Does this happen with anyone else?

Hi everyone,

I found out I had ITP two years ago and have had my count drop once a year. For the past couple months I have been bruising easier then usual and getting a couple petechia on my arm, which have been disappearing hours later..I don't know if I'm over thinking or if I should go and check my count..when my counts drop I usually drop between 0-5 and I usually am admitted in the hospital.

I guess my question is does anyone else bruise and get petechia out of the blue and their count be fine?

P.s. I did have a bone marrow biopsy last year and everything came back fine. Also, my counts usually drop in the warmer season from May-late August/early September.

Cassm93 wrote: Hi everyone,

I found out I had ITP two years ago and have had my count drop once a year. For the past couple months I have been bruising easier then usual and getting a couple petechia on my arm, which have been disappearing hours later..I don't know if I'm over thinking or if I should go and check my count..when my counts drop I usually drop between 0-5 and I usually am admitted in the hospital.

I guess my question is does anyone else bruise and get petechia out of the blue and their count be fine?

P.s. I did have a bone marrow biopsy last year and everything came back fine. Also, my counts usually drop in the warmer season from May-late August/early September.

My platelets usually dropped in Apr - Jun, it may be no reason or due to the stoppage of medicine.

When I see petechiae on my arms and legs, that means my platelet count dropped to less than 10 and I must return to hospital with the treatment of ivig.

Everyone is different, you may be fine or not. A blood test would be an solution of your question.

Okay yeah that's what I thought. I will call my doctor in the morning to see if they can check my count. I remembered why I have this big bruise on my leg...I slid on my nephew's coloring book and fell on the floor but I know I don't bruise that easily especially since I fell on carpet.

Thank you for your reply

Yes, people can have bruises and petechiae with higher counts. If you have a reason for the bruise and it wasn't spontaneous, then I wouldn't worry so much. People without ITP bruise too. A few petechiae are usually nothing to worry about, especially if they fade quickly. If it keeps getting worse, that is usually a sign of a drop.

However, it never hurts to get a count done if you are worried.

I like this quote:

"Instead of wasting your time worrying about symptoms, just get it checked out."
-Nieca Goldberg, MD

Good luck!

I made an appointment to have my counts checked as I have some similar symptoms as the last time it happened. Does anyone know why counts drop for no reason? I personally have noticed it happens to me when I get sick or feel weak.

Counts drop all the time due to illnesses. It can happen to people without ITP too, they just don't know it. My Hemo had a viral infection once and his counts dropped to the 70's, but went up when he got better. Some people do rebound on their own without treatment, so waiting it out if symptoms are not too bad is an option.

A very simplistic way of looking at it is... With ITP the immune system is making antibodies against the platelets and killing them off. So when you get sick, the immune system starts making antibodies against the bacteria or virus that is making you sick. Sometimes it gets confused and starts making even more antibodies against the platelets at the same time so the count goes down. Other times, the immune system seems to take so much effort into making antibodies against the illness that it 'forgets' about the platelets and the count goes up.

Other times the count goes up and down for no obvious reason but that's the mystery of ITP.