Just Diagnosed....

Hi Guys!
My name is Madison and I am 15 years old. I was officially diagnosed with ITP on September 1.
I was supposed to be going on a semester abroad this fall term to a school in the Bahamas. Now that I have ITP i can't and I'm crushed. I worked so hard to get in and worked all summer to get ahead in my classes. I am now going back to my school where only about 2 of my friends know what is going on. I have orientation tomorrow and I know im going to be bombarded with questions such as, "I thought you were doing a semester abroad?!", "What happened?", or "Why do you have bruises on your arms?". I have bruises from the blood tests. I don't want to be treated differently and I don't know what to tell people. I guess I am looking for some advice. Right now I don't have very bad ITP. I just get tired a lot... my counts fell from 75,000 to 42,000 within 72 hours. They found out that I had ITP because I got blood drawn at the allergist because I had an allergic reaction at camp. They then found that I had low levels and called and sent me to the nearest ER. It's weird because I feel fine besides the tiredness. I'm scared and new to this whole thing.

Hi Madison,
life must feel so unfair at the moment for you, but you must go on, life still moves forward. I take it your Dr, told you not to go to the Bahamas for health reasons, if that is correct, then I would tell my friends.

If that is the truth then you can not change it or deny it, its just the way things are. Also you would appreciate their understanding and suport. The best way for them to do that is just treat you the same.(but add "no hitting me on the head"), as that could cause serious problems for you. With a count of 42, I would imagine your Dr said something like that to you?

Tiredness is a real problem for me, the lowest my count has been is 46, you learn to adjust the best you can. I am 66 yrs old so some of my tiredness could be old age,but it can be a real problem for some people.

Read as much as you can on this site, you will find answers to most of your questions.
Hope I have been of some help to you.

Benny.

ITP is really really overwhelming at first. I had a similar experience where I was scheduled for a trip to Australia when I was first diagnosed, then had to cancel when my counts plummeted to 8. Eventually I was able to open up to my friends and let them know what was going on, but it did take me a while. I'm so glad that I did. I have really relied on them as a support system through my ITP experience and as hard as that initial conversation is I'm glad I had it. This site offers some borchures for friends and family for understanding ITP and I used that one time with a friend who wanted more details.