Inteferon / Ribavirin Treatment - Week 11
All quiet on the Hep C front.
Been a good week and has followed the trend of late of improving since about week 8. A few minor niggles mainly a cold sore big enough that it may need its own national insurance number but apart from that its been plain sailing.
I even *gasp* went into work for a few hours this week and one of the guys also came up on Friday to help me get some tasks completed. I am hoping to get into work more often and generally get more active, I’m hoping this will help with the major problem I have of not sleeping as the exercise bike isn’t really enough activity on its own. My dream is to able to start a little light weight work, I really do miss that.
My plan has very much been to take the first 12 weeks easy, my feeling is that these weeks are the most critical and I have tried to allow my body to focus on killing the virus. The avoidance of stress has been very high up on my list of priorities, I’ve been pretty successful at that.
The only other thing I would say has changed is that I have become a little more cold hearted, there is a small emotional detachment going on. I think there are a few reasons for this, the treatment being one thing that can nudge you towards this. Also I have my 12 week PCR test coming up soon, its a critical time and the temptation is to worry about it but….”If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two impostors just the same”. Mainly though its a natural result of the nature of long term illness, you have many battles to fight and won’t win every one. The important thing is to fight hard, fight smart and fight long. When you look in the mirror and every day you can tell yourself you fought well then life becomes series of small victories not a pattern of swings between highs and lows.
In brief…stronger,fitter, more focused and I think just generally more used to the treatment. I think that the body is very good at adapting to things, it just needs a little time to catch up.
Keep the faith, kill the virus.
December 5th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
Well, your a good and positive person to have around. Glad your getting used to the toxic bombardment. Go easy with that work, it’s a hard place to avoid stress.
Your certainly doing all you can to beat the virus.
All the best
Teddy
December 9th, 2005 at 6:02 am
Good to hear things are fairly stable…work is the one thing I am missing and that’ s before I start TX……..
December 9th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
It seems a fairly typical pattern JB from what I have seen. First few weeks bite somewhat, 6-8 you hit the wall and many seem to plateu around 12 weeks. I’ve read a few times that as a basic rule of thumb the sides you have at 12 weeks are about what you will get. This seems to continue until about the 30ish week mark, the main danger in between being risk of infections. I think from 30ish weeks on most will start to really struggle.
The work thing is tough, might be more of a man thing, hunter/gatherer and all. If you were looking at some replacement to current skills I would consider something you could do propped up in bed
May 12th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
I too have Hep C. DOctors are recommending Interferon & Ribaviron but I am scared. I live alone & have no family noe friends to speak of. Are side effects as devastating as I’v heard? Do you think I shoulf try knowing my circumstances? Looking for some answers…my viral load is 15,400,000..pretty bad..and I was just doagnosed 3 months ago.
May 14th, 2006 at 8:38 am
>Are side effects as devastating as I’v heard?
The glib answer would be no.
My advice, for what it is worth is to forget about side effects, practicalities etc what you need to establish is how urgent is your need to treat. The best way to do that is to have a biopsy to show what, if any, liver damage you have. Once you have that information you can combine it with your genotype and know pretty much what you face. The key is to then organise and prioritise your life to deal with the medical facts not the other way round.
>I live alone & have no family noe friends to speak of.
There are advantages to that, you can at least concentrate fully on your battle. There are quite a few online forums about hep c, you could find a lot of support at such places. I would take a look at http://forums.delphiforums.com/friendship7/messages/
Good luck and let us know how you get on!
June 19th, 2006 at 5:39 am
Am is a vommen in sveden a,m takes inteferon in a 3 månAm thinks veri matck ia,m is fear ,bath docktor sade to mi Yours virus is gonen.Jag är en kvinna från stockholm jag går på inteferon och pegasus,I 3 månader har jag haft medicinen.Jag är rädd för behandlingen och har ingen tilllit till läkare ,MEN dom säger att jag är virusfri men ska gå i ca 11 månader till,Jag blev misshandlad och skuren på ryggen med en kanyl har polisanmält men eftersom jag har tidigare missbruk så lades anmälan ned.”Hemlös kvinna” sverige hemls1@yahoo.se
July 17th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
HI EVERYONE.IM ON WEEK 3 OF INTEFERRON AND THE PILLS
2 WEEKS AGO I WAS HAVING SOME TROUBLE WITH SHORTNESS OF BREATH, GOT WORSE AFTER 3RD. SHOT
THIS AM I GOT A CALL THEY ARE STOPPING MY TREATMENT.
I GOT SOME KIND OF A LUNG PROBLEM FROM IT.
ANY ONE ELSE EVER HAVE THIS PROBLEM?