Anyone Know Anything ABout Platelet Levels?

[Julia M]

Our family friend is in ICU. I am feeling a bit worried. From what I can tell, she has had mismanaged meds, and now has very low platelet levels. From what I understand from my friends, 2000,000 to 400,000 is the average range, but going down to 150,000 is still normal, as is %00,000. Her count os 5000. She's been getting platelet tranfusions and her count has gone up to 12,000, but then falls. SHe's very bruised and has a nose bleed that isn't stopping.

Can anyone share any information? We are kind of scared.

Julia

 

[twinboysmom]

There is a reason why she is not able to keep her platelets up. There are so many different things it could be, I would hate to speculate on an Internet forum. It does happen regularly, not necessarily frequently but it is not uncommon for a critically ill patient to have this problem. Once her platelets come up her nose bleed will stop and the bruising will get better. It is usually not an overnight fix and may take a few days for whatever problem that is causing this to resolve. It may take quite some time for her platelets to return to "normal levels". I hope she gets better soon.

 

[hildasmuriel]

My sister suffered with recurrent idiopathic thrombocytopenia - extremely low blood count with no known cause.. She was treated with transfusions which would increase her platelet count but only temporarily. She would have easy bleeding and bruising.

This happened over a number of years but when she suffered a bleed on her brain and was very ill in hospital, the doctors decided on more drastic treatment - they removed her spleen. She took quite some time to recover from this operation but now is fully recovered. She will need to take antiobiotics daily for the rest of her life and make sure she receives flu jabs, but otherwise she is very well.

 

[Disney Doll]

Nosebleeds and bruising are from the low platelets....they help with clotting when they are at normal levels.

If the reason for the low levels is medication related, then it may take time for the medication to be completely out of her body. While there is still a "level" of the medication in her body, her platelets will probably remain a little screwy. I am assuming they have her on IVs and such to "flush" the medication out, but some medications have a very long "half-life" so it sometimes takes time. Giving her platelets is a good idea, to get those levels up. What we usually look for is a continuous upward general trend, even if the upward trend is a bit slow. For example, her platelet level was 5000, she gets platelets transfused, it goes up to 7500 the next day but then the next day it's back down to 6000 so she gets more platelets transfused but the good news is even though it went down from 7500 to 6000, it didn't go all the way back down to the 5000 she started out with so it is still an upward trend.

I assume there is a hematologist involved in her care? If there's not, there should be because they specialize in disorders of the blood. I would want to make sure that the low platelets actually were medication-related and not the result of something else going on.

 

[bombygriz]

Huh. I've actually never heard of this, just the opposite. Due to some health problems my grandmother's platelets spiked to 1.6 million! I hope your friend gets better, well wishes coming your way!

 

[LuvN~Travel]

My sister suffered with recurrent idiopathic thrombocytopenia - extremely low blood count with no known cause.. She was treated with transfusions which would increase her platelet count but only temporarily. She would have easy bleeding and bruising.

This happened over a number of years but when she suffered a bleed on her brain and was very ill in hospital, the doctors decided on more drastic treatment - they removed her spleen. She took quite some time to recover from this operation but now is fully recovered. She will need to take antiobiotics daily for the rest of her life and make sure she receives flu jabs, but otherwise she is very well.

Ditto on my sister. She had the blood transfusions in the hospital, but it actually took the use of steroids to get and keep her platelets back up. Her body was just sucking those platelets up from the other blood and it wasn't raising her levels. Since the initial 'attack' for lack of a better phrase, I think she has only had one other attack. I do remember that her doctor would NOT let her travel out of time during the initial phase, while she was doing the steroids and transfusions for being afraid of her not being near a hospital at all times. She did not have the spleen removal though. I don't think they ever saw need for that in her case.

I hope they can really help. It is a frustrating thing to happen.

Kim

 

[luvdzny]

DH has ITP and he has problems with low platelets every 2 or 3 years. He is just finishing another episode. When he was first diagnosed the doctor used a combination of platelet infusions, HIGH doses of Predinsone and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatments. The IVIG no longer works for him, now he receives platelets as needed, depending on how low his count is, the high doses of Prednisone and chemo (vincristine) treatments. His platelet count was down to 1000 when he started treatments this time.

He had his spleen removed years ago, but not because of the ITP. Leukemia can be a cause of low platelets, so the doctor may test for that. Hope all goes well for your friend.