Hi @jacklyn, if your doctor does increase your dose of hydroxy from 1000mg daily to 2000mg, you might ask if you can cycle up slowly by adding a pill per day incrementally. I was able to do that with a few of my meds so that it wasn’t an abrupt change and side effects were kept to a minimum.

When hydroxy is used for patients with CMML, from my understanding, its purpose is to bring the numbers of white blood cells, including monocytes, down to normal. It may also help shrink an enlarged spleen. Your doctor will most likely check your blood numbers to see where your white blood cell count is before adding the increased dosage.

That’s amazing that your pain level has diminished so greatly and a positive side benefit! HU can slow or stop cancer cells from growing in the body so that may be why you’re feeling so much better. I had a similar experience when I started my first round of chemo. At that time I was in the hospital where the infusions were daily for 7 days. My sustained fever of 102 disappeared and I physcially started feeling better during chemo. So my first exposure to the toxins I feared in my imagination turned out to be my life savers in the end! ☺️

Ohhhh my goodness, yes, please stay away from Dr Google! 😅 To be sure, there are some great articles out on the internet but searching can also lead us to information that may not necessarily apply to us directly. Just reading a piece of mis-information can plant a seed in our imagination that can grow out of proportion! If I paid attention to my projected life span I would have been gone 5 years ago. I have no plans on checking out any time soon! So just enjoy every day! I read a bumper sticker yesterday. It said “Live life like they left the gate open.” and I’ve been doing that for years. Don’t worry about ‘what ifs’. ☺️

Good luck Tuesday. Let me know how your oncology appt turns out!