Spleen removal didnt seem to help long

Last week I had my spleen taken out, my platelets went up then to 96,000 only to drop to 30,000 three days later..Is this normal..??? On wednesday I have another Dr visit and mor treatment... My platelets was at Zero when first discovered that I had ITP a month ago, and spent 3 weeks of that in the hospitsl... :sick:

What!!! A Splenectomy already. Generally the Spleen is removed due to enlargement, rupture and some blood disorders, IPT being one. Splenectomy is generally the last resort with ITP now, after all other treatments have failed. There has not been enough time to see if the Rituxan is going to work for you.
Good Luck on Wendnesday!!

Oh dear, I'm so sorry. It sounds as if your doctor was a bit too keen on the splenectomy route. The failure rate for the over 40s is fairly high. It works best for the youngsters. There are other treatments to try so here's hoping something knocks you into remission soon.

See the latest guidelines with treatment options...

bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/content/115/2/168.full

Wow, a splenectomy after just a month? That's way too soon. Sometimes ITP will resolve on its own. You weren't given enough time to see if it would in your case or to see if the Rituxan worked. For me, the splenectomy didn't work, but the Rituxan did right off the bat. Good luck tomorrow.

Thanks guys....the 3 treatment of Rutuxin as an out patient and what I got the 1st week in the hospital along with all the IVIG that I got wasnt helpin.. My platelets got up as high as 29,000 but then fell back to 1,000... thats when they did the surgery... and it went up then but only to crash low again.. I hope my numbers held since last week or even better gonwe up..I will find out in the morning..Im so ready to go back to work... its boring round here ..lol been out 2 months with no pay..ugh !!...Still wished I knew what caused all this........

Jchris:

Rituxan can take 4 to 12 weeks after the first infusion to work. It does not raise counts rapidly. There is still a good chance that it will kick in, so if you start to see a rise, it is most likely because of Rituxan.

Usually, if a splenectomy is going to be successful, you will see counts between 500,000 and a million after the surgery. There are exceptions to that of course, but that is what I have seen in my 15 years here.

Getting counts up is not always a fast process and sometimes patience is needed (hard, I know). How are your symptoms when counts are down?

It can raise counts quickly, just not normally. I saw a rise in my counts after the first dose and a rise at the other three. I was actually surprised when I still got the fourth treatment as my counts were normal.