Aw this is so great, thank you for being so welcoming dear @Gillyj and for reaching out here Aaron @Timmins26.
So true about fatigue being caused by both the Essential Thrombocythaemia ('ET') and its treatments. The way my haematologist describes it is much like what you said @Gillyj, that the medicine should bring down blood cell numbers into their normal ranges, but that fatigue remains a concern. So many people have fatigue with these sorts of diagnoses that it has its own acronym of CRF (cancer-related fatigue).
Maybe of interest but I was reading through some old notes from an online blood cancer conference shared with me on the forum and the haematologist talked about Myeloproliferative neoplasms ('MPN') like Essential Thrombocythaemia ('ET') and said that interferon can take about a year to stabilise blood cell numbers: Now part of the polycythaemia vera posse - #119 by Duncan
I wonder if your abdominal pain could be an enlarged spleen as this is common with Myeloproliferative neoplasms ('MPN'), as mentioned in these symptoms of ET from Macmillan. I’d really be careful with headaches though due to the clotting risk we have with Myeloproliferative neoplasms ('MPN') and pass any severe ones past a doctor, maybe NHS 111 just to be sure.
And you know I agree the language can be so complex and everything new seems related to some other confusing physiological thing! It does start making sense though, I promise, and some sort of routine emerges.
Just to say, you can ask your haematologist to explain all your treatment options as we’re lucky to have a few for Myeloproliferative neoplasms ('MPN'), including hydroxyurea and ruxolitinib. I think it’s worth considering fertility and which medicines can affect that. When it doubt, write queries down and make a list to ask your haematologist.