Call 911 - Unemployed and on Drugs

Tuesday - Bloodwork done and Medi Clinic tries to phone me
Wednesday - Found out I have ITP (and can no longer play soccer because I might bleed to death)
Thursday - Terminated from my job
Friday - Unemployed and on Drugs

I normally wouldn't call this a "good week". And I'm not now either. I took 60 mg of Prednisone until Wed and then it was lowered to 50mg. But on Friday at my next meeting with the Specialist, my platelet count had only gone from 59,000 last week to 69,000 which was too slow of an increase. The Specialist lowered me to 40mg a day because he said the platelets needed to start rebuilding themselves on their own as a man my age can't take such a high dose of steroids for a long period of time. The Specialist then gave me a standing order for bloodwork so I could go get bloodwork every week for the next 3 months...how special. I'm probably going to become very good friends with the nurses there since I'll be there so often.

On Wed Aug 31 I went for my first weekly bloodwork session so that on Sept 8th when I met with the Specialist again he could see how I did. Being unemployed I decided to sleep in of course and so around 10:00am I went on down to the clinic and didn't even have to sit in the waiting room. I was ushered directly into room #1 for yet another jab of the needle. (Side note: I don't like needles. I can't watch them put them in. But since I'm getting so many tests done I think I'm going to try to force myselfe to watch once. "You've got to keep testing yourself every day or else you get slow"{Young Guns})

That afternoon as I played some Settlers of Catan with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law (yes, I won both times) the phone rang. It was the Specialist. He'd seen the results from my blood test that morning and my platelet count was back down to 20,000 again. Not a good thing. I asked if I could go to Edmonton this weekend for a wedding and he said yes (just don't get into any fights), but if I start to bruise or bleed I need to go immediately to the hospital emergency room. I was also told that I need to immediately start taking 60mg of roids again and go for another needle jab on Friday. And one more thing, next week you will need to come in for some IV treatment (I forget what he called it). You need to come in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and each session will take around 2-3 hours. Good thing I'm unemployed or my boss would fire me (LOL).

So that's where things stand now with my medical condition. I'm actually doing quite well (except that not being able to play soccer is very hard for me) and just taking it all in stride. There's not much else I can do about it so I just don't worry about it and live a normal life of an unemployed person on drugs. If the IV treatments don't work there is the possibility of removing my spleen. But that's another story.