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Anyone living with Essential Thrombocythemia with JAK2?
Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: 1 hour ago | Replies (491)Comment receiving replies
Wondering if Taylor has tried taking a daily antihistamine? I take generic loratadine (the active ingredient in Claritin) every day. ET's weird platelets can set off our immune reaction, causing itching and stuffiness. Loratadine helps me a lot.
Our daily low-dose aspirin reduces clotting activity -- for those of us with too many platelets, that's a good thing! But reduced clotting means even a teensy paper cut will bleed (always pack Band Aids!). And bruises are just unclotted bleeding under the skin.
Maybe instead of thinking bruises are scary, you could think of them as proof the aspirin and Plavix are working well, maintaining the fluidity of his blood?
Replies to "@dwilson072516 Wondering if Taylor has tried taking a daily antihistamine? I take generic loratadine (the active..."
@janemc Hey there. So I had the ugly red bruises and bleeding prior to dx and that was the reason I initially sought treatment. Dx with Jak2-ET August 2025 and started aspirin. Fast forward through breast cancer treatment, and started HU on March 30. My body went into shock so waiting on another med. I have had the weirdest things happen to me because of my ET. I had an arterial clot in my calf in 2023 after a hysterectomy. I am ‘allergic’ to everything but told that I have no allergies. I break out in hives spontaneously. My knuckles turn bright red randomly. Oh and all of my hair is breaking off. Because I want to look as bad as I feel. I have constant congestion and periodic itching but I will say the easy bleeding was better the 30 days I was on HU. My onc is also a breast cancer specialist and wants me to let him treat my MPN even though I requested a specialist. My counts aren’t even that high, so what the hell.
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@janemc he does take Zyrtec daily, a low dose aspirin and Plavix ( clopidogrel) daily. Thank you for the last paragraph, that's an excellent point!! We do also keep lots of bandaids and bandages handy!