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Essential Thrombocythemia: Looking for information and support
Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: Jun 17 9:11am | Replies (504)Comment receiving replies
Thank you Lori. I’m in NZ and my specialists are insistent that this is not cancer. When I pressed it, the answer was that it could be described as “pre-cancerous perhaps, but not cancer”. I’ve found this confusing due to many articles I’ve read.
I think for me, the word cancer is such a ‘big’ word that it feels important to define it fully in relation to my condition. But perhaps different countries and specialists have varying interpretations and understandings, so I will have to live in the ‘in-between’ lol.
Replies to "Thank you Lori. I’m in NZ and my specialists are insistent that this is not cancer...."
My hematologist at University of Chicago Medicine also told me numerous times that essential thrombocytosis is not cancer. However, online research does not support that claim the majority of the time.
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The big C word is frightening and it always conjures up the worst-case scenarios in our brain, doesn’t it? Seldom do we think of it in varying degrees. It’s like being ‘a little bit pregnant’. Well, you either are or you aren’t! LOL.
Do I have cancer or not? Well, from my understanding based on a great deal of research and just this morning my hematologist’s NP told me: “Myeloproliferative neoplasms or. myeloproliferative blood disordersare, in the blood cancer family. They’re just usually slow to develop and sometimes the news is sugarcoated so as not to strike fear in patients by giving it the moniker of Cancer…to avoid unnecessary anxiety.”
I know, even if it’s not something that may require treatment, it’s always lurking in the back of the mind…like waiting for that proverbial ‘other shoe to drop’.
The healthiest thing is to just assume that shoe isn’t going anywhere and get on with enjoy the rest of our lives. IF something happens, then we’ll take care of it at the time, otherwise we’re just wasting the precious time we do have. ☺️
Incidentally, I love the picture you posted of yourself in your first comment a couple months ago! Cute doggo…
How are you doing with the hydroxy?