Thank you everyone for your comments. We will be picking up my husband’s medication at the hospital tomorrow although he won’t be starting it until next week sometime. As this time gets nearer I am getting increasingly worried about the side effects. I imagine it’s the fear of the unknown that is causing me anxiety and the fact that he doesn’t want to discuss it. We are also in the process of arranging holidays one with my son and his family and the other with my daughter and her family. One of his comments was why am I spending all this money on a holiday when I won’t be able to sit in the sun. I have kept away from Google apart from some of the more genuine forums. However I did read on one forum about not sharing a bathroom with someone who is having chemotherapy. I am sorry to burden you with all my worries. Our son had testicular cancer over 20 yrs ago and has been fine since his surgery. In a way this seems worse as its never going to be over and done with.
Oh @Eileen1 yes, I reckon it is the unknown that makes things so scary…
Not to answer your question, but just to say not that many partners have more than one bathroom in the houses/flats. Not for that reason, I just don’t like soggy towels, but we do have separate set of towels, if that is something you wish to consider. Since the Covid outbreak I do have hand wash sanitiser and wipes about.
@Eileen1 I think I have already given you my handy hints for the adaptions I have made so I can still go out in the sunshine, If not I will share them with you again.
Perhaps your grandchildren will be protected from the sunshine with high factor sun products, hats etc in this day and age.
Please do get your husband to check out out his/your questions and fears with his specialist nurse or medical team.
You certainly are not burdening us please do keep sharing your and your husband’s questions or fears with us, we are a forum family that you are part of
Be very kind to yourselves and please do keep posting what is on your minds…
Hi .After much deliberation my husband took his first dose of hydroxyurea last night. How long is it for any side effects to happen?
@Eileen1 I think that IF there are any side effects it very much depends on the dosage and the individual.
I hope others can share their experiences
@Eileen1 this is also a space for you to be able to say how it feels to be you too.
Be kind and really look after yourselves and please do keep posting.
Hi. My husband has now been on hydroxyurea for 2 weeks now and hasn’t had any side effects. His recent blood test showed his platelets and lowered slightly but has now been told to take 2 tablets every other day and 1 on the rest. How long does it take for the hydroxyurea to make a noticable difference and what is the next step if this does not occur. Many thanks for all your help so far.
Hi @Eileen1having read your post I hope that you will realise why we are unable to answer medical questions and have to refer people back to their medical teams who know the patients and their whole medical history.
The good news is that treatments are tailored to the individual, as you show above, so if there is a answer to your question it would be the medical team that would answer it.
Although we are all unique individuals and can act differently to any medications.
How are you doing?
Look after yourself as well as you do your husband.
Hello @Eileen1 - glad your hubby is doing well with the Hydroxy and no effects that really good 
it takes about eight weeks for them to kick in with some effect although it’s really good to see he has some lowering of platelets after just two weeks. It’s very normal for a dose to be put up and changed such as his have been - the dose is hugely individual to each person and it’s usual to start low dose and then tweak and change them til it’s found which amount works well to getting platelet counts into more normal ranges. It’s never a negative when doses get changed - in fact over the years you get treated it’s also normal to continue to get tweaks up and down on how many capsules are used - it sort of becomes part of the Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) life to get bloods done regularly and doses checked and often tweaked. As you can imagine I have had a lot of years on Hydroxy - 13 years previously then a few years on interferon and then back to Hydroxy since last summer - it took about two months this last time before my platelets were falling and then they did slowly and we are still tweaking doses to find a good level for now
So all is going well for your husband - keep us posted