My son, who is only 26 years old now, was diagnosed with thrombocythemia 5 years ago. At that time his platelets were in the 800,000 range. He had a subsequent open splenectomy and after surgery his platelets rose to over 3 million. Six months post surgery his platelets were still in the 2 million range. He then developed a pulmonary embolus and deep vein thrombosis. After that his hematologist started him on Hydrea and he's been on Hydrea for the past four years. His platelets have been somewhat controlled, back down to the 700-800,000 range but he continued to have blood clots in his legs on a fairly regular basis. He was started on Lovenox injections 16 months ago and STILL continues to get blood clots in the legs. The veins in his legs are pretty much destroyed and he has chronic severe pain from this. The last two months his platelet counts have been on the rise again, now being in the 1.3-1.5 million range. What is up with that? Is there anyone else that has had multiple complications such as these from thrombocythemia?