The Dots Are Back..

I've been away for over a year now. Sam was doing good, or should I say was on the upward trend of the ITP ubiquitous roller-coaster. She had 4 WinRho treatments in 2009 post diagnosis in July-2009 and the general weekly trend post treatment had been thus : 15(treatment)->150->350->120-70-40-20s.

Her last treatment was on DEC-12 2009 @ 15K and in JAN-MAR 2010 her numbers held steady in mid-20s. Then, she slowly started to trend up - 30s ; then 40s ; then 60s by SEP-2010 all on her own and no treatments(testing was changed to every two weeks from weekly). A bad cold in OCT had her up to 90s post recovery. NOV saw her go up to 146. DEC(exactly 1 year since her last treatment), she dropped to 97. We thought it was her getting back to her normal range/trend post the unexpected spike to 146 post the cold(146 was 5 weeks post the bad cold). 15 days later, she was at 91 on DEC-21-2010. This week she was down to 71(her tests are now monthly).

Her WBC which is usually in the 6-9 was 12.1 this week and the rest of her counts, sans our buddies the platelets, were normal. The Hemonc thinks she maybe getting a cold/fighting an allergy but she seems just fine. Today, we see petechiae on the roof of her mouth and stray ones on her neck. We plan to recheck her next week.

The only major change recently has been that we moved to a new home(DEC -2010; new construction) with allergens like fresh paint, new woolen rugs that shed like a dog, new carpets, loads of cleaners etc. We will recheck the radon levels(builder said it was normal) too. Loads of junk food and holiday sweets flowed in NOV-DEC-JAN. Not sure if anyone sees a trend/issue that may have caused it. I hate myself for getting off-track on no junk food, no excess sugar clamp-down, but, I did.Sam was tested for allergies in 2009 and sans ragweed that she is mildly allergic to, she is has none. But when she gets itchy we get antsy as it seem to be a good and constant pre-cursor to a lower platelet count. She has been very itchy lately. I'm not sure if that's just a sheer coincidence or if there's anything to it. Sam takes multi-vits and a vit-c supplement

Anyways, trying to keep my chin up. 71 and trending down isn't bad, but the last year made us remission hopefuls and now we are on the downward swing. Any suggestions/pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Aditi almost never had junk food. Then school started and I was desperate to get some food in her at lunch and so junk was in her lunch every day. 1.5 weeks into school and she had low platelets. It was also 2 weeks after her shots.

Then her counts increased to 134 and then it was Halloween, Thanksgiving. There was some junk and her counts went to 82. During Christmas we limited junk very very strictly. Her counts were 119.

I do think junk food plays a role.

@Anuja, Good to hear that you have seen junk food play a part and also have been able to control it and get the numbers back up. We are on a junk clampdown and will need to see how that impacts Sam's numbers.