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I have a higher risk of bleeding

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because I have a low platelet count.

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Will taking special medication
help improve

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my quality of life?

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Yeah, that's an excellent question.

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You have a condition called immune
thrombocytopenia or ITP, which involves

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your immune system attacking
your platelets and causing them to go low.

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Platelets have a very important role
in stopping the bleeding

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so that when you cut yourself,

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they're the sticky cells that actually
stop the bleeding from occurring.

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We have a new medication now
which stimulates

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the production of these platelets
and bring the platelet count up

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and because of that decreases
the bleeding.

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So what we did is we actually interviewed
20 children

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with ITP involving them and their parents
and asked them what they thought.

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The good news is 19 out of 20
thought that the medicine works.

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And over

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half of them felt that their mood improved
and they were able to do more activity.

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When we looked at the platelet count,
it was very low at 15

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for the six months beforehand, but
afterwards it increased to 100 afterwards.

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So the medicine did its job.

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When we asked them about any concerns
they had, there is a concern

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about the cost because it's very expensive
and the timing of taking the medication

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and then worry
about potential side effects.

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But the great news is
there was less bleeding.

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The children had less worries
about the bleeding happening,

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and overall they were able to participate
in more sports and more activities.