Hepatitis C Treatment - 47 Weeks and Counting
no news is good news and I have no news :)
Everything is just fine, feeling well if very tired and don’t expect this to change much. I have just one injection left to hit the 48 week mark and from there its just a gentle coast downhill for another 24 weeks until treatment end. The only worry I have at the moment is that things are a little too good, that can make you lazy and sloppy, so I am trying to refocus a little. I’m not a person who needs external motivation for me it has to come from my own goal setting, however things generally come easy to me which can lead to complacency. In brief I feel I need to get a little more aggressive, a little nastier, than I have been of late. We shall see.
So time starved and tired is about the worst of it at the moment. Still things could be a lot worse, only by seeing how unlucky others are makes you realise how lucky you actually are. As an example imagine how unlucky Lou Gehrig was to die of Lou Gehrig’s disease, that must be a billion to one chance!
If I find the time I’ll try and do a review of the first 48 weeks of treatment next week, until then………
Luck is what you have left over after you give 100 percent.
- Langston Coleman
Keep the faith, kill the virus.
August 5th, 2006 at 5:00 am
I was just informed by my Doctor that my treatment is ending. After 6 1/2 months my viral load is going up again. I started at 1,7000,000 went to 26,000after 12 weeks then to 5000. It just spiked to 59,000. My hep- c type is 1b. Have you heard of any other treatment that mignt help.
Thanks,
Fellow soldier, Danny
August 5th, 2006 at 5:56 am
First off Danny sorry to hear of your tough break. Second your Dr seems to think he is in charge, he isn’t you are. You decide if treatment is ending not him and I wouldn’t make a decision based on just one test result. Now that phiosophical point is out the way here is my advice but make sure you get other input, I’m just a boy with hep c not a Dr.
THe good news is your responded well to treatment initally, very well in fact. Thats good news because some people just have no response at all to treatment. You have what I think they call viral breakthrough, the simplest way to imagine this is that your hep c virus has become immune to the interferon you are using. Its a smart virus and in your case it has worked out a way to bypass your bodies defenses.
So what to do. If you are still on treatment think about swotching the type of interferon you use. Be aware their is no real evidence that this works so you may finding convincing your Doctor but go for it, shit ot bust, hit that virus with everything you have while it is still on the ropes. If you switch have another PCR test about 8-12 weeks later to see if it has done the trick, the trick being undetectable viral load.
If this doesn’t work relax a little, new treatments are on the horizon, vx 950 looks promising etc.
What is the state of your liver, do you know what damage you have?
August 10th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Hi! I’m new to this website and want to thank you for such an excellent source of information and support.
I have probably had Hep C for 35 years (yes, a sometime drug user in the 70s and 80s) but was diagnosed about 5 years ago. I’m only stage 1 but my viral load keeps going up.
I am enrolled in the PROVE1 drug trial for VX-950 at UNM and will begin treatment August 25. I’ll keep following this site and will report in as to how it’s going.
August 13th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
not sure y u r doing 48 + 24 = 72 weeks of tx - did I get that right? You can leave an answer here or pm me on the forum.
uncertain
August 14th, 2006 at 4:33 am
Yeah 72 weeks for me.
August 16th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Was just browsing thru and found your site…….took me almost 6 hours to read it all (Riba fuzz wrapping round my brain) and I must say, I did more laughing then I have since I started treatment. I have however, cried more…much more. I’m so glad that I finally found a site where there is reliable info with a twist of humor.
Canadian girl kicking viral butt.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
keep the faith.
August 19th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Glad to hear your doing well
Keep it up. You have a lot of grit and determination which I would imagine you would need doing 72 weeks.
All the best
August 20th, 2006 at 6:47 am
Hi NM girl! As I’m sure you know everybody is excited by the potential of vx-950, any info you can share would be much appriciated.
Hi Terry, sounds like you are easily amused or the only one to get the Lou Gehrig joke :)
Tracey, treacey, tracey. Nice to hear from you again, how is life post SVR?
August 21st, 2006 at 10:51 am
I will gladly keep you posted. Friday is day 1 when I’ll spend 5 hours at UNM with lots of tests and a loading dose of drugs. Is loading on the first day something that happens with the standard treatment?
BTW - thanks for your sense of humor, too!
September 1st, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Life is good post SVR. I think the poison is out of my system now and apart from a touch of insanity pre post tx and post tx everything is fine now.
It is well worth it in the end people…keep it up
Tracey
September 7th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
I havew wrtten several tmes, and for ever reason the notes are not put in reply column. I just need to see for myself the issues I’m facing are not being done alone. To see people respond to your personal letter is more comforting than seeing others write and tell of their progress, at least for me at time time. That is since I’ve only recently cound I have hep C.
Sincerity to all of my fellow victums, And may you all have a quick and healthy recovery.
Rafael
September 20th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
A parabole based on an acutal occurrence.
Once upon a time, a good doctor helped conduct research for new drugs. He had a private practice, but once a week, he saw study patients in the afternoon.
Eventually, the patients in the waiting room realized they were all involved in the same randomized, double blinded, placebo controlled study. Then one got an idea.
“If I’m on the study drug and you’re not, we mix both our study drugs together and we each should get some of the drug.”
“What a noble idea”, said the other. And they both mixed their pills together and then divied them up between them.
Soon, everyone was doing their own thing, mixing and sharing the pills with each other so that everyone would get a response.
But one day the doctor came out and saw what was happening and was shocked and dismayed. He called the pharmaceutical company, that then had to throw out all the data he had collected regarding side effects, patient response, and overall general health. His site was discontinued from the trial for major protocol violations related to the participant conduct. He would not be recommended as a study site again.
The pharmaceutical company then had to go to the FDA and report what happened. The FDA responded that without these patients, their study was under-powered and could not be used to determine if the drug was safe or effective.
The pharmaceutical company had to scrap the whole study and start anew. It cost millions of dollars to re-do the whole study.
And that is why AZT took so long to get to market.
There’s a reason why studies are blinded–it’s to prevent patient/doctor/ pharmaceutical company bias that would skew the data and may either over-hype a drug as safe when it’s not, or under-hype a drugs effectiveness when it is.
Thinkaboutit NM Girl before you disclose pharmaceutical company trade secrets.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Hi Thinkaboutit, thanks for raising a good point for discussion. My view is simple, particulary in the age of the Internet, information wants to be free and will always find a way to be so. The medical establishment needs to accept and address this, not pretend it doesn’t happen. It is peoples natural instinct to get as much information as they can and they will.
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:22 am
Hey C boy.
No doub’t this virus is tough.
I went through the 48 weeks and now the loas is starting to climb again.
What is vx950?
Just looking for an alternate…………………….
February 23rd, 2007 at 4:11 pm
you know this site is pretty humorous no kidding.
sure wish i would have been vibe last year when the pegasus and all the other shit i was taking that made me look like and feel like death not that i want to go back.
really.
everybody here seems so happy.
hope to kill this thing that came back in the millions again but no flags
sure hope it stays that way till i get killed or something
maybe it’s the shitake that’s keeping it on the norm
or maybe the weed
or maybe the beer and pretzels
only one a night though
hang in dere
March 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I have hep c geno 3 I am starting treatment in june of 2008 I was thinking of doing a blog or web page like you. Would you get mad if I used a site call Hepcboy2 or something like that? I would also like to link to your site So people can find my site. I will pretty much do the same as you and just let people know how I feel during this treatment time. If i do this I just hope people will find it and maybe help some people worried about what is going to happen to them. Your site has really help me to know what I got in store for me. What do you think?