Concerned about my son's drop in platelets again.

Hello. My son is one and he is newly diagnosed with ITP. He had bad bruising and a petechiae rash with a platelet count of 14,000 when we were in the ER. Within a week his count was up to 72,000. However, now two weeks later and his count is back down to 49,000. We have to take him for another blood draw in two weeks. The hematologist does not seem too concerned with the drop. I am confused as to what this means. When a count drops again does it usually keep descending? Or will it bounce back again? And is there a reason that it dropped by 23,000?

Thanks,
Kate

Hi Kate,

My 4.5 yr old has been dealing with ITP for 9 weeks now. In the beginning, the ups and downs (platelet counts) drove me crazy. Each time there is a drop, I would panic... "oh no, does this mean its chronic? Is this a bad sign?!" I've been assured, each and every time, by his hematoligists, that the ups and downs are all normal when dealing with ITP.

In our experience, every time his count starts dropping, it usually keeps on going down. But I think its different for everyone.

Kate - it's important to know that platelet counts fluctuate constantly. YOu could have two different readings an hour apart. Some of the difference is due to lab error (the analyzers are not exact) and some is due to constant production and destruction of platelets.

With ITP, counts will go up and down a lot. Sometimes they do go up by themselves; you never know what to expect.