covid!). I remember asking my hematologist if this would shorten my life, and he assured me it would not. Does your dad have many happy things in his life? I imagine being diagnosed during the pandemic would be much harder than when most of us were diagnosed.

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