The question was about ITP, NOT leukemia.
I had this condition when I was 2. We
found out that I had it because I would
bruise so easily. At one time it was
believed that the disease was caused by a
certain vaccine. There was one other girl
in my town who had it and they were going
to move to another state to get special
treatment. There was a new steroid
treatment which they used for me. I have
had no recurrence in 27 years, but that is
because I had the acute kind of ITP.
Spelled out it is called Idiopathic
thrombocytopenic purpura. It is not
contagious. I guess in simple terms, it's
a condition of not having enough blood
clotting cells....so you bleed easily and
a lot. The good thing is that it isn't
life threatening, and it's a better
diagnosis than leukemia!
There are two kinds though: acute (which
doesn't last a long time and never comes
back, like I had, and mostly affects
children) and chronic, which will last a
long time, but treatment (of which there
are several kinds) might not be necessary
forever, even for them.
I have looked up a page that covers pretty
much everything you might want to know
about it in simple terms. I hope
everything goes ok!
http://www.mayoclinic.com/hea
lth/idiopathic-thrombocytopenic-purpura/DS
00844
