Low Platelets and ITP

Originally Posted August 4, 2008

Well 2 days ago my 2.5 year old Kai suddenly got what looked like a rash all over his face but turned out to be ITP. We thought he must have eaten something and it was an allergic reaction…well today I was looking closely and noticed that is was not a raised rash but little tiny blood blisters all over his face and some on his body. He was playing and laughing and I saw inside his mouth looked strange…with a closer look I saw the blisters all over in his mouth as well….That’s when I called the Dr. We took him in and they looked at him he has a bunch of bruises on his body…more than usual and we mentioned that as well. They ordered blood tests for him.

Well apparently he *may* have a disorder called ITP This is what the paperwork says about it:

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

ITP Is a bleeding condition in which the blood doesn’t clot as it should. This is due to a low number of blood cells called platelets.

Normally your immune system helps your body fight off infections and diseases but if you have ITP your immune system attacks and destroys it’s own platelets for an unknown reason.

Signs are bleeding such as bruises for no apparent reasons and tiny red dots that are visible on the skin. Also nosebleeds,bleeding gums,or other bleeding that is hard to stop. Bleeding in the brain is very rare but is life threatening.

The spleen can be removed if medicine fails to treat it.

Normal platelet count is 150,000 – 450,000—————-Kais is at 41,000

There are 2 types:

Acute and Chronic

Acute is usually kids 2-6 years old and symptoms can go away on there own in less than 6 months.

Chronic is usually adults but can be kids too. It can continue to occur throughout life and requires continual follow up with a blood specialist.

So anyways….I have to call and go to Portland tomorrow to Randall Children’s Hospital to see a hemotologist and have more blood tests done and may end staying over night….I will take my laptop and pray for wi-fi! Will update more when I find out some answers.

Thanks for reading and all of your prayers!

Wow just counted 22 bruises on his little body…if CPS saw him they would take him away!

These photos were taken at Randall Children’s Hospital the next day on Aug 4th.

While he got treatment.

Update Aug 4th : Thanks everyone! It turns out he does have ITP…they injected him with Rho D Immune Globulin to make his platelets increase by temporarily stopping the spleen from killing the anitibody coated platelets…his count was 41,000 yesterday and down to 20,000 today….so hopefully this stuff works fast!

Update Aug 5th: Well had to take him in again…an hour drive away today. He had a lot of dead blood in his urine…it was almost black. But after running tests…his platelet levels jumped up to 55,000 today…and all the other tests were fine. They said it must have been a one time thing from the drug they gave him. So we are at home. He goes in monday for another poke….which he HATES. Will keep ya’ll informed.

Update Aug 6th: Wow had another scare today. Went for a trip today….and Kai didn’t pee for over 9.5 hours….so after realizing it we gave him a ton of juice…and 45 mins later he did pee. Good thing cause we thought we were going to have to take him back to hospital….all seems well now….still strange though…that is a long time.

Update: Ok got the blood results back today….Got good news. His platelet level is now @ 364,000 so he is on his way to recovery! Yay! He only has a few tiny blood blisters left. Lets just hope it doesn’t happen again.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Here is Kai two days after getting help.

Have you ever heard or had to deal with ITP?