Wow - what a response! I am SO grateful to hear from all of you about your experiences. It makes me feel much less alone!

I’ve always been suspicious of doctors and pharmaceutical concoctions. I never take any pill from a doctor without researching it first. And I’ve had some unpleasant past experiences but it wasn’t just the listed side effects that concerned me about hydrea. It was word “chemo” that made me scramble and start hunting for alternatives. I’ve lost 2 brothers, a brother in law and several work colleagues from cancer and my memories of their chemo experiences weren’t pleasant.

From what I’ve read, there’s not a whole lot i can do medically to lower blood platelets permanently because my body will just replace what would be filtered out in no time. I have an appointment with the 2nd opinion blood doc on the 10th. So I’m going to take one after supper tonight and go from there. There’s too many people depending on me right now for me to just clot, stroke out and end up laying in a hospital bed or dead.

Thanks for all the advice and support everyone!