Al's Page
You guys probably know my story, right?
I woke up one day in October 2014 and I had ITP*. No warning, no symptoms beforehand. Just got it.
With this condition, my immune system goes rogue, tagging my platelets as invaders and destroying them. This often leaves me with a very low platelet count. Platelets are the part of the blood that handle clotting. So when my platelets are low, I can bleed or just bruise easily.
For reference, a normal platelet count is 150,000 to 450,000 per microliter of blood. I often run at 20,000 or below. My numbers are very unpredictable -- they bounce around from week to week, so I never quite know when I'm going to crash.
For the last five years, we’ve tried a variety of treatments. Some don’t work at all; some work, but only for a while. What I think happens is that my immune system adapts to any treatment I throw at it, and just attacks platelets even more aggressively.
The other thing we’ve learned as we go further down this path is that the medications used to treat ITP have risks and side-effects that can have a big impact on quality of life. Fatigue is an ongoing issue. Also increased risk of diabetes, osteoporosis and liver toxicity. Fun stuff.
The good news is that lots of people learn to live with ITP. I’m hopeful I’ll get this under control soon. In the meantime, I’m also happy to report that research is uncovering new treatments all the time.
I’m also quite confident in saying that folks with ITP would have a much more difficult road without the resources and work of the Platelet Support Disorder Association (PDSA).
I’m proud to participate in the ‘Pump it up for Platelets’ Walk each year, to help raise awareness about ITP (and raise money for PDSA so they can keep doing their great work).
Thanks for your support,
Al
* - ITP is immune thrombocytopenia.
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