Hi...Does your sister have Lupus? Is she on meds? This is something she should really be speaking with her dr. about especially if she is on meds. Some meds and even the disease can cause low platelets (anemia also). If she is on meds, I wouldnt take any supplements unless it is ok'd by her dr. Some can have toxic effects on us. Im not even sure what would possibly impove them. Did they say why her platelets may be low? This sounds serious and I hope that she is getting the proper treatment from her dr. It sounds like you need more information as to why this is going on. Sorry that I dont have any real answers for you. Hope she gets better though and they figure out what is going on.
Hugs

In addition to Melissa's question, I'd like to ask: how low is low? Platelets have a huge range from 180,000 to 400,000. When my brother and father were hospitalized, they had less than 5,000 platelets. So there may not be any need to increase her platelets as long as they are within the normal range. And in terms of "alarmingly fast" over two weeks, most people don't have their platelets checked that often so is there a disease process going on?

Without knowing what is going on, there's not anything the docs would do to change platelets. some of the things, like transfusions, can sensitize the immune system and later make stem cell or BMT impossible. There are drugs to increase platelets too, but they wouldn't be used unless the level was seriously low. Do you know the platelet count? And how were her other blood counts?

Tracy

Thanks for the reply. Yes, she has Lupus. She was diagnosed 2 years ago. She just started Humira about six weeks ago. Her doctor monitors her blood every month and last month did a blood test and she called a few days ago to tell her that her platelets were down to like 98,000. She ordered another bloodtest the next week and they were 80,000. My sister is a lab tech and she knows that they can get as low as 10,000 before any treatment can happen. She was told to stop the Humira and the Dr wants her to do Prednisone but my sister won't take it anymore. I didn't know if there are foods that you can eat that might help or even natural supplements she could talk to her doctor about.

Renne,

That doesn't make much sense. Did your sister have lab work done PRIOR to starting the Humira? (Always a good idea when taking drugs like this.) What was her starting count? A 18,000 drop is not a huge deal. Blood counts are not static things, they shift all the time. My platelets last time were 350,000; 6 months ago they were 270,000. Without knowing what her platelets started at, it's hard to know if this is from the Humira or not.

How were your sister's other blood counts? Were her RBCs, hematocrit, hemoglobin abnormal too? And her WBCs? To know the cause of a drop, it's important to see if the other counts are dropping too or rising(as they do in leukemia because the WBCs are increasing).

Normal is 150,000 through 450,000. So although 98,000 is nothing compared to counts that aplastic anemia or leukemia patients get, it's still abnormal and indicatesa problem possibly before starting the Humira. Is it possible that it was 198,000 or 298,000? Did you see the print-out? Did your sister? Or was she given the info over the phone (a notorious way of missing numbers). I realize that your sister works in the lab, when you say lab tech do you mean a phlebotomist? Or a tech who runs the machines? I'm sure she can confirm that a) mistakes are made b) information is passed on incorrectly some times, c) that her initial lab value was UNDER normal. Which makes me wonder why the doc didn't stop the Humira THEN? And if her platelets were close to abnormal, why start a drug with no known helpful effects on lupus patients?

Re treatment: Not quite right as to when treatment can and does occur with platelets. For instance, my brother had aplastic anemia, but the doctors did NOT transfuse him at 5,000 because it would sensitized him and make a BMT impossible or very difficult. (The same thing occurred when my father had leukemia. He got to 1,000.) Whereas my friend who has lung cancer had her platelets drop to 80,000 (and her hematocrit and RBCs dropped too) and she started treatment with erythapoetin, a growth factor to increase RBCs. So it all depends on the CAUSE of the drop in cells, the original platelet count, and other factors. And it's not unusual to have platelets drop 20,000 in a 6 week period; mine have. That's why the range for platelets is so large. So how low to go before treatment depends on what the patient is being treated FOR and the objective. (With cancer, the objective is to keep the counts high enough so the patient can continue chemo; with AA, the docs hold off as long as they can.) So it's important to know if your sister's counts have been progressively dropping or are always on the low end of normal.

I also checked the info for Humira. Has your sister been through every standard lupus drug? Humira is NOT approved for lupus patients (and no insurance company will pay for it for a lupus patient because of this). It's a Tumor Necrosis Factor and the testing done with it in lupus patients has not found it to be particularly effective. Next, this drug has been given to millions of people and there have been a couple of cases of aplastic anemia in people taking it, but no causal relationship has been found between the two. (No more than the general population.) If this is a side effect, it's a pretty rare one.

Basically what I'm saying is that before considering a treatment to do anything that will muck will your blood cells, it's important to have a better picture of EVERYTHING. It's like when people tell us that we should take certain natural remedies, but we know those remedies IMPROVE the immune system, meaning that they increase the production of the cells that we DON'T WANT to increase.

So to sum it up: how are her other counts? What were her platelets before the Humira? Those are the biggest questions as to whether to decide if there's anything to worry about.

Tracy