What a year

Hi all, I just wanted to check in and give an update on my story. This has been a whirlwind year to say the least! Brief summary...I got my ITP diagnosis in February and then came the crazy prednisone ride for the next six months with my counts up and down. I had a subarachnoid hemorrhage in June (see the spontaneous brain bleed thread), and finally a splenectomy in July. My spleen was enlarged and I had an accessory spleen, so they had to do an open surgery instead of laparoscopy. So what I was expecting to be a two week recovery turned into two months. I was not prepared for how hard that would be, the recovery was tough. I was also tapering off of the prednisone at the same time (Still feeling like it is not completely out of my system and wondering when that feeling will go away?)

The happy ending is that the surgery was successful. I will go back in 3 months for my six month cbc. Fingers crossed that all is well. My dr. says I am in remission and has every reason to believe that it will last a very long time, or may never come back at all. But he also says there are no guarantees of course. I am cautiously optimistic and am looking forward to an amazing 2011. As I know you all can relate, life can change when you least expect it. I feel so lucky with my outcome and grateful to have had this site as a resource this year. I wish the best to everyone here who is going through their own personal challenges. Stay strong!

wow, I also was diagnosed in February. Thankfully I haven't had all those problems! I'm going to stand in agreement with you for a much better 2011!

Hi jtx,
It took me about 4 months to be free of the effects of 2 years on prednisone. I mean after stopping prednisone, in 4 months I was free of the muscle pain and weakness. During that time I didn't know for sure that what I was experiencing was related to prednisone so it was scary.

Good luck - I take it as a good omen that your spleen was enlarged and you had an extra one - good riddance!
Erica

eklein, I agree about the spleen, good riddance. Interesting to note that when I was first diagnosed in Feb. they did an ultrasound and my spleen was not enlarged at that time, but it grew fast in six months. It was twice the size of normal.

Hair loss and joint pain have been my biggest problems that haven't gone away since I've stopped prednisone. But I also still get some swelling in my face. The joint pain seems to come and go, hopefully it will go for good. My dermatologist says the hair loss is due to my surgery and that it can take six months for it to start growing back again. But I pretty much like to blame everything on prednisone, just because.