Should I do the NPLATE injections???

Hi.. thanks for reading.... So Im newly diagnosed with ITP(Feb 10 2012) . Ive been taking prednisone since then and started at 140 mg.. Im now tapering down and at 50mg... well I told by Hemo doc I want off the prednisone.. Im having wayyy to many bad side effects... so he was like ok we can try the NPLATE injection... My question is my count has been in the 50,000 the last 3 weeks during the tapering down..he is ok with my count being at 50 and staying there.. but he says once Im off the pred I will most likely drop.. if I stay at 50 I feel I shouldn't have to be treated.. so Im like really clueless on this?? Should I taper all the way off the pred to just see if I drop... or should I start the injection??? Also whats the side effects of NPLATE and the disapvantages?? Thanks alot.. I really love this forum.. I appreciate everyones feed back.. because I have learned so much about ITP and feel alot better and not so scared as I did in the beginning..

My husband is 78 yrs. old has had ITP for 28 yrs. Back then the standard treatment was prednisone and he took a lot of it for the first 6 months, but couldn't maintain a safe platelet count when he lowered the dosage. He then had his spleen removed and he was OK for quite a while. His count gradually fell through the years, but was at a safe level for quite a while. In 2000 he had to have open heart surgery, but with his count at about 70,000 he was put on IVIG for 5 days to get him over 100,000 so they could do the surgery. His count continued to drop through the following years. He never had bruising or any of the other ITP signs. It was discovered when he had sudden diabetes onset.

When NPlate came out four years ago his hemo MD became associated with using it. My husband has been on it for a little more than three years after his count dropped below 20,000. He has had headaches from the NPlate since then, but in the past year he has had increasingly bad dizzy spells. In fact he has about all the side effects that are listed for it. We don't know if it's a cummulative effect. They have tried varying the dosage, but that doesn't seem to give much help with the side effects. His counts range from approx. 40,000 to 100,000 while on the NPlate. The MD has said he would let him go as low as 30,000 at a lower NPlate dosage to see if it would help with the headaches and dizziness. My husband is pretty miserable most of the time now, but he's afraid to go off it completely.