Lorna,
There are no guarantees in life. It's easy to get into that guessing game of "What if"?
But, it's still only speculation. But, look at it from another angle. What if you DID choose to treat and you ended up being one of the rare people who goes into anaphylactic shock or gets serum sickness or gets steroid-induced psychosis? Any of these could result in death, which would have been totally preventable if only you hadn't done that treatment. Of course when someone chooses to do one of these treatments, seldom if ever do they imagine themselves being one of the few who have such reaction. My daughter nearly died twice from an anaphylactic shock reaction, the first time from WinRho (her first treatment ever), the second from IVIG, when a new nurse didn't think she really needed to take the extra precautions.
Also, what if despite doing a particular treatment, your counts still remain low? You try the next treatment with no results, and the next, and the next...
Every day on here there are posts from those who have seemingly tried everything, yet nothing works. Again, no guarantees!
How will you feel if you decide to use a certain treatment and you wind up blowing your retirement savings or your kid's college fund or the down payment for your first house for a few weeks of "maybe" platelets. It can surely be a big stakes gamble.
What's it like to become a mad woman on Pred? Is it how you want your kids to remember mommy? How well will you be able to function? Will you be able to hold down a job when dealing with the side effects?
What about the longterm side effects or the unknown side effects of the newer drugs and treatments? How many drugs have been thought to be "completely safe", FDA approved, and then a few years down the road they're withdrawn for devastating side effects?
(Remember thamaldihide?) Are you really willing to be the pharmaceutical companies' guinea pig? Do you want your child to be their guinea pig?
So, it's all about weighing the perceived risks against the anticipated benefits, and throwing in a lot of unknown factors.
As Sandi pointed out, open the newspaper any day, and you'll find perfectly healthy people have died in horrible car crashes. And...you also find amazing stories of those who survived against amazing odds.
If you choose not to treat, you should have a plan for such an event as a severe accident. For me, it's the same thing I would do if anyone, ITP or not, got into an accident...I'd learn about and use homeopathic first aid remedies. These are different from finding a constitutional homeopathic remedy for someone (which should only be handled by a professional homeopath.) Basic homeopathic first-aid remedies are relatively easy to learn their indications. You can buy or make inexpensive emergency kits to carry with you at all times. That is the key, as you just never know when you might be faced with a life-threatening emergency. As they are given sublinguilly, dissolve quickly under the tongue or in water, or can even be used like smelling salts, they are very easy to administer. Being in Nano doses, they are absorbed into the bloodstream almost immediately. In acute conditions, you will usually see some response to the remedy within seconds to a few minutes. A homeopathic remedy called Apis is what saved my daughter from her first anaphylactic shock reaction, which very untidily, did not decide to present itself until we were far from the hospital. A homeopathic remedy called Arnica, is what stopped the bleeding in my daughter's brain when she got a giant hematoma and head injury, the very first week she was diagnosed.
I've seen homeopathic Phosphorous stop a 3-hour nosebleed in 30 seconds
All of these, you can learn how to use yourself in case of an emergency. As well, you can teach your children or husband what to do in case of an accident. It is not difficult to learn.
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