You get to thinking, about life, death and the whole hep c thing.
You start to think “could things be any worse than this?”
The answer is of course yes……
Enjoy laughing at other peoples misfortunes, check out the celeb mugshots at http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/
Well another milestone, the fourth Interferon injection completed, the first box of syringes empty and only 11 more boxes left to go 
Week 3 hit me hard, in essence I spent from the Tuesday to the Saturday in bed but I think I know why. My sleeping pattern is shot with the result that I’m not getting to sleep until around 6am, that happened on the Sunday and I was up at 8am for the usual Monday hospital appointment a little later. In an attempt to break the cycle I stayed awake all day and went to bed at 11pm, dog tired. Yes you guessed right….didn’t get to sleep until 6am again! Up at 7am and had to go in to work to cover for one of the guys who was away on business, thats fine as its one thing not being able to pull my weight but quite another stopping someone pulling their’s. Stayed at work until mid-afternoon, took to my bed and got up on the Saturday! Read the rest of this entry »
And so on and so forth….
Not a lot different from week two if truth be told. Have felt a little rougher and a little more tired with probably the main difference being that concentration seems more difficult. I was trying to work out on the Monday what the date would be on the Friday but without success, seems that my brain my have shut down some higher maths functions, good excuse to hand if I forget to pay any bills
Interferon injection went smoothly, went a little lower this time with the insertion point just to add a little variety to the procedure. The site of the first injection is still very slightly red and last weeks is in full force. The slight worry becomes that you will run out of injection sites but despite having a body not dissimilar to Michelangelo’s David [with a little more down below :)] life is currently blessing me with a larger that average stomach, so plenty of area to stab at.
Not a bad start to the week if truth be told.
Had an appointment at the hospital Monday AM, just the routine blood tests to see how I am doing after one week of treatment. Pretty comfortable with it all now, same time, same place etc so all very familiar BUT the parking is a killer. I may start getting a lift or a taxi as the stress involved in getting hospital parking is enough to make you ill 
Back home and on to the second Interferon injection or as I like to think of it…calling in the reinforcements. Now this was my first unsupervised injection but very straightforward, just pinch an inch and slide the needle in. Had a crazy night afterwards, the flu like stuff really kicked in this time and boy did I sweat like you wouldn’t believe. Its a slight exaggeration but I sweated that much that I could hardly lift the duvet off me it was that heavy! Rough all day Tuesday and Tuesday night.
However that really makes the good days seem well….extra good, and today has been a good day. Didn’t wake till after noon and took a few hours to become human [which seems to be a pattern] but felt fine since then, almost normal. Its of course very early to see a pattern and I will be much happier if a pattern emerges but it seems I will get a couple of good days a week, a so so one, and the rest a bit low.
This may sound crazy but I’m thinking that maybe switching to a 6 day week may work well for me, could maybe squeeze 3 decent days out of that and keep on top of work stuff etc and just lay low on the not so good days. Extend the day to 27 hours and shorten the week. We shall see.
So the verdict on week two, not bad, not bad at all. I am hopeful that some pattern will emerge from the chaos, I’d work better with that.
Tip of the week.
If like me you have a tendency to put things off then STOP it. If you feel fine then seize the moment and run with it you don’t know what the next day will bring.
Oh and BTW…them reinforcements are working hard, like a bloodbath in there, if its really quiet you can hear the Hep C scream
Doctor: I’ve got your test results and some bad news. You have Hep C and Alzheimer’s.
Patient: Boy, am I lucky! I was afraid I had Hep C!
Well just over an hour to go until the Interferon goes on the offensive, I can almost feel Mr Hepatitis shaking with fear. Its all his own fault, as a dear friend is fond of saying, never leave a man with nothing to lose.
Time and work permitting I’ll try and update over the next few days exactly how I’m feeling and how it all goes.
36 hour Update: Read the rest of this entry »
If you don’t like black humour look away now.
So the guy goes to see the doctor;
Dr: I have some bad news for you I’m afraid, the Hepatitis has damaged your Liver so badly that you only have 9 to live.
Guy: OMG, 9 to live, 9 what, years, months????
Dr: 8,7,6,5,4….
So lets have a look at the kit involved.
Its a combination of two different drugs, Pegylated Interferon [the Pegylated bit just refers to the fact that the drugs molecules have been altered so that it breaks down over 7 days] of which I’m on the Roche version called Pegysus.
What is pegylated interferon?
Interferon is a type of protein produced by the body’s cells in response to viral hepatitis and other infections. Interferon stimulates the body’s immune system to fight viral infections and affect the ability of viruses to divide in liver cells.In pegylation, one or more chains of polyethelene glycol, or PEG (a gelatinous compound used to thicken food), are bonded to an interferon molecule. The PEG works to keep the interferon in the body longer, without reducing efficacy. Whereas three injections are normally required with regular interferon treatment, only one injection of pegylated interferon is required per week.
The other type of Interferon is a Schering-Plough product called PEG-INTRON. There is currently a study going on to compare the effectiveness of the two, results aren’t due until 2007 but the word on the street is that the Roche Pegysus may just have the edge.
In my case I take the Pegysus weekly via an injection into fat, just pinch an inch and stab away, the syringe [nearly said works ;)] is prefilled. Recommended sites are the belly [my choice] or the tops of the legs, there are some reports that injecting into the arms is less effective. I think that it is preferred that you inject yourself although certainly at my hospital they will do it for you if you wish, more on the actual injection process later but suffice to say it is easy and virtually painless with the very fine needle.
The kit:
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing everyone who got in their way.
Anon
We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
Dag Hammarskjold