Uh oh

Well minor uh oh.
Hi! To everyone. Its been a while. Been busy with kids this summer and school starting back. Still looking for remission, I know its around here somewhere right?
Just finished my fourth treatment of Rituxan last Friday. Counts prior to it that morning were at 4k. Doctor said he doesnt want to consider it a failure yet but he is disappointed. Imagine how I feel if he's disappointed lol.
The uh oh is I'm back to feeling lost and not knowing where to go from here. Stinkin' fear!
Guess its back to square one with a prednisone chaser. Just lovely.

Off to read more about options and hope!
Thanks for reading my post.

On the Rituxan Rollercoaster with you, mine have gone up significantly, go for my 4th on Tuesday, but Doc said he is not confident they are going to stay there.

tgurin, your doctor is a ray of sunshine! Haha - the bottom line is he doesn't know. But if you achieve counts in the normal range on Rituxan you are more likely to have a sustained remission.
Erica

What is with these doctors for heavens sake

tg you haven't even had the full treatment yet - and it takes a while for it to kick in ]my understanding from people here as I have never had it].

jd by "last Friday" you mean this one that just passed, 14th, or the 7th?

I like what Erica said and I think you both should tell your doctors that - boy you are a ray of sunshine!

I know someone who has been in remission thanks to Rituxan - it's been so long I can't think when she had it, over 4 years for sure.

just checking back in....
The 14th was the Friday I meant.

Hello, I am a new member who was researching current findings on ITP. You see, I was first diagnosed 12 years ago during my first pregnancy. My platelets only got to right around 100,000. By my 4th, I was down to 30,000. At one point about 8 years ago I had a bone marrow biopsy which verified that my body does produce platelets that mysteriously disappeared. Well, I began my most recent research a couple months ago, I was excited to see that many of you are on steroids because that told me that ITP was very likely caused by inflammation of some sort or yeast. I found a wellness center that treated me for yeast with a month's dose of Nystatin and a week's worth of Diflucan while on a strict grain free and sugar free diet. I asked them to do blood work before and after. In one month, my platelets rose 47,000!!!!
Please try it, the first week was very difficult, but worth it in the end.

If your last treatment was a couple days ago jd I don't know why he would say what he did - again, I haven't had Rituxan but from what I've read from people here it takes time to work. I hope it works for you!!

jdarlin and tgurin, counts can go up and down during the Rituxan treatments. You can see more of a decrease than an increace at times. It can take several weeks after the last treatment before results can be seen. So be patient and do not let the Dr. tell you that it is not going to work. My first round of treatments had me in remission for 16 months. The second round of treatments will be going on 3 years in Nov. I was discouraged during the first round as I did not respond as I had hoped and responded slowly even after the last treatment. It took several weeks after the last treatment before I was within the normal range. I am hoping that last round lasts for a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time!!!!

Heather, ITP is not caused by inflamation. ITP is due to antibodies attaching to Platelets and being destroyed by the Spleen. Prednisone is generally used to treat ITP as it decreases the activity of the immune system, which Platelets are a part of. Prednisone will usually increase Platelets rather quickly, but will not sustain counts when tapering off.

Huh? People are on steroids because they already have ITP. The steroids didn't cause it.