Counting Platelets: ITP Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe ITP, immune thrombocytopenia, from the first unexplained bruise to years of counts that rise and fall. Some writers were found through bruises blamed on the gym, heavy periods, a fall in the garden, or a routine test before a hernia repair; others had no symptoms at all. They include a personal trainer, a chef working with knives on a count of nine thousand, a long-haul trucker, a farmer at calving season, a hockey player told to stop checking, a pregnant mother, a student alone in a new country, and parents and teenagers watching a family member's numbers, from Columbus to Kampala and Osaka to Belfast. Treatments include steroids and their effect on mood and sleep, infusions, rituximab, platelet-raising tablets and weekly injections, fostamatinib, spleen removal, and watching and waiting. A few found another cause behind the low count, such as hepatitis C or a stomach bacterium, and one writer developed lupus. Others write about dental work, long-haul flights, telling a boss, insurance refusals, papaya leaf juice and diets that did not help. Not every account settles. Remission returned for some, tiredness went unmeasured, anxiety brought one writer to the emergency department twice, and some are still treating.

Who it's for

For adults and teenagers newly told they have ITP or living with it for years, and for the parents, partners and children who sit beside them through every blood test.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 251 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.