ET - a blood disorder - what is it ?

[mckiney]

A good friend was recently diagnosed with this at an apparently young age (mid 30s). Does anyone else have it or know anyone who has? Do you know much about the longer term implications?

It is when you have too many platelets in your blood. I have it too. Do you know what levels your friend has - it is very rare apparently so you may not get many replies on this board.

It is called Essential Thrombocythaemia which means that they don't know why a person is producing too many platelets. It can be serious, but it can be quite benign. I take a small aspirin every day to prevent clots, but otherwise I am fit and well. I have been diagnosed now for around 3 years, but I probably had it before that but didn't know about it.

Hope this helps - there are some American support groups that I am a member of, but I don't know whether these are that good. Some people on them are very sick and I sometimes just delete the email that I get everyday. There are a number of conditions that can lead to a high platelet count and some of these mean that you are quite ill. My condition isn't like that so I don't really want to read of people being ill! If you get what I mean.