As part of Ken Cleary’s usual health checks and monitoring that are typical for a man in his 60s, he learned his level of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, a protein that can indicate cancer, was high enough to concern his doctor.
While Cleary waited for his biopsy results, he was already strategizing with his doctor. Cleary sees a hematologist/oncologist regularly because he was born with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks and destroys a person’s blood-clotting platelets.
Cleary, who lives in Bothell, Wash., said his medical team told him he had “the most virulent instance of ITP they have ever run into.” Before he started kindergarten, he’d had his spleen removed. By the time he was 12, he’d taken hundreds of milligrams of prednisone, which can lead to bone loss. “Over the years, I’ve had many of my joints rebuilt,” said Cleary, who has endured multiple surgeries related to his autoimmune disorder.
