update-Its been 3 yrs, not seeing hematologist

Dear all

past- my spouse diagnosed with ITP 4 yrs ago in routine blood test we were in Canada. Went to hematologist , did bone marrow aspirate and diagnosed with ITP. after that every six months hematologist took plt count it was around 95K. Never treated or taken any medication for itp. and never had any symptom.

We moved to USA in 2011 and after that only doing annual routine cbc tests no other immunoglobulins test or any test related to ITP. last three yrs we moved to three different places and his results were normal except platelets 2012 test plt count was 101, 2013-98k 2014 june plt count-103K. None of our three primary care doctors warned us or asked us to see hematologist for mildly low plt count.

Question is shall we ask our primary care doc to refer us to hematologist or just go on with this annual cbc test. Is just yearly cbc test with primary care doc is enough or seeing hematologist is imp once ITP is already diagnosed. Kindly advice. Its been 3 yrs now he has not seen by hematologist.

Many thanks
May God bless you all!

Just giving my history with ITP as didn't get referred to hematologist until counts were down below 30 and had some bruising on my legs.

After treatments, my counts stablized to between 110-122 which are still considered in the low range but after 18 months being in that stable area, hematologist just released me back to primary care for checks twice a year. So my counts are low but according to hematologist are my normal.

I know the basic things to avoid as far as medications and unless have visible signs (bruising/bleeding), primary care is it. Per hematologist, no reason for him at this point unless being treated and no reason for treatment as above 75 and that is considered my normal range.

Just my experience and at this point after having gone through two treatments, unless I see some visible symptoms that counts are dropping, I feel that primary care is capable of monitoring it.

Thanks Lori for the information!

I agree. His counts are still pretty good. I wouldn't worry about it unless there are symptoms. He seems to be pretty stable.

Thanks Sandi for the reply!

I agree with the above because it's what I did in the beginning. However, I found that having a hematologist quickly became useful when I found myself in a surgeon's office being told I needed to schedule a procedure for my neck. Then I had to get myself to a hematologist, be worked up, and so forth. This may be a reason to at least find out where a suitable hematologist in your area and in your insurance plan is, just in case.