Lowish platelets with illness

[Cookieland]

Any advice on how to raise platelets? Every time I have a cough / cold recently my platelets drop, take a good few weeks to recover and tiredness is unbearable. Drop to 80-120 but rise to 200. All other FBC very normal.

GP are going to write to the consultants again but as my platelets rise again they don’t seem bothered. I have the little red pin pricks all over my body and get some interesting bruises.

Im so tired and fed up, it’s been going on all year and it’s affecting my daily life. I can’t go for meals in the evening as I need to go to bed, I have lunch time naps most days just to last till 9pm and sleep till 7am.

Any suggestions welcome on:

1. how to raise my platelets
2. any ideas on what causes this? Anything I can suggest to my GP?

well your GP is takimg advice from a haematologist. I wouldn't have done an FBC for a short lived viral illness tbh. You can definitely get brief minor thrombocytopenia from those.

Did you have a ferritin or some kind of iron test in your fbc? I get low platelets when I'm running low.

@Whatatodo79 What would you suggest for the tiredness and bruising. My platelets yo-yo up and down. I can’t function as a normal person. I have napped most lunch times for months and go to bed 8-9pm. I work part time and spend my
days off in bed as I’m exhausted. It’s sooo much worse when my platelets are lower.

How long should minor thrombocytopenia last as I had a cold and the blood test was 2.5 weeks later and platelets around 110 at that point. When it’s related to illness how much does it normally drop, is there a percentage or number that’s normal? (Platelets 200 would drop 25% to 150 for an average person). Thanks in advance for any help!

Yes iron was 30 and b12 200 so lower end but all in acceptable levels but going to continue iron / multi vit / b12 / vit D. I have had iron issue in the past so I tend to take a maintenance dose.

Just keep pestering your GP to try and get some answers. There's clearly something up with the need to rest lots too.
I had to do this as was continuously unwell with various things. Finally referred and diagnosed with CFS/ME.

@Mumofoneandone thanks it just feels like a hard slog and the GP before this dismissed all my symptoms and asked if I was depressed so going back was a big deal. The massive bruise on my face with no known injury helped me get my point across 😂

Im going for a quick nap now at 9am after sleeping 10hours and being awake 2 hours 😳🧐

It is a hard slog (I'm not good at asking for help) but I finally thought if I don't pester them, they won't know things are still not right. It kind of helped.....

Did they test your ferritin? I had iron deficiency anaemia with readings of
IRON 25.1 umol/L 6.6 - 26.0
FERRITIN 20ug/L 13 - 150
So your iron looks normal but the ferritin is low meaning you are actually low on iron stores within your body, despite that iron reading looking at the top end because of the supplements being taken. You can get finger prick ferritin tests from amazon for about £6 and they'll tell you if you are above or below 30ug (nhs says 13-150 is ok, but in all honesty at the bottom end of that scale you are most likely going to feel crap, I did!).

Have a read up on it. In all honesty the nhs will do little but tell you to up your iron intake to up your reserves but if you have any stomach issues it's hard. I ended up paying for a private iron infusion which boosted mine up, but I think it's getting low again, I'm getting a bit more tired, cold, breathless and my hair is starting to fall out!

@TitsInAbsentia the GP did ok for a private b12 injection so doing that Monday. I will look into the iron more and what my results were. Thanks for the help!