Confirmation: tonic = kryptonite.

I’ve been staring at this screen wondering how to begin this post for the last 15 minutes. It’s a tough order, trying to figure out how to write an update to include all of the huge life changes I’ve experienced and effectively get readers back up-to-speed over a year since my last post! I guess I’ve got to start somewhere, so here goes. A quick update before getting down to business:

1) I am indeed alive. Thank you for your emails and comments of concern in the past year. When my ITP essentially “went away,” I just sort-of wanted to move on with life and enjoy normalcy again…plus, I no longer had anything to write about, so I took a little vacation from writing/blogging.

2) I moved back home, closer to my family in the panhandle of Texas, and changed career paths for a minute. I taught in the Head Start program (3 and 4-year-olds) last year, jokingly calling this career change my “Sabbatical,” which ended up being an apt label to this phase of my life. One definition of the term is “any extended period of leave from one’s customary work…to acquire new skills, training, etcetera.” As it turns out, the new skills acquired were invaluable. Just a few: how to be vomited on (twice) without reciprocating the act, how to handle potty accidents without vomiting on the child, how to “mind game” small children into good behavior…how to teach a 4 year-old how to read, how to refrain from falling apart when you learn a child’s life at home is worse than anything you would’ve imagined, how to love your students so much your heart breaks a little when the school year ends. No matter what I did or said, no matter how I looked on any given day, my students thought I was the coolest person they knew–all because I paid attention to what they had to say and cared enough to give them a few boundaries. It was a great experience for me, particularly at that time in my life, and I feel as though I learned more from them than they could have ever learned from me. But once the school year was over, I stumbled into an amazing job opportunity that has allowed me to utilize my education (my degree in advertising) and get involved with aspects of design, which I’ve always, always, always wanted to do. I loved teaching but needed to get my certification to continue to pursue it as a career, so I decided to take advantage of this great opportunity that was thrown my way and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. I am learning so much, utilizing my education, helping grow this business…my co-workers are a blast and I have great bosses. It’s an amazing feeling, loving going to work. Everyone should be so lucky! I’m convinced that the world would be a better place.

So, now that you’re up-to-speed on the life part…down to the ITP part: Last week, I was afraid a relapse was eminent.

I recently met my besties in Las Vegas for the weekend and…may have ingested some tonic. (This may have had something to do with VIP access, a beautiful rooftop bar, and a group of gorgeous Australian boys, too, but you know how that goes. What happens in Vegas…)

I think it went something like this:

Me: Does this have tonic in it? [dance dance dance]

Bestie: He said there was no tonic at the table! [dance dance dance] It’s club soda!

Me: [worry worry worry] [glance at my beautiful Aussie nearby] Okay! [sip] [pause] [recognize taste of Quinine] [minor freak out for a minute with Bestie] [get back to dance floor with Aussie...boom.]

And that was that.

It wasn’t until a week later, as I removed my dark, vampy nail polish, that I freaked. Petechiae, my dear old friend, had appeared beneath my fingernails. As I examined the rest of my body, I found a crazy bruise on my shin, and a few other petechiae up and down my legs. And since I (irresponsibly) do not have a hematologist where I now live, I battled with my PCP’s office staff for an hour or two and finally finagled an appointment to go in for bloodwork a couple of days later. As it turns out, my platelets were fine. My count was 231k, and I’ve had no symptoms since. (Thank you, Lord.) Just a minor reaction to a tiny, tiny, tiny amount of quinine in my system. Thank goodness it was only a sip.

An incredibly irresponsible, stupid choice on my behalf, yes. But at least we now have confirmation that it is indeed the exposure to the quinine in tonic water that leads to my ITP. Such a smart hematologist I had, that Dr. Carwhile in Houston. He knew what he was talking about after all. :)

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