Dear Marian, Of course you have been "rattled out of your equilibrium" to discover that ET is a blood cancer. However, let me give you some facts that should bring you back to a positive attitude instead of you suddenly planning your obituary. I'm going to refer to an article that I don't think you will be able to access unless you are a subscriber from the medical field like I am. It is at https://emedicine.medscape.com. Someone in that Sept.2, 2022 article had asked how long people with essential thrombocythemia live. Their answer was to state that the life expectancy is almost the same as the healthy population. Median survival is approximately 20 years. For patients younger than 60, media survival is 33 years. So I hope that this little piece of positive news will "make your day" and lead you into conversations here with people who have the same diagnosis and can help you to negotiate your life with much better attitude toward the disease than you have now. I'm an ambassador here, as well as a retired nurse with polycythemia vera x 4 yrs, and I would like to add you to my team and follow your course. Welcome to our community!

Hi Marian. First, re lowered energy: I daily take 2000 mgs of Vitamin B12, with doctors' permission, and I think it helps my energy level.
I too have ET due to CalR mutation. I'm a bit older than you; turned 72 yesterday. I have multiple friends dealing with far worse health issues. Hopefully you won't be troubled by dealing with ET for years to come. My treatment for ET started in 2020 when I had no symptoms but platelets were over 700 on routine annual physical's CBC. I had no trouble with one 500 mg Hydroxy daily and it worked to bring platelets down. Then, over time, platelets rose, a second pill was added on some days a week, and I started having huge digestive side effects. Reactions to HU vary so much; no point in worrying in advance. Hopefully you'll be in the group that have no problem with it. As I said, I was OK with 500 but not 1000 mgs. I recently switched hematologists and the new one, whom I much prefer to the old one, has me gradually phasing in a different med, Anagrelide.

Hi Marian....just because you are turning 60 in a couple of years does not mean you have to take Chemo drugs. I am almost 65 and managing with 100 mg of Aspirin daily. If your don't have any other major health concerns you can wait and see approach. There are a lot of us "mature" folks out there only on aspirin. Knowledge is power. Hope you are doing well xo

There is so much the doctors don’t know. I was diagnosed in 2015 with PV. I was getting info from Great Britain- Australia where it’s more common. Those in Europe call it a disorder not cancer. We switched to calling it cancer because then it qualifies for research and funding.
America is getting away from doing phlebotomy and more drugs. I’m not saying it’s good or bad.