You know I seem to be a little bit of a peculiar case. I don’t tend to get those blotchy rashes like most when my levels get low and yes I do bruise on occasion but I suppose no where near as bad as some of my fellow ITP sufferers. This in a way is a little scary for me because it’s harder to know when I’ve had a drop in my platelet count.
The other day life was going on as normal for months my levels had stayed in what I like to call a generally comfortable zone 30,000 – 35,000 without medication. I was actually feeling like I was back to normal. I suppose I did push myself a little hard, was working on many projects at once, didn’t give myself enough rest and it didn’t help that my husband had caught a chest infection which gave me a small virus (which if you have ITP you know can have an effect on your platelet count). But although I knew I had a little bit of a cold it’s like it did not register to me, because I actually felt in good health. Then a really odd thing happened, before work I grabbed a cotton tip bud and decided to give my ears a little clean, I never push too hard I just do a slight swab however for some reason on this day it kind of hurt – noting overly bad just a slight tingle. I honestly didn’t think anything of it and just went on with my day (this happened at approx. 7:15am). It wasn’t until around 9ish that I realised my ear was bleeding, then at 10:00am still bleeding so I decided to go see a local GP (I thought I was clever and didn’t want to panic so local GP sounded like a good plan). He looked at me and said it’s a small trauma and even though I told him I had ITP he said I should be fine, if it gets worse just head to the hospital. So I went back to work and assumed I had done everything by the book however it hit approx. 3pm and my ear was still bleeding (not like blood was gushing out but I could feel it dripping inside my ear) so I thought ok maybe I should call my specialist. Within minutes of calling her office she had called me back with a game plan. She faxed me a referral and told me to go straight to the pharmacist, take my medication then come see her first thing in the morning.
The drug that helped stop the bleeding is called Cyklokapron Tranexamic Acid within hours the bleeding had stopped. So what is this drug and what does it do? Well Cyklokapron has Tranexamic acid which is an antifibrinolytic that helps by slowing the processes that cause bleeding. From what I can gather there are not to many “most common” side effects from this drug only really nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea (which I didn’t experience).
My experience with this drug has been good, it helped stop my bleeding and no side effects however always consult your doctor before taking anything.