Thursday. I woke up this morning feeling pretty ok. It's kind of nice to wake up in the morning and not have body aches for once. Brain fog is hanging around a little but hey I can't have everything!
Ribavirin has been playing with my mind again I think. I'm getting aggravated at the little things again. Things that would usually just get a second of thought are really irritating me lately. It's like PMS on steroids!
For instance, my morning ritual is to go online and read our local newspaper. In the paper there's always an article called "Dear Dr. Donahue". This mornings headline for his article is "Hepatitis C often has a positive prognosis".
It reads:
DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Please save my life. I was diagnosed with hepatitis C five years ago. Tests now say I need treatment. I am scared to death of treatment, about which I have heard horror stories. I have an older husband who will not make it without me. I feel great and have terrific energy. I am 59. Is there something other than the standard treatment I can take? – S.D.
ANSWER: Infection with the hepatitis C virus leads to chronic liver infection in 85 percent of patients. However, illness doesn’t appear until 10 to 20 years after infection. At that time, about 20 percent of infected people develop liver cirrhosis, and 1 percent to 4 percent come down with liver cancer. That means 75 percent of patients do not develop serious liver disease. Treatment is necessary when evidence of the virus can be found in the blood and when the liver shows changes that indicate cirrhosis will be a likely outcome. Most of the time, that’s determined through microscopic examination of liver tissue obtained by a needle biopsy.
Who has given you the horror stories of treatment?
It’s not a picnic, but it isn’t as terrifying as it has been portrayed to you.
Ribavirin is one of the drugs used. Its worst side effect is anemia, a drop in the red blood cell count. Stopping the drug just about always returns the count to normal.
Peginterferon is the other drug used in treatment. Its most common side effect is flulike symptoms: headache, muscle pain, fever, nausea and vomiting.
Appropriate medicines can control these symptoms.
It also can produce a drop in both the white and red blood cell counts. It has aggravated depression and given a few people thoughts of suicide. Hair-thinning is another possible side effect. The list of potential side effects is long. Most resolve when the drug is stopped. And most patients complete therapy without having to greatly modify their activities during treatment. Peginterferon is injected under the skin once a week. People learn how to inject themselves. There are no other effective treatments.
"Appropriate medicines can control these symptoms"??? Yeah really? And by the way I think he missed a few side effects (like Brain fog and Major FATIGUE!)... not to mention that the few "Appropriate Medicines" that they do give come side effects of their very own.
"And most patients complete therapy without having to greatly modify their activities during treatment." - What? I'm sorry but outside of my dragging my ass to work, which is a very difficult thing to do on tx, my life is about laying on the couch or going to bed. I have no life and I don't know anyone on tx who does. "Without having to greatly modify their activities"? - What the hell ...my whole life is greatly modified!
Oh yeah, and I don't think that he mentioned that tx can last up to 48 weeks.....or even 72 weeks like Teah, for some Geno Types.
Don't get me wrong....Tx is do-able. But when someone just blows it off as no big deal it makes me want to inject their ass with interferon and feed them ribavirin for a couple of weeks just so they can get a feel for it before they nonchalantly blow it off as no big deal.
I realize that Doctors try to sway patients toward tx and not scare them off. The more that people get treated the less people there are in the world carrying this virus around and spreading it. When asked a question like this, I just don't understand why they try to pass all of the side effects of tx off as no big deal.....had I gone into tx thinking that, I would never have made it past week 2. Being informed and prepairing myself for what I was going through made me not panic when I started feeling like hell fell on me.
Is tx do-able? Yes
Is it worth it? Hell Yes.
Is it even slightly easy? F*** No!
Yep.....that's my Riba-rage session for the day!
Tune in tomorrow.....same bat time....same bat station!
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Life and times of Dealing with a Dragon named Hep C
I found that Hep C has a nick name.
The Sleeping Dragon.
It's fitting.... Strange thing is that I've always loved Dragons.
I guess I never could have imagined that I'd have one of my own.
About Me
- Laurie
- I'm a 42 year old Mother of 5. 3 of my own and 2 of my Husbands. My 3 are 13, 17 and 21. His are 22 and 26. We have 3 boys and 2 girls. In my life I've had 17 surgeries, a tatoo and a blood transfussion. So your guess is as good as mine as to where I contracted Hep C. I do not believe it was from the tat. The gentleman that did the art was very careful with sterile tools. But who knows. I was diagnosed with Hep C on March 22, 2007. Geno type 1b with a viral load of almost 5 million. And now I turn the corner and yet a new path lay ahead of me...... A new Journey begins
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3 comments:
Hi Laurie, Maybe you should ask Dr. Donahue if he wants to interview you when your having a Riba rage day! LOL Have a Great Day
Rosie
You're a tough cookie, Laurie. Not much longer ......... hang in there!
Sue
You are so right, I am with you, on treatment I had no life, work and bed and the brain fog is terrible. I don't care what kind of work you have to do it is hard. I think it is like surgery where they don't tell you how bad it will be. Remember my liver doctor who said that only 10% of people lose hair? Well I must have met all of them :)
Vent any time you want, you have earned. I am going on 3 weeks without the tx, a little better, actually doing a few things I have not done in montsh
Have a good day
D
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