Update on

[Guest guest]

Some of you may remember at the end of July, my husband, , was

put in the hospital with a platelet count of 6000. He was diagnosed

with another autoimmune disease called ITP (alongside his UC and

PSC). They feel that is not related to the liver disease, however,

Asacol--taken for UC--has a less than 1% chance of causing ITP. He

was released with a steriod treatment to bring the platelets back up

and removed from Asacol for good.

and I went to the hematologist on Friday, 8/15. His platelet

count has dropped 25,000 from the prior week. His steroid treatment

had failed to work. On Friday, 8/22, for the next 3 weeks (last one

is 9/12) he will be doing infusions of Rituxan.

The medicine being used is also used as a chemotherapy drug in cancer

patients—so in essence they call this an immuntheropy, since it is

for his immune system. The treatments start first thing in the

morning and will last around 6 hours. They come with a very high

risk of allergic reactions during the infusion. They will treat

those reactions as they come, but will continue to give the

treatments.

If these treatments are not effective, he will have to have his

spleen removed. While this comes with a 70% success ratio, it is one

of the last options he has.

Please pray that these treatments work as this new disease has added

a lot more stress on our family on top of being diagnosed with PSC in

January and UC in April.

[Guest guest]

and :

Prayers and good luck to you.

Hope all goes well and no reactions to med.

dee

[Guest guest]

and :

Prayers and good luck to you.

Hope all goes well and no reactions to med.

dee

[Guest guest]

,

I'm sorry to hear about 's ITP diagnosis. Sending prayers your way

that the treatments will be effective. Good luck and keep us updated.

Ricky PSC 2003

Update on

Some of you may remember at the end of July, my husband, , was

put in the hospital with a platelet count of 6000. He was diagnosed

with another autoimmune disease called ITP (alongside his UC and

PSC).

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