Help with Advice and Options

I'm after some advice please.

My 11 year old son was diagnosed with ITP about 9-10 months ago. His diagnosis was based on our discussion (the doctors, my husbands, mine and the bruises on his body) and his previous medical history. Since diagnosis he has had weekly blood tests with the majority of results varying between 12 (12,000) and 31, with an average of 25. However, he has also had two results below 10.

He has had one treatment of steroids ( a triple dose over a week), at the end of which his platelets rose to 60, however the test the following week his result was 8. Since then the doctors at the hospital seem to be focused on giving him a splenectomy, something which we are not comfortable with him having, as we were initially told this would only be done as a last resort. Despite our arguements they have pushed for him to have additional immunisations earlier this week, and we have since had his second result below 10.

We do not feel that his case has been fully investigated and would like some advice regarding options that we can discuss with the specialists in New Zealand so we are more comfortable with the decisions we are feeling a little railroaded into.

Thanks in advance for and help, information and advice.

I would encourage you to avoid any and all immunizations right now. There's been quite a bit of discussion on this board regarding them. You should be able to do a search and find a number of threads that discuss the pros and cons. Your boy is close to the same age mine was when he was diagnosed. Have you considered more natural means of treating him? My son did not respond to any mainline treatments initially and we pulled anything medical after the first few when we saw what it was doing to his body. If you're interesting in natural methods at all you can find several in the natural treatments section. There is likely at least a few good homeopaths in NZ if you're interested in going that route.

Does your son have bleeding problems? I am asking because my 13 year old has also had a count between 5 and 30 (generally below 20, but he dips under 10 for at least a couple of days each month) since last Christmas and no-one is pushing any treatment at all for him. He seems to cope fine with a low count most of the time, although he is quite frustrated at the no contact sports rule. Doing nothing in the way of treatment is a viable option for some kids.

I am pretty sure I've seen statistics which show something like 30% of the kids who still have ITP after six months recover in the next six months. So doing anything irreversible within the first year seems a bit premature maybe? But if you do want/need to treat, there are many other options other than steroids or splenectomy - maybe its time to get a second opinion or maybe print off the conventional and alternative treatments pages on this site and discuss them with his current doctor.

Good luck, Ali

Kiwi:

I'm not sure what is available in NZ, but you probably have a few options available to you.

Here is the treatments page with a list:

www.pdsa.org/treatments/conventional.html

I also think it's a bit premature also to go the splenectomy route, especially without trying anything other than Prednisone.