ITP Personal Stories

Herbs and More

I was diagnosed with ITP in December 2004. I was a 29-year-old nutritionist and mother of 3 at the time. I was always a very healthy person; however, I recently encountered a lot of stress in my life and it began taking its toll on my body. I was sleeping only a few hours every night and during the day, I was always shaky due to the incredible stress I was under.

All of a sudden, I became ill. I immediately began high doses of C, zinc, astragalus, etc. I also saw my doctor, and he talked me into taking zithromax. After taking the first dose of zithromax, I began feeling weak. The second day, I woke up with bruises all over my legs. I had been to a skating party with my kids the night before, but did not fall at all. I was confused about the bruising, but ignored it. Then the next morning I woke up with a bloody nose and blood spots on my tongue.

It was then that I went to the ER, only to find that I had 5,000 platelets. I was terrified because the ER doc immediately talked about a platelet transfusion. He said to me, "You don't want to bleed in your brain, do you?" I ended up getting away with not having a platelet transfusion, but they started me on 60 mg of prednisone instead. I am only 100 lbs, so 60 mg of prednisone was horrible. I stayed up all night shaking and sweating. Then I would have these horrible lows when the prednsione would wear off, feeling like I was too tired to even walk! After 24 hrs, my platelets had increased to 12,000, then the next day to 24,000.

The doctor spoke to me about a splenectomy and he wanted me to have all of my vaccinations before I left the hospital to prepare for the surgery. I did not want the vaccinations, so I refused. I left the hospital and he tried to wean me off prednsione slowly. When I would get below 20 mg, my platelets would drop. I was also dealing with horrible side effects. I cried all of the time and also had panic attacks. I was shaky and never slept. Then I would hyperventilate when he would try to cut the dose in half. The prednisone was worse than the disease!

This is when I began the Blood Well and Restore Immune 2. I was determined to keep my spleen and get off the prednisone. After 2 days of the herbs, my platelets rose to 50,000. My prednisone dose was then 5 mg. After another week, my platelets rose to 125,000. I slowly weaned off prednisone and had to stay with 2.5 mg for a few days because I was so sensitive to the withdrawal effects.

I also took curcuminoids (turmeric), high doses of C (although Get Well Int tells you it's best not to take super high doses of C with the herbs...but it worked for me), bioflavanoids, grape seed extract, also my vitamin/minerals. I also made sure I was getting at least 200 mcg of selenium daily, which is important in dealing with autoimmune conditions. When I wanted my platelets to rise above 125,000, I began taking another balancing chinese herbal formula from an acupuncturist who lives in New Mexico (he is willing to do phone consults and mail the herbs to you). My platelets went up to 275,000 within days of beginning his herbs(on top of the Get Well Inc. herbs).

One last thing I did was began having reiki treatments once a week, which did great for reducing my stress and helping me to sleep. I've known many females come down with ITP just due to stress!

My platelets are now at 275,000 (9 months later) and I am off the herbs. I occasionally take a few of the herbs just in case! But so far, my platelets have not dipped below 260,000! I feel like these herbs have saved my life! I am so thankful that I am not one of those people who listen to their doctor's every word! If I was, I would not have a spleen today! My hematologist finally admits that he is 90% sure that it was the herbs that made me better! That was great to hear! He calls me his miracle patient!

I welcome anyone with any questions to contact me.  I would love to help anyone else struggling with this illness! - - Shanais (svpelka@comcast.net)