@daelitesmom

I'm sorry you've been through so much! And I'm really sad you don't have abundant love and support all around you.

While technically HU is a chemo drug, it's in a different category altogether from infusions that make people sick and miserable (such as your neighbor may have had).

HU is used by hundreds of thousands of us with ET and other blood cancers, as well as many, many more with sickle cell anemia. It's even used to treat oral cancers. It's been used for decades. It's widely available and pretty inexpensive.

While HU can cause problems for some people, it's what doctors turn to first for ET.

ET can't be shrugged off, although wouldn't we all like to do exactly that!

ET makes us exhausted. It gives many of us blinding headaches. Even worse, it depletes our bone marrow.

By suppressing ET's manic overproduction of platelets, HU helps us with all of that.

Everyone is different, so you'll just need to give it a try.

Speaking for myself: I've been taking a whopper dose of this stuff for more than two years, with no ill effects whatsoever.

If you like milk -- it's a great way to wash down those capsules! I like to never take HU (or my daily aspirin) on an empty stomach. Finally, as I learned from nohrt4me here on this forum: Drink water! Lots of water!