Just got out of the hospital a few days ago after 5 days in there. I was feeling weak, no appetite, dizzy at times, short of breath, high temp, etc. Finally went to urgent care. They did a number of blood tests and sent me immediately to the hospital. I've always had a low platelet count. Normal range is 179K to 400K. Mine always ran around 70K whenever I had a physical. However, this time the count had dropped to 6K.

They ran many tests to determine the cause while I was there. I was given an IV inclusion of platelets overnight. The next morning nothing had changed. Next they put me on IV steroids.
After 2 days the platelet count had risen to 34K. I'm home now and on oral steroids with the hope it will increase my platelet count.

Still don't know for sure what caused the platelets to drop. They checked for all sorts of bacteria and found nothing. At this point they are thinking a viral infection that had to run its course. I go in for a follow up to see what my count will be after the steroids.

Anybody else ever run into this problem?

Most of your symptoms would likely be caused by low or damaged red blood cells, rather than platelets. Platelets are for clotting. Red blood cells carry oxygen. Platelets could be a factor in your symptoms if you are also experiencing internal bleeding.

I had similar symptoms to yours when I had the adverse reaction to being vaccinated for Covid, Shingles and the Flu and almost died. My immune system attacked my red blood cells, damaging them so they couldn't carry oxygen well. It took around 6 weeks for my body to replace my red blood cells, so that my blood oxygen level returned to normal.

I hope they figure out what happened and that you quickly become healthy again.

Keith

I have been giving platelets for over 25 years. I give triple units once a month so that is 36 units per year. I am somewhere over 800 units to date. most platelets from what I am told are used by and for cancer patients. Hope you can get your counts back up.

Bryce

You might want to talk to your doctor about immune thrombocytopenia. It's where your body doesn't recognize your platelets as your own and your spleen takes them out of your system. The only reason I know about it is because of my wife. Back in 2005 she was having female issues. We went into the doctor to have blood test ran and every time they did, they called and said something went wrong with it. After the fourth time her doctor called his personal physician to look at it. We went into see him that afternoon and she was immediately put into a room that night and was given an infusion of blood and platelets. They eventually decided to remove her spleen to stop it from killing off her platelets. She has been in remission for several years now. It might be a long shot, but it never hurts to ask. Good luck on your journey.

Have you been checked for a stomach ulcer. Have a friend with some of your symptoms and it was his diagnosis.

Yes, they did check that and a lot of other things. I'm finding there are so many reasons for having a low platelet count. I'm seeing a hematologist next week. They are talking about a bone marrow test.

I have read about what son of grizz is saying about the spleen to be another possibility. Problem is platelets are necessary for clotting. With my low platelet count surgery might not be an option.

Once they got the wife's counts up is when they did surgery. She was on heavy doses of steroids for about 6 months before the surgery. She would bruise just by touching things. That's what they had issues with doing her block work. It wouldn't clot and they thought some how it got contaminated.

They have me on steroids now to boost the platelet infusion they gave me.
How did they get your wife's count up?

I went to school with a kid that had low palettes. He would bleed out if something happened. So like he didn't play football but he played baseball. He was like that his whole life. Hopefully its just something like that and not something new / serious.