Coincidence/Strange ITP recovery....

This site has been of so much help to me and my family. When my four year old son was first diagnosed with ITP back in early April, I felt as if I was all alone with this problem and soon learned there was quite a support group through this site. I learned so much from reading others stories, some I found so similar to our situation.

My son's symptoms came on Suddenly on Easter Sunday. He was perfectly fine and by the end of the day bruised all over. We were admitted to our children's hospital where he was given two rounds of IVIG. This treatment was not successful in lifting his count. When we were admitted we were at 5,000 and when we left we were less than 5,000. Over the next two months my son's counts always remained less than 5. He had tons of bruises, petichiae and clotting on his tongue and gums. After the failed IVIG we tried oral steroids, this also failed. So we took a wait and see approach. We planned to discuss at the end of this month more aggressive therapy.

One evening two weeks ago at 9 weeks, things began to change for him. We had just moved into a new home. We had just finished a play area for our children in our basement. Their playroom is its own room. My husband had set his treadmill up in the back of our basement in another room. We were making dinner and I had just come up from their playroom to check something in the oven and a few minutes later, my son came running up the stairs. He was hysterical and screaming. He kept screaming he fell on daddy's machine. At first we had no idea what he was talking about. But within a few minutes of looking at him, I could tell he must have gotten on our treadmill machine, turned it on and fell. He looked horrendous. I could hardly breathe. We immediately called our hematologist and they advised us to watch him and as long as the bleeding stopped we'd be okay. He clotted very well but the following morning he looked so awful, we took him to the emergency department. We were worried a finger may be broken and his side, forearm, chest, shoulder and face were all badly injured. We were very scared. The emergency department tested him, he was at 4, no surprise given the fact he had massive petechiae all over his body and had it prior to the injury. I actually put off a blood test two days prior because I knew he was less than 5 given the extent of bruising and petechiae. But now the petechiae was much worse from the contact with the belt of the treadmill. They contemplated a platelet transfusion but decided against it. They were hopeful he'd be able to recover on his own.

What we noticed first, was that after the injury within about two days, he wasn't bruising in the injured areas. It literally looked like someone tore his skin off but there were no bruises. We thought this was odd but then we thought maybe there just wasn't a lot of pressure on the area when the injury happened. Within about four days his face started healing very very quickly, along with his shoulder and chest. The abrasions were almost evaporating at times. Bruises that he had prior to the injury, including a couple of hematomas on his abdomen and arm, suddenly began to disappear. My sons grandparents came over and looked perplexed at him. They just kept saying, something is changing. When my mom came into the ER to see him she said if this isn't enough to shake his body up and turn this around, then I don't know what is... I didn't give any thought to her comment.

Within a week, we were still bandaging his forearm and side but the other areas had healed well. He was wanting to get back into life, so we had him take it easy. His cousins who he gets to see once or twice a year were coming into town. And we decided we'd just let him play and then after they were gone, it'd be time for him to spend several days on the couch until he'd look a little better. After they left, not a mark on his body. So I phoned our hematologist and asked for a blood test. We went and two weeks three days post injury he was at 80,000 platelets. We couldn't believe it and I don't think the hematologist can either. Our pediatrician feels that when he was injured, something happened in his body to turn it around. And I guess I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else? Is it just a coincidence and he happened to begin to turn it around at the same time or did this trauma turn it around? At the end of the day, I don't care what did it and all that matters is that he is climbing and can return to being a very active four year old boy.

We remain so hopeful that he continues to climb. He looks great and tonight for the first time in 10 weeks I'm able to not worry about him hitting his head. We had lined his bed with pillows and even put a rail guard back up so he couldn't fall out of bed. We thought we had thought of everything but never thought he'd wander into the back of our basement and try to walk on the treadmill. Needless to say the treadmill is now security locked, so nothing like that could ever happen again. If we couldn't lock it up, it was going to sit out on our curb to find a new home!

I'd be really curious if anyone has ever heard of something like this happening to someone with ITP and then it went away. We remain so hopeful he continues to climb and that this finally ends for him.

Glad to hear of his remarkable turn around and healing from his accident!!! ITP is a horrible thing for kids to have to go through. It is difficult for them to understand, as is any health issue. My daughter was diagnosed with T1 diabetes at age 12. It was a tough year or so to adjust to this.
Possibly an acute case of ITP and he kicked it already. Hope so. Maybe the accident caused his system to go into overdrive to heal the injuries and ITP is a thing of the past.
Glad to hear he is doing better!!!

That's fantastic! I have not heard of this before, but perhaps it's a bit like when some people get a fever it causes their counts to go up. (of course, for others, this may cause a downward trend.)

I was also wondering, had you given him anything topically or orally because of the fall? Specifically thinking to the homeopathic remedy, Arnica, or a formula that contains Arnica and other homeopathic remedies known to help bleeding, pain, shock and trauma--it's called Traumeel? Those are both known to help quickly stop the bleeding and pain and swelling that may occur, and could definitely account for the quick recovery. Arnica is now standard protocol for most plastic surgeon's patients, post-op, as Arnica quickly deals with bleeding, shock, & pain & makes quick work of any bruising.

Whatever the case, Congratulations
April

Hi,

We had not given him anything. The only thing we did was place bacitracin all over the wounds and then we'd have to place a vaseline gauze on top and then we'd wrap the area in gauze. So bacitracin was it. We then ended up switching to neosporin and I also started using a vitamin E capsule and placing that on the raw skin he had. I was so worried he would have some serious scarring. We've lucked out so far, he still has a very tiny scab on his side and his forearm still is a tiny bit red. The forearm I'm more concerned with the scarring as you can see it. I did place vitamin E on his face right away. His face is 100% now, you cannot see where the abrasions were. My pediatrician said verdict is sort of out on whether vitamin E really helps with scarring or not, you can find articles that are for and against it. But I didn't care, I decided to try it.

We are so hopeful this is a thing of the past for us now. I guess time will tell! We'll see our hematologist now at the end of July.

Thanks for sharing your story, it is very interesting! One other thing occurred to me, you said you had just moved into a new home. Could it be possible there was something environmental in the old home and with that gone he was able to recover? Then the injury could be a coincidence.

The idea of the injury triggering healing is also very thought provoking.
Erica

I have not heard of anything like this, but - I think the body is an amazing, complex thing that can and does sometimes deal with traumas on its own. It wouldn't surprise me if his body compensated for the lack of platelets by going into overdrive on production.

I believe that in certain people who have clotting risks, the body lowers platelets purposely to try to avoid clotting. There have been studies done about it. Why couldn't the opposite be true?

Hi Erica,

We did think about the new environment. Our son actually came down with ITP and then we moved two weeks later. I had already read on this site that some people feel it can be something in the environment/allergy. The only thing is that we moved during week 2 of his condition. We were actually hopeful maybe the new home would turn it around but by six, seven, eight weeks we were still between 1 and 5. I kind of thought by then if it was something at our old home, which was three blocks from our new home, it would have turned around a little earlier.

But, who knows. We still feel it had something to do with the fall. As if his body needed to self correct itself in order to be ok or go into some type of overdrive. Hoping we continue to move on up!

I would imagine that there was an increase in cytokines with the damaged tissues which will have caused the platelets to increase. It also happens normally with bacterial infections and ITP patients find their count then goes up. You just have to hope that it now stays high and doesn't come back down when the inflammation is gone.

I actually had ITP as an infant. My mom said she put me in bed one night and I was fine. The next morning she came in and I was bruised all over, including in my ears. She took me to the hospital and they admitted me. I was there for 3-4 days I think she said and there really wasn't much they did for me. My mom had to hold me or I was in a padded bed. After the several days I was back to they way I had been before this onset. I have not had a problem until the end of last year (about 30 years later) where I started bruising again and was diagnosed with ITP in January. Children are known to sometimes outgrown ITP. What is baffling is those like myself that get it again later in life, especially as long of a period as about 30 years.

Geneva:

That's wonderful! Here's hoping you son has conquered this disorder!

I get saddened when I hear about children with ITP - when ever I start feeling sorry for myself, I need to realize I'm lucky in the fact that I had the luxury of having a normal childhood, not getting this disorder until my early 30's. (59 now)

Trauma as treatment?

If someday in the future, I walk into an emergency room with a platelet count of zero, and they start beating the he** out of me with a baseball bat, I'll know it was you and your son who pioneered a new treatment!

Best of luck!

It was really interesting to read everyone's thoughts on our son's story. Appreciate all the feedback. I definitely believe it shocked his body or the injury triggered something to turn it around. But he's completely recovered from his awful fall and he's been recovered for a good six weeks now. You can still see some discoloration on his skin on certain areas but we've been told it could easily take up to a year for it to fade.

We went for our follow-up today to the hematology clinic and we received great news! He's up to 271,000 platelets. A normal level for a four year old child. We go back again in six months. I know we'll be holding our breath the first time he gets another illness that is more intense than a cold. We were warned today that it's not likely but definitely possible his immune system could start in again with a significant illness. So we remain hopeful we are over this but at that same time we are just treasuring the days we have with a normal platelet count.

Great news! Keep us posted.