What a miserable 2 years it's been- until I found this forum, hopefully you have been my answers!!

So it's been a terrible two years. I am 45 years old. Have been healthy all these years. My daughter passed away in a horrific tornado March 3, 2019. She was 22 and we were very close. That was and is the most devastating event in my lifetime. Which brought about high blood pressure and high levels of cortisol that really causes havoc on your body. I was put on several different blood pressure medications and finally found one that worked, amlodipine. A few months after being on it, routine labs showed my platelets were extremely low. I asked my PCP, if there was anyway it could be the amlodipine and she said no. She sent me to a hematologist, who also said that it was not from the amlodipine. I had 2 bone biopsies to check for leukemia, a CT of the spleen, colonoscopy, EGD, and tons of blood work for lupus and other autoimmune disorders. In the meantime I began having severe back pain and I am a nurse so the thought was injury, had to have surgery because my bone had kinked off the sciatica nerve and my rt leg was on fire. Had to take a ton of steroids to get my platelets up before I could have the surgery. Then my elbow began to swell and became painful. I was told it was tendinitis. Again, I asked if it could be from the amlodipine and was told no. My PCP did a steroid injection into my elbow and my elbow froze for two days. I could not move it, it was locked and it was painful. Then my hair began falling out, in chunks. I asked my PCP if we could try changing my thyroid medication from synthroid to Armour thyroid and she did. I had been doing my own half assed research because this last two years have been hell. I am a very active ER nurse with 5 kids. we garden, we swim, kayak, etc.. I have not been able to much of that this year. Last week, I had a wedding to go to and I straightened my hair- I have curly hair and it really masked how bad my hair is. It's bad, I mean really bad. My daughter and I quickly dove into our phones to see what was causing my hair to fall out and my daughter found you guys. Based on all the information I have found here, everything I have went through, is from the medication. My PCP, just kept saying "you have been through a lot. The stress that you have been through will cause a lot of this." And the ITP will it just happens I guess. No explanation on that!! I am so angry!! I am thinking of looking into legal action. I might not have even needed back surgery!! If everything I am reading is true! Bone swelling would have caused the sciatica to be pinched off. The neurosurgeon said it was bad. He shaved off the bone that was kinking off the nerve and shaved back the disc. I was off work for 5 months!!!

I will be doing lab work in 6 weeks to see if my platelets come back up. I have been off it for 7 days. My elbow is still sore but the swelling has gone down. My left hand was weak and I couldn't even tear a bag of saline or pick up my cell phone. I can now lift my phone without pain and I can tear open all my bags of saline, haven't been able to in months, due to weakness in that hand. I have pain in my left hip but it has gotten better as well.

I have left the ER for fear I wouldn't be able to perform the tasks, my patients needed. This was before I knew it was the medication.

So we shall see how this plays out. I am not happy and I can't believe how much we give this medication. It is banned in several other countries.

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