I was so happy to receive a reply from my earlier message. Most of the messages that I've read here deal with the platelet numbers, but very little on the symptoms that are attached to E.T. I felt great two months ago when my elevated platelet numbers were spotted at my annual physical. I can't believe how fast my health went down from there! I have had aching ribs, but especially I have had pain in my fingers, toes, and back of my legs. Along this stage I was simply taking the baby aspirin. My pain became so strong--weakness and dizziness in just walking down a hallway--that I'm now on hydrea. It's been six days since I've started on this drug. I do begin to see some improvements in my pain. My doctor has said I can take Tylenol when needed for the pain. My platelets elevated quickly--about 100,000 every week, leading to that "million mark". Most interesting to me personally is that my sister was diagnosed with myeloma about the same time that I was diagnosed with E.T. So many similarities (bone marrow biopsy, ...) Thank you for all responses.