after a child splenectomy

[blue2901]

my 10 year old son had a splenectomy on tuesday cause of chronic I.T.P his counts were 0 , he had 8 bottles of ivig on sunday and monday before his op which brought them up to 165,000, he was 5 and a half hours getting his op , he came round with a high temp his face purple , heart racing up ,his count on wed was 465,000 he was discharged from hospital today , we have had 2 phone calls from them stating his blood test was showing signs of infection and his platelet count is 1172,000, they say it is to high , what can be done to bring them down and what are the safe levels he should be at. thanks

[owenm]

I think you would be best speaking directly with your son's consultant, or an available specialist.

If indeed he is showing signs of infection it may perhaps be best for him to be back in the hospital where they can monitor and care for him.

[blue2901 in reply to owenm]

thanks we have to go back in today , they should never have let us out they said if his temp wasnt rising they would send us home, but i think they forgot that they took blood in the morning and the results came back when we left and they started panicking.

[scaryteacher]

i hope he's all right, and that you aren't tearing your hair out too much. It's really worrying when it's your child. I am the one with ITP, but my son has a hole in the heart, and I know how frantic I got when he was ill and had to be admitted to hospital.

Thinking of you - let us know how you and he are doing.

[salmagal]

Oh that's not really good enough I hope you and your son are going to be ok are you in Scotland which hospital are you did your son have a bone marrow test

[blue2901]

yes Scotland , yorkhill in glasgow for his bone marrow test and for his spleen out but we are going to crosshouse hospital in kilmarnock which is 20 mins away .

[blue2901]

his platelet count is 1540 , they sent him home and to take asprin and come back on friday for another count.

[scaryteacher]

Are you sure they said aspirin and not paracetamol?

I've had ITP a long time and have been told that I should NEVER take aspirin or antiinflammatories like ibuprofen, but paracetamol only.

I'd play safe with child paracetamol if it were me, and double check that they meant aspirin - ask them to put it in writing - so that you can show it to a specialist later, as there are bleeding risks for those with ITP when they take aspirin

see here:

nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/enc...

aboutkidshealth.ca/En/Healt...

itpsupport.org.uk/childhood...

[blue2901]

yes he has to take it ,i have asked all the questions cause i no hes not allowed asprin or ibuprofen they say it is for a short time to stop his blood clotting as his platelets are rising dangerous they were 1172,000 on friday and jumped up to 1540,000 on the Saturday we are back on friday for another count .

[scaryteacher in reply to blue2901]

I thought they'd dropped as you said 1540 - I thought you meant they were 1.5!!

Fingers still crossed for you.

[blue2901]

his count today is 1600,000 not good, hospital trying to find out what to do next.

[Elaineod]

They will probably up his rise of aisprin high counts are common after splenectomy plus the extra ivigs are still working so its a waiting game for them to drop but at a normal level to stay at! Good luck to ur son