Weekly Bloods

[Topography52_-]

Hi all, just had my weekly bloods done down to 34 not a concern my hematologist said she may look at treatment I do not want steroids due to effect I had when I had optic neuritis just wondering what other other medication is out there and do I need to have any ???? I am in the UK.

[Kyriak51]

High dose dexamethasome for 4-5 days, followed by IVIG,(didn't work for me), next was Rituxan IV infusion once weekly for 4 weeks, ( only 50% respond rate), the forth medication was Nplate (approved in 2008) and was the magic bullet; I have have been on Nplate since 2010 and have to maintain a count of 50-80K on 650mcg weekly injections which is much better than 5-10k and provides a good quality of life. kyriak51

[Topography52_- in reply to Kyriak51]

Thank you just need to consider options might just stay as I am :))

[Avantidave1988 in reply to Kyriak51]

Does nplate cause insomnia?

[Morgan]

I dont have any meds, only if needed for an op, and my bloods swing from 15 to 60 at the moment. My hemotologist will only consider medication should I bleed. Have had ITP about 15 yrs.

[Topography52_-]

Itp is a very unknown disease I am learning something new every day : )))

[AnthonyHeard Administrator ITP Support Association]

There are many treatments available and a full list is provided at ...itpsupport.org.uk/index.php.... The difficulty is that we all respond differently with varying degrees of success to each of the treatment options. We all get different side effects too. So it is a matter of trial and error a bit because you just don't know what is going to work for each individual until you try it. As a general rule of thumb if you respond to steroids you will probably be more likely to respond to other immune suppressing drugs (but as ever with ITP it is not definite). So if you respond to steroids you will probably be more likely to respond to Mychophenolate Mofetil, Rituximab, Azathioprine for example. I responded well to Prednisolone, Rituximab and Mycophenolate Mofetil. But the side effects of the Prednisolone are too horrible to continue with for too long, Rituximab gave me 2 1/2 years of remission but I relapsed twice. Now on Mycophenolate for the last year and it works well with bearable side effects. That's just my experience and difficult to predict how other people may respond.

[Topography52_- in reply to AnthonyHeard]

I had Prednisolone when I had optic neuritis a couple of years ago never again : ((((