My name is Georgia, I’m 25 years old and I got diagnosed with ITP the week before Christmas 2018.
I had originally gone to the doctor because of a rash on my legs, and random bruising. He didn’t seem too phased by it but sent me to get a blood test just to make sure my blood was clotting properly. I got a call that night telling me to go straight to emergency to get another blood test because my platelet levels were only 26. By the time I got to the hospital and got the results for my new blood test, they had dropped to 16, so I got admitted. I spent the next week in hospital, getting blood tests every day and waiting for them to figure out what was wrong with me. They tested me for everything under the sun, before finally coming to the conclusion that it was ITP. However, even on the medication in hospital, my platelet levels were still dropping, the lowest they reached was 8. So I was given an IVIg infusion, which helped me a lot and was what got me out of hospital Christmas Eve (yay).
It’s now been three weeks since I got out of hospital and my most recent blood test told me my platelets have dropped back to 18, which means the steroids aren’t working. They’ve since upped my dosage and on Monday I’ll get another blood test and if nothing has changed, I’ll get another IVIg infusion.
At the moment it’s just a waiting game. I’m not allowed to go back to work because I’m still in the ‘danger zone’ so fingers crossed for some good news on Monday.
I had never heard of ITP before, and I am slowly starting to learn that ITP could be something I have to deal with for the rest of my life. But the only thing I can do is be positive and try help raise awareness for ITP. The more people who know about ITP, the better.
To learn more about georgia and her journey you can head over to her blog: https://georgiacostanzo.wixsite.com/memyselfanditp