Platelets drastically decreasing and increasing within a week

Hello! It has been a long time since I posted because I haven't had to worry about my ITP in 5 years. After 2 Rituxan treatments, my platelets have stayed in the 80k-180k range. The last two years they have consistently been over 150k.

The reason for my post now is a freak drop and increase. I had a massage last week that was pretty rough and ended up with bruising all down the side of my back. I wouldn't have thought twice about it except that I happened to have an appointment with my PCP the following day for an unrelated matter. She decided to order another CBC with platelets just in case. My platelets were 179k on 4/4/17 and on 5/24/17 they had dropped to 98k. Still a perfectly fine number, but a decrease of 80k in 6 weeks. I went back yesterday, a week later, and my platelets are back up to 169k. She's not a hema and her answer to why this happened was an honest, I have no idea

I've been googling but cannot find anything on this. I still have quite a few bruises that I cannot account for and the ones I can would not normally have left a bruise. Has anyone has this happen? Does anyone know why it would happen? Should I just be grateful and go back to my blood tests every 6-8 months as normal?

Thank you in advance for your insight!

Meghan

Meghan - there probably isn't a rational explanation for the drop and rise. Sometimes that can happen after an illness, antibiotic or vaccine. If you haven't had any of those lately, I'd chalk it up to a fluke and not worry about it. I'd bet if most people had counts more often, they would see a lot of weird fluctuations like that. You just happened to catch yours.

I actually had a pretty wicked cold this last weekend, which makes me wonder if they shot up because my immune system was busy fighting the cold instead of my platelets. If the bruising keeps up, I'll get another test. I didn't bruise this much when my platelets were at 60k!

Thank you for the response

I'm going to ask one more question When he drew my blood, he literally jabbed the needle in me. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all, but I wonder if the sudden poke could cause my platelets to rush in to defend the wound giving a false reading? I hate not being able to understand things. I went back over my blood tests for the last 6 years and never had a decrease and increase like this. Even when I they tried tapering me off pred. They would fall quickly, but not this drastically. Nor would they increase this rapidly when I went back on pred. It's been blissful not worrying about my platelets and now that it's back in my head, I'm annoyingly obsessing! I do not want to go back on pred. I gained so much weight and it decreased my heart function, since I'm lucky enough to also have dilated cardiomyopathy

If you had a cold, that could easily explain it. Many people here have had fluctuations like that when they were sick. As for the needle poke, I kind of doubt that. Try not to worry, your counts never went down to treatment level and are back where they should be now.

Thank you, Sandi. I know I'm being silly and obsessing. I'm usually incredibly rational and can force myself to stop worrying, but at times it gets away from me

I understand.