[Freya]

I was reminded of this experience recently and thought I'd share it with you all...

Along with fatigue, the first sign that I was becoming unwell was a rash that looked liked love-bites (hickeys) which I now know was peticiae caused by low platelets (ITP -Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura). It was also circular and raised in other patches.

The first time that I saw my GP he diagnosed me with Ringworm and gave me a cream to use. The second time I saw the GP the rash had worsened and was all over my body. Still convinced that I had ringworm, he gave me a bulk prescription of the cream and told me to apply it to the rash areas…i.e. almost my whole body.

If anyone has had the misfortune to experience Thrush, the cream I had to apply all over my body was the same cream that is used for Thrush. (A steroid cream but I wont mention the brand name.)

It was awful, the smell is so distinctive and I work with a lot of Ladies. A couple close friends commented on the smell and I had to convince them of the reason I was smelling so odd. I dread to think what visitors to my office thought of the "Thrush Cream" fug surrounding me!!

Luckily my GP was very quick to call me and me to stop using the cream as soon as a FBC came back showing a very low platelet count!

 

[cath]

Hi Freya,

I hope you don't mind, but I moved your post to living with lupus, as the post is about you and lulus, rather than your family or friends:blush:.

Thanks for sharing this. How long after these problems did they finally work out what was wrong with you?

I had petechia and thrombocytopaenia early on too, but not as dramatically as you

X C X

 

[Freya]

Thanks Cath, no I don't mind at all, I did dither over where I should post!

I had several months of the count lurking around 60 to 100 and the bone marrow biopsy showed platelet production was as it should be so I was diagnosed with ITP.

When the count dropped to 2 (!!) and I was admitted to hospital they pulled out all the stops and called in the Rheumatologist who pieced all of my other symptoms together and diagnosed SLE.
Luckily for me the high dose Pred sorted out my platelets over a few weeks and then after a few months the SLE symptoms all but went.

As I've previously mentioned, I eventually dropped off the Rheumatologist's radar and for 8 years I was mostly symptom-free.

This time around much to the surprise of my Rheumy my platelets are absolutely fine thank heavens but on the other hand it kind of helped having a "count" to focus on and a number that I could report back to my family.I recall everyone rooting for a count in the normal range!