From Seoul, Korea to Qingdao, China to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Living with ITP

In 2009, I had the opportunity to start a new career abroad. Up until that point, I had been teaching in schools in South London. Teaching abroad felt like a breath of fresh air. My living standards soared, my work/life balance improved and I got to live in far flung places I never dreamed of. After moving to Beijing, I met my wife and I never looked back.

By 2015 I was living in Seoul, Korea and was the deputy head of a well known international school there. My first daughter was born in 2013 and my son was born in March 2015. Life felt like it was moving in the right direction. 

In December 2015, my son was admitted into hospital as he had caught a strong winter cold. While I was there, I thought it was worth getting a health MOT. I had noticed a few chest pains and wanted to check that everything was ok. As part of this process, the hospital ran a routine blood test.

To this day, I still remember the phone call. Everything had come back normal except for my platelets. The normal range was >150 but mine were currently at <60. The lady on the phone asked me not to worry, they would run the test again.

Over the next series of months I went through quite a traumatic process of repeated blood tests that kept returning the same results. I was referred to a haematologist at St Mary’s hospital in Seoul whose English was limited. I remember the dread of waiting outside the consultation room and praying, wishing, hoping that suddenly things would return to normal and my platelets would be in the normal range – 10 years later, I’m still waiting! After every consultation, I would return home and explore worst case scenarios on the internet.

Those first 6 months were awful – looking back this is largely due to the way ITP is diagnosed. I had weeks & months of working through tests while lots of pernicious diseases I had never heard of were eliminated. I felt helpless at the time. Just when my life had taken a turn for the better and my wife and I had brought two young children into the world, it seemed like I was going to miss out on my children growing up…

Luckily for me, I’m still here 10 years later. At the time, I made a deal with myself that if I managed to get through all the tests and come through it with something survivable, I would try to be a better husband and a very present dad.

The last 10 years haven’t always been easy, there have been regular blood tests, several sleepless nights, a lymph node biopsy, a bone marrow biopsy but by and large, the ITP diagnosis has probably had a net beneficial impact on my life. That probably sounds strange to say, but I have tried to keep to the commitment I made when I was going through all the initial tests. ITP inspired me to switch to a whole new lifestyle. I have been juicing regularly and eating healthily since the diagnosis, ensuring that I get all the nutrition I need. I have dramatically cut the amount of alcohol I drink, in fact, I only ever drink now on special occasions. I picked up a daily meditation routine as I found it helped me deal with the stress associated with the condition and my job. I exercise regularly and I also no longer take my life or my health for granted. I try to ensure that I take time each day to acknowledge that I am grateful to be alive – remembering how it felt like to be outside the doctors office in Seoul, now knowing if I would be around for much longer. 

When I was initially diagnosed, my instinct said I should return to the UK and be around my family at a time of crisis. But after a while I decided that I was not going to give up my new international life without a fight. I enjoyed living abroad and exploring new cultures, and while it wasn’t always the easy option, I think I made the right choice for myself and my family. After my initial diagnosis in 2016, I stayed in Seoul for 2 more years before my family and I moved back to China where I became the Founding International Principal of an International School in Qingdao for 5 years. In 2023, my family and I were on the move again and this time we moved to the British International School in Riyadh where I took a step back to deputy head so that my family and I could be a little closer to the UK. We remain in Riyadh to this day and I have just secured a promotion to be a Head of School again in August. My oldest daughter is now 13 and my son has turned 11. 

As I look back on the last 10 years, it has been an incredible journey. I have experienced the highs and lows associated with the condition and been a regular visitor to hospitals in Seoul, Qingdao and Riyadh. 

My biggest advice to anyone who is newly diagnosed is don’t panic & don’t spend too much time exploring possible scenarios on the internet. Try to make the best of the things that are within your control. It took me a while to realize that no matter what I did to my lifestyle, I couldn’t control my platelet count. However, eating healthily and exercising regularly made me feel better in general and I felt that if I maintained a healthy lifestyle, my body would be in a better place to recover from any side effects related to treatment in the future. 

Meditation also helped me to be more present and helped me manage any anxiety related to the condition so that I could enjoy whatever time I have and be a dad worth having. Doing the best with the things that are within my control has really helped me enjoy and make the most of the last 10 years, despite the challenge that ITP initially presented.

Jamie McNamara