ANYway, your spleen lives on the left side of your abdomen, producing blood cells that fight infection and filtering out old blood cells. (It does other stuff, too, but I'm not a technical expert.) If you're making too many platelets, the filter can get clogged and the spleen gets bigger. Your doctor can tell if your spleen is enlarged by doing an ultrasound.
An ultrasound of my spleen in September 2015 was one of the first tests I had when my hematologist suspected I had ET. I usually go to my small community hospital for routine tests like this because I don't have to wait around as long as I do at the large regional hospital.
The tech took me to the ultrasound room as soon as I signed in. I laid on my right side, pulled up my shirt on the left, and she put some warm lotion on my skin. In less than a minute, she'd waved her wand (that doohickey they put on your skin to get the ultrasonic picture of your innards), clicked her computer image a couple of times to get the measurements, and I was out of there.
My spleen wasn't enlarged, which means that the filter is still working OK, and there aren't so many excess platelets that they've clogged up the works. So yay, me. That doesn't mean it couldn't get clogged up later if the platelets go up, and I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has splenomegaly and how that's being treated.
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ET is a serious disease that requires specialist care. Discuss anything you read here with your doctor. No comments promoting "alternative" or "natural" cures (yes, this includes Rick Simpson's Oil) will be published.