Developed a blood disorder after surgery

[Gerald Spaniol]

I had bilateral hip resurfacing (left hip in 2010 and right hip in 2011).  I
have done fairly well since then.  I have myositis occificans on the left
outside surface (basically on the sight of the incision).  I also continue
to have some pain and stiffness on the right incision area.  There is no
groin pain and I remain pretty active (daily gym, golf, went skiing this
year again, etc.).  I relate the minor pain in the incision area to scar
tissue and my surgeon scoffs at the pain, although I do think it is
abnormal.  What my real problem is I was diagnosed with chronic ITP
(idiopathic thrombocytopedic purapura) in 2012 (so close to the surgeries
they seem related).  I suspect that the ITP was caused by my surgery,
cobalt/chromium (I have Smith-Nephew BHR prostheses) allergies/poisoning, or something related to my hip
resurfacing although at this point I can't pinpoint it.  Do you know of
anyone, anywhere that has my peculiar issues?  I am definitely suffering
with the ITP and am searching for solutions.  Western medicine is failing me
at this point (their solution is to take drugs that have severe side
effects, not fun).  If you know of a correlation or connection or a person
that has anything similar, please let me know.

Jerry Spaniol, Rockledge, Florida

[Tim Bratten]

Hi Gerald
Sorry to hear about your problems. I had never heard of ITP, so I had to look it up. I'm no expert but I can say I've looked over gobs of studies about hip-replacement/resurfacing and am aware of many of the problems that can occur, but I have never seen ITP mentioned anywhere. Not conclusive, but that's the best I've got.

In my own personal case, if I put my mind to it, I can still "feel" my scars, but I wouldn't describe this sensation as pain. Most of the time I just forget the scars are there.
Tim

[Gerald Spaniol]

Thank you Tim:

I appreciate your response.

Jerry Spaniol

[hernanu]

Hi Gerald, sorry you're dealing with this.

The ITP symptoms are caused by a low platelet count in your blood. Platelets are one of the elements that the body uses to form clots, so having a low platelet count interferes with clotting - typically you get bruised more often, take longer to stop bleeding from a cut, etc.

If you've been diagnosed with that, your body is not recognizing some of your platelets as your own and is killing some of them, then excreting them. So you're producing the right amount, but your immune system then kills them off.

It is chronic, but treated only if warranted. In kids, it can be caused by viral infections, and they usually recover fully from it. In adults it can be chronic, and the I (idiopathic) is the medical term for "we don't know what caused this". So the source is unknown or at least not attributable to any one thing.

It's usually treated by short term steroid use. Not long term since the side effects of that are worse than the problem. Have they treated you with this?

The ossification is usually caused by not icing enough or too early massage or strenuous exercise. Or it just happens. Ideally, it is reabsorbed into the body. What have they told you about this?

Again, sorry you're dealing with this - I'm a bilat from about the same time frame and have not had issues with the incisions, thankfully.