How low is Concerning?

I have ITP for three years now and when the first low test came i was tested for everythign under the sun and ended up with ITP. I have always hovered in the low hundreds and only been under 100 once i think. A couple of weeks ago i was at 126 but i was not feeling good earlier this week so i went to my primary doc and he tested me and they were 69 and my white cells were a little low.... i am wonderinf if i were to have a virus is this normal and how low do my counts need to be for real concern? My primary doc said it is dangerous for me to lift heavy things with a 69 count.....

From what I've learned anything over 50 is ok (can live a normal (some what) life), the lowest I've been at is 7.

You can do what you like at a count of 69 except for maybe boxing and bungee jumping. Over 30 is good enough for most although you do then have to be a little more careful. No heading the ball at football and such. Below 30 you might want to treat although many don't treat until under 20 or even 10. When I was under 10 I still went to work and lifted heavy things!

As long as you do not have bruising, petechia or bleeding, counts above 50k are pretty safe. Some Dr's may say otherwise. In my opinion I would be careful. We all have different risks with low counts. When I was at 8k, I was told to stay at home.

I disagree a bit with with Dean. Bruising and petechiae don't count as bleeding and are pretty common at fairly high counts and aren't important. Bleeding is important, nose bleeds, blood blisters in the mouth and blood in the urine etc count as bleeding and most doctors would want to treat then whatever the count.

I bleed when under 10 so I do treat then although I am now on a maintenance treatment with the aim of keeping the count between 30 and 50.

A GP would not be as familiar with ITP as a hematologist would, so would most likely err on the side of caution. People with ITP normally have larger platelets and lots of platelet fragments that work well and the body can handle lower counts better than the average person.

Yes, a virus can cause counts to drop temporarily and they may rebound on their own. Your counts are still considered safe.

Depends on each patient and doctor but with my daughter under 50 she's limited. We notice the bruising and petechia between 30-40 and treatment is under 20. She's had treatment every 6-8 weeks since she's been diagnosed just a year ago at the age of 13. My daughter is considered severe chronic ITP because she has yet to be stable since being diagnosed. Trying Promacta this month after 2 different steroids, 4 transfusions of IVIG, and WinRho hasn't worked. Hope this helps.

Everyones different, my "ideal" is 100, my low before big concern is 20, but ive been at 4 with just bruising. Got a nosebleed at 60 so just watch the symptoms and be safe.

Everyone is different. Promacta has kept me in the 40k-50k range for a couple of years now.
I've never known my count to be over 100k....98k was the highest count I have been aware of having.
'Low' to me is below 30k. I don't get overly excited anymore unless it is below 15k.
I've been at 4k or less so many times over the past 10 years that it just isn't scary any longer.
Went into the hospital one time for ITP. ONLY because my GP doc freaked at a 4k count and my wife insisted. That was in the first year of my being aware I had ITP.....10 years ago. I've had counts under 5k many times since then, my hematologist and I know what to do and what to expect, I joke with him about wearing a rubber helmet, he tells me to be careful and to call him if I need anything, then I go on with my life.

I think, along with most others here, that determining what lows and highs are good is a personal thing. My personal low was under 3k, and I was hospitalized. However, this was when I was first diagnosed. My platelets were extremely low, my hemoglobin was 3.8, and it took several days of tests to figure out ITP was what I had.

When I was super low, I wasn't spontaneously bleeding. However, I was covered in bruises, would bleed for an extremely abnormally long time when I cut myself, and I had petechiae on my legs. As I've been told time and time again, while I didn't really have much of a problem living my day to day life, I was very lucky that I didn't get seriously injured during this time.

During treatment, I typically hovered between 15k and 80k. Once I had Rituxin, I jumped up to the 300k range. Eight months later (five of which without any medication), I am still in the 300k range.

So, I think it depends on your body. I've read stories of people who have counts of 10k and no symptoms. Alternatively, I've read stories of people who have bleeding issues with their counts drop below 30k.

I was diagnosed with itp in July. Count was 57000. I dropped to 26000 had ivig and dropped to 7000 had more ivig went to 55000 but dropped to 15000 in a week. Had another ivig and went to 62000 but dropped to 25000 in a week. Had one rituxan treatment 5 days ago I don't know what my count is but it is low cause I have 2 blood blisters in my mouth and some pittechia I am scared and want my life back. Nice to know I am not the only one out here

Mlubas wrote: I was diagnosed with itp in July. Count was 57000. I dropped to 26000 had ivig and dropped to 7000 had more ivig went to 55000 but dropped to 15000 in a week. Had another ivig and went to 62000 but dropped to 25000 in a week. Had one rituxan treatment 5 days ago I don't know what my count is but it is low cause I have 2 blood blisters in my mouth and some pittechia I am scared and want my life back. Nice to know I am not the only one out here

I assume you are having 4 treatments? My counts were checked before each treatment. Might want to have counts checked.