Ah the “C” word – the word that instantly strikes fear into any human being and I am not talking about the naughty C word (c*nt) although cancer is a fucking c*nt.
Ok so if you were anything like I was then when you first lean about ITP (Immune Thrombocytopenia) you would have immediately been investigating your condition. Personally, I felt like Alison going down the rabbit hole to wonderland. A completely new world opened up and I could not tell what was real or false.
ITP is very confusing – they say the condition is difficult to pronounce and even more difficult to live with (true) however what makes it so difficult is not just the symptoms but trying to understand the condition itself.
So what exactly does ITP stand for? ITP stands for Immune Thrombocytopenia - Immune meaning it stems from the immune system and Thrombocytopenia which stands for low levels of thrombocytes also known as platelets (low platelets).
I believe a lot of the confusion with ITP is due to its symptoms. ITP has very similar symptoms to Leukemia. One of the symptoms of Leukemia is Thrombocytopenia, which as explained above stands for low levels of platelets.
There is however, an ever so slight difference between Leukemia and ITP from what I can gather. Leukemia obviously being the most aggressive out of the two. For example, Leukemia is cancer in the blood cells that starts in the bone marrow. Nevertheless, unlike ITP Leukemia attacks the blood cells and the platelets. Whereas ITP is when the immune system is purely attacking the platelets.
Although I did happen to find a case which shook me to my bones. Leukemia masquerading as ITP in a female patient.
The report ends stating that there is yet literature to show that acute leukemia can evolve through ITP and in this woman’s case that there was no evidence of blast accumulation in the marrow/spillage into circulation until after 11 months post diagnosis of ITP.
I have so many questions here in relation to this case. Did her pregnancy activate her leukemia? How was this not noticed earlier? Are there more cases like this? Did the Doctor misdiagnose this patient?
However, it seems there is not much literature or other findings similar to this case. All I can find is that ITP patients need to be monitored closely.
Personally, this terrifies me however based on the fact that there does not seem to be more cases like the above I wonder if this was just an unexplained unfortunate event.