Hepatitis C Support Group
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral disease which can cause liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person's blood. Many people with HCV infection have no symptoms and are unaware of the need to seek treatment. Hepatitis C infects an estimated 150-200 million people worldwide.
It's hard to believe 12 weeks have passed by, it seems like 12 centuries on this stuff! :-)
I had my blood drawn yesterday. I will be very grateful if the results come back undetected, it will mean the medicine is working. But I wont miss this stuff.
I wont miss having to open all those damn blister packages (why are they so hard to open)
I wont miss eating 20 grams of fat at 7:00 AM, 3:00 PM and 11:00 PM
I wont miss having to force myself out of bed in the morning just to eat and take my meds.
I wont miss forcing myself to stay awake to do the same.
And of course, I wont miss the dreaded butt burn, or ring of fire as we so aptly describe.
My next appointment with my doctor isn't until Dec 5th, but I will call and try to get the lab results next week. Until then, I will savor this as a major milestone completed.
Bob
I had my blood drawn yesterday. I will be very grateful if the results come back undetected, it will mean the medicine is working. But I wont miss this stuff.
I wont miss having to open all those damn blister packages (why are they so hard to open)
I wont miss eating 20 grams of fat at 7:00 AM, 3:00 PM and 11:00 PM
I wont miss having to force myself out of bed in the morning just to eat and take my meds.
I wont miss forcing myself to stay awake to do the same.
And of course, I wont miss the dreaded butt burn, or ring of fire as we so aptly describe.
My next appointment with my doctor isn't until Dec 5th, but I will call and try to get the lab results next week. Until then, I will savor this as a major milestone completed.
Bob
hope you feel more rested and less sides as the tx continues
Dream you want to know about after? First off I haven't left, just been hangin' in the wings so to speak and trying to figure out the mess I'm in now. I am a tweener so to speak. I have had all non detected VL since week 4, but was stpped at 20 weeks, 4 weeks short of my scheduled 24 due to a rapidly rising CK test which meant some kind of muscle damage was happening. HCV doc thought that the Interferon woke up an underlying AI problem so he stopped me.
I went to an RA doc to find out about having an AI and she overdosed me, (or I had a severe allergic reaction to it, the jury is still out) with Vitamin D, so I was back in bed for 3 days over that one.
I'm still losing quite a bit of hair, but am growing some back as well. Tint hairs around my face that look like I let a blind man cut it with hedge trimmers.
I have been on here a few times and have read about some of us who have relapsed on tx....I'm scared that that's going to be me as well.
I have another test Dec 1, then the final 6 month on March 13th, so we shall see.
I wish I had some more positive things to relate, but I don't at this point.....I'm sorry.
Love to all of you,
Kelly
Bill
Eating the right amount of fat is not easy. I found it hard to count and measure portions to make sure I was getting enough, so I tended to eat a lot of single serving foods. Stuff like peanut butter crackers, noodle bowls, etc. I found some big bags of trail mix at Costco that tasted pretty good as well. I just measured out a half cup servings and put it in sandwich bags to grab and eat. I "tried" to eat good fat like nuts and avocados, but I also had my share of microwave pizza and ice cream.
One of the hardest things was to get enough fiber. A lot of your preprocessed fatty foods have little fiber in them. Plus you eat at such odd hours. What I did was to try and eat a healthy snack with a lot of fiber in (rice and corn was a favorite) in between my fatty meals. I think the fiber helped me with the dreaded butt burn as well.
Good luck to you!
Bob
I used a lot of dairy for my fat, but it often gave me an uncomfortable bloated feeling. Milk, cheese, cream cheese...even popcorn. Pop's Secret Homestyle in the snack sized bags has 22 grams of fat.
My favorite was actually Boost Plus nutrition drinks. One has 14 grams of fat. The chocolate is very rich so I add enough whole milk to make up 20 grams of fat. That was the easiest thing for me at 7am. I am not a breakfast eater and I would NEVER be able to ingest food that early!
I've been so 'symptomatic' that I've been on medical leave from work two times in the 14 weeks on tx...3 1/2 weeks the first time and 5 weeks now. I go back to work on Monday 11/26. A customer service job in a call center. Sedentary...no exertion.
I finished Incivek two weeks ago, and it's gotten steadily better since then. Dropping the high fat diet was the BEST!!
I take Interferon shot #15 tomorrow night. The end will be here before I know it...now that I'm not so sick!
Good luck and prayers to you all!
Juliet