Monday, June 12, 2006
Quick Willow Update
Willow has Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia (ITP) on top of her Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) ... the ITP is the new mess. Her immune system thinks her platelets are a foreign body ... a cancer ... so they're busy attacking them and killing them.
As soon as we get some more antibiotics pumped in to her for the urinary tract infection, we can start treating the ITP with a drug called Imuran, and a small dose of Prednisone.
At least the bone marrow testing didnt find any true signs of cancer ... her bone marrow is healthy, creating platelets as it should. So once we dumb down her immune system, hopefully her platelets will get a chance to recover. We're hoping we wont have to keep her on the drugs forever, hopefully once we stabilize her, we can start lowering the dosage, make sure she stays stable, her body will get used to having a normal level of platelets, then gradually re-introduce her immune system.
I keep telling Willow that she doesnt need to be sick, in order to be special. I'll still love her if she's healthy!!
As soon as we get some more antibiotics pumped in to her for the urinary tract infection, we can start treating the ITP with a drug called Imuran, and a small dose of Prednisone.
At least the bone marrow testing didnt find any true signs of cancer ... her bone marrow is healthy, creating platelets as it should. So once we dumb down her immune system, hopefully her platelets will get a chance to recover. We're hoping we wont have to keep her on the drugs forever, hopefully once we stabilize her, we can start lowering the dosage, make sure she stays stable, her body will get used to having a normal level of platelets, then gradually re-introduce her immune system.
I keep telling Willow that she doesnt need to be sick, in order to be special. I'll still love her if she's healthy!!
# posted by Elims @ 7:20 AM 
