A quick refresher or lesson for anyone not familiar with ITP. This should help explain the alphabet soup that shows up in my posts.
ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura): Breakdown of the name: they don't know what causes platelets to be low and manifest itself as purple spots. An autoimmune disorder where the white cells see platelets as foreign invaders and attacks them, resulting in a lower platelet count.
CBC (Complete Blood Count): a blood test that shows counts of all your blood cells: white, red, and platelets. It breaks down white cells into different types, measures hemoglobin, and other measures of the blood.
Decadron (Dex, Dexamethasone): a high-dosage steroid that is sometimes used to increase platelet counts. That's the upside. The downside is it makes me crazy, causes body aches, and I sometimes feel like total crap when I'm on it or coming off of it.
Hematologist: a doctor who studies blood. Usually also an oncologist, a cancer doctor, unless you go somewhere extremely specialized.
Immunosuppressants: Drugs that suppress, or decrease, your immune system. Usually not effective on me.
IVIG (Intravenous Immunoglobulin): IgG antibodies taken from human plasma when you donate blood. STOP READING AND GO DONATE. I'll wait. This crap is expensive. One dosage is about $14,000. Are you still reading? GO DONATE. The way it works is that it temporarily modifies how the immune system works so it stops attacking platelets for a little while. The expense comes from how hard it is to get the plasma and the processes to manufacture it. GO DONATE. I would, but I can't.
Nplate: the newest maintenance medication for ITP. Chemically similar to platelet growth factor, it acts the same way in the body. They cannot give the actual growth factor because the body can become immune to the growth factor it produces on its own, wreaking havoc. It is a shot given weekly and the dosage is dependent upon the patient's response.
Petechaie: small purplish dots from broken capillaries. These are very common in people with low platelet counts and even for some people who don't. If you've ever been very sick and thrown up very hard, they often occur around the eyes.
Platelets: the smallest blood cells that are in charge of clotting the blood. They start the whole chain reaction of clotting. They are not red blood cells, so eating liver or molasses isn't helpful in building them. You don't realize how important they are until you don't have them. A normal count for platelets is 150,000-450,000.
Prednisone: The nasty steroid. It is a lower strength from the dex, which means you can be on it for longer. Until August 2011, I hadn't been on it since high school, where I gained all kinds of weight. It can cause a lot of issues when you are on it long-term.
White Blood Cells (WBCs): the fighters in your blood. Normally the protect from foreign invaders, but in autoimmune diseases they see specific parts of the body as invaders. In ITP, it's platelets. In Rheumatoid Arthritis, it's your joints. In MS, it's your central nervous system. Normal WBC values in a count are between around 3 and 10.
