Back From Hershey

Well I'm home with drugs in tow.

I'm still on hold taking them pending my blood work, but they sent me home with them thinking that I'll be restarting the Interferon by Friday.

They were prepared to stop if the infection wasn't any better or if I lost any more weight. If my blood work comes back not so good they still may stop....but for now it looks more like I'll continue through the end.

We've come this far and neither Hershey nor Jimmy and I think it's worth the risk to stop now.

If I wind up with another infection it'll be a different story....we'll end treatment because my body just won't with stand anymore.

There was a very big surprise in today's visit - Roche has unblinded the Trial. They've decided to start all over. The trial drug has shown to have too many problems....eye problems and low blood counts like Lymphocytes that don't seem to want to return even after tx has been stopped.

Unblinded means that today I found out that I was on one of the highest dosages in the trial - Group A:
RO4588161 - 1000 mg. twice daily
Pegasys (Interferon) - 180 micrograms once weekly
Copegus (Ribavirin) - 1000 mg. Daily

Jimmy and I had joked around when we first started this saying that with my luck we'll get the highest dosage. Well we did....

Right now our worry is to make it through these final 7 weeks, then the worry will be praying that my blood counts return once I'm off of the Ribavirin and Interferon. I'll be on the Procrit and Nuepogen for a while after tx ends trying to get my counts back up where they should be. With standard care they would normally come back on their own.....with the trial drug that we took there's a worry about how fast they'll come back...if they come back.

My final worry will be if I cleared the virus. I'm sure that I may have already, but it's a risk that I choose not to gamble with by stopping tx 7 weeks early.

So that's it. I wait for the call from Hershey saying that I'm restarting....

For now I think that God gave me a brief stay from tx so that I can enjoy Thanksgiving a little bit more.

:)