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[rharvin]

Hi,

Ive been battling ITP for a year now and its overwhelming and stressful I've heard that papaya leaf might help stabilize your counts. Have anyone tried and seen a difference?

[SoporRose]

I don't know about the papaya juice, but I sympathize with your sense of being overwhelmed and stressed out. I hope you and your doctor find a way to beat this back soon.

Ruth

[Sachmo16]

Not sure about papaya leaf and have not tried it. I have been dealing with ITP for 18 months now - have tried steroids, MMF, rituximab all which have done nothing and am now currently on a trial drug called fostamatinib - currently this is not improving my platelet count but as its a trial I could be on the placebo drug but after 3 months I start on the definite drug so we shall see if that works. Currently only treatment that works temporarily is IVIG. Am to very stressed and fed up and just want to find a treatment that works. Good luck

[Nespinoza]

Hi I have had itp since 2006 and it can be very stressful and over whelming... but i have not tried papaya leaf. But I can say that ivig has been wrking for me... my last ivig was oct 2012 I was good for about two years up until this year Sept 2015 when I ended up with a count of 11,000... i was in the hospital for four days left there with a count of 369,000 then it went down to 130,000 then last month my platelets went up to 164,000... so this month in Dec I go for labs again... but like all of us we all went thru the steroids and the roller coaster ride....

[rharvin in reply to Nespinoza]

Have your doc mention removing your spleen

[rharvin]

Thank you...because im in hospital now because my platelets dropped to a one so im getting ivig treatment now and they are mentioning splenectomy i haven't heard any good reviews about it have you

[RobertSp]

I had a splenectomy in 1990 and that sent the ITP into remission for about 5 years. I have been told since that splenectomies are not so common as they seldom really help long term. But its worth a try and living without a spleen is not a problem. I always have IVIG in conjunction with a short term prednisone treatment. If I am on prednisone for less than 10 days, it is much easier to get off of it.