I'm gonna tell y'all about one of the worst medical things I've ever had to deal with:
ITP, or Immune Thrombocytopenia Purpura.
It's when, for whatever reason, your immune system gets confused and starts killing your platelets, which keep you from bleeding out whenever you get a paper cut or some other minor wound.
This causes red spots called petechiae to appear all over your skin. Here's a picture:
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People with ITP can also bleed and bruise REALLY easily, and any bang to the head can cause the brain to start bleeding. So, patients are not supposed to run, climb, play sports, or even jump.
In children, ITP usually goes away naturally, but, lucky me, I had it really bad. A normal platelet count for a child is between 150,000 and 300,000. At the time of my diagnosis, I had only 3,000. Therefore, I needed some treatment. More on that later.
When I showed my parents my petechiae-covered legs, my dad took me out of school the next day, and took me to the doctor, who sent me to the ER. I was there for a whole day. They did a few blood tests, and figured out I had severe ITP. I was going to have to stay the night, but I started crying at the idea, and I guess the doctors took pity on me and let me go.
The next day, I was at lunch, and I ate the school pizza. My gums started bleeding. My 11-year-old self, being pretty fricking stupid, did not think this was a big deal, and didn't even go to the nurse. Later that day, I just casually told my mom; "My gums were bleeding during lunch today."
My mom starts panicking and says I need to go back to the ER, so I was (reluctantly) dragged back to the local children's hospital. This time, I actually had to stay overnight. I received this treatment called IVIG. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but some liquid was given to me through my IV tube while I was sleeping. I don't remember being actually given it very well, I just remember getting these AWFUL headaches in the days after I was given it. And at the time, I didn't know how to swallow pills, and it took a lot of goading to get me to take chewable pills or liquid medicine, so I couldn't even get any relief from drugs.
A few days after the IVIG, I was discharged, and my platelet count started growing. And my parents taught me how to swallow pills.
The next year involved a frick ton of bloodwork and Hematologist (blood doctor) appointments. And the people that get my bloodwork done really freaking suck at it, so it really hurt.
And now I can say that cardboard-tasting school pizza sent me to the emergency room. Sort of.
