The journey begins...

     My ITP journey started at volleyball tryouts in August 1997.  After a day of practice, my forearms turned purple and red from hitting the ball.  My parents didn't know what was going on, so they made an appointment with my pediatrician's office.  I was with my mom, and my dad had my brothers at his school for a teacher workday and cross country practice.  Once at the clinic, the doctor ordered a blood count...I'm not sure what my counts were, but I'm fairly certain they were in the single digits.  I remember it was the doctor's second day on the job.  She made a preliminary diagnosis of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura and shuttled us off to the hematologist who just happened to be spending his day at our local hospital instead of Carolinas Medical Center.
     My dad and brothers joined us for the afternoon appointment with Dr. P.  Dr. P wanted us to check in at CMC that evening and begin a course of IVIG.  My dad reminded my mom and I to eat a good dinner on our way, because who knows what they would feed me at the hospital.  We ate Chinese buffet and headed on to the hospital.  Oh, did I mention that my first day of high school was supposed to be the following day?  Totally missed the first 2 days.
     I remember very little about that initial hospital visit, except for a few things.  When we first got there and were waiting to check in, we began talking to an older woman.  I'm sure we told her why we were there and we didn't know what was really going on and we were scared.  I remember her putting her arms around me, praying for me, and saying she knew God was going to take care of me and had big plans for me.  I remember finally getting on the floor and in a room, and a medical student taking my ENTIRE medical history, from conception forward. Oddly enough, I had such a fear of getting stuck before being diagnosed with ITP, but I can't remember anything about the first IV being put in.
     I was there for 2 days, getting IVIG each night.  The bag looked like a cow udder.  Now I understand that they diluted the IVIG with saline. The staff there was wonderful.  Everyone acted like this dose of medicine would make me fine, I could go home and start living my life again.

I've never been good at doing what I was told...