the company nurse knows

I should say 'the facility nurse', since the company I work for has facilities all over the world (six around this area alone).
This morning I ventured away from my comfy engineering office to get my flu shot.
When the nurse was about to put the band-aid on, she says, "It seems to be bleeding, are you on blood thinner?
I just replied that the bit of bleeding was to be expected, as I have ITP.
Imagine my surprise when she said, "Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura? Don't see that very often."
I was shocked that; (1) she knew what it was and (2) she could actually pronounce it ... I can't!
Surprised me.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming ..... already in progress.....

.

It's great that it is becoming more noticable. When I was first diagnosed (35yrs ago) the hematologist had students come and "look" at me!!!

This reminds me of when I went in to my hematologist's office for the first time and the assistant who took my blood pressure saw all of the bruises on my arms immediately said "Oh, you're here because of low platelets, aren't you?"

The time after that, she was wearing an ITP awareness pin, which was pretty cool.

Jack and Openhanded,

Awesome stories! I just wish more doctors would research and educate themselves on this disorder! I personally would have been a lot better off in the beginning. However, I became my own advocate and went to Cleveland Clinic and have a great doctor now ! Know you have a great one as well jack!

I now have the itp awareness sticker on my car.... I am waiting for someone to ask about it. I also try to tell everyone I meet about it, such as coworkers. I told my pharmacist about it and he knew I what it was but I was worried about certain reactions so he did research for me. Now every time he sees me he knows my name and asks how things are going. I tried telling my students about it but they are 9 and are convinced I'm diabetic, but at least they know not to charge me in the gym. Lol

I ordered two of the ITP awareness pins, but sadly only received one. Hopefully after contacting the PDSA people, this will get cleared up and they will send me my other pin.

But she did know not to give injections intramuscularly to people with low platelets. My Occupational Nurse didn't. They should be given subcutaneously only.

Openhanded,

I'm sure they will send you another pin. They probably just made a mistake.