So now I have had ITP for just about two months, I'm familiar with the illness and getting used to getting blood drawn all the time.  Now that we tried Rituxin and had the reaction to it we are back on the spleenectemy route!!!  Oh boy!!  I spent a lot of time on the pdsa website and researched other drugs.  My doctor didn't seem like she wanted to try any other drugs, not quite sure why either!  However one thing was clear we were NOT going to try Rituxin again!!  Steve was dead set against it, there was no way at all we were going to go thru that again!! 

February 16,2011

I see Dr.Michaelis and my count was 259,000 so apparently some of the Rituxin got in and helped my count go up.  In the mean time lets keep dropping the Prednisone and see what happens.  Maybe if the count doesn't crash we can hold off on doing anything!!!  Great news this is what I was hoping for.  We also discussed that she did some research of her own and found that there is a safe way for her to give me the Rituxin again if need be.  I told her I really wasn't sure that I felt comfortable with that, but if need be I would think about it.  We were on our way with a few days off from seeing doctors and getting blood drawn!  However she did refer me to an endocrinologist to help with getting off the steroids.