Working through treatment

[Guest guest]

I worked all thru treatment and I am a Medical Assistant in a very busy Family Practice. I run patients, do nurse triage, EKG's, injections, assist in office surgeries, patient histories, you name it. I won't say it was easy... there were times I had to lay down after showering in the morning before I finished getting ready for work. I would be so tired after getting home I couldn't think straight. But I made it.

I am getting ready soon to do it again. I am praying I will be able to work through it again. If not we will starve for sure. Or lose our house. I HAVE to work.

But I wonder too if maybe not being able to rest caused the treatment not to clear the virus. *sigh* Who knows. Rita CopeJuly 25, 1979 - August 12, 2000passenger single car accident

http://www.angelfire.com/ab2/springshome/links.html

Re: new to the group

Hi and welcome to the group! Im sorry that you needed to find a support group but glad you found us.. I believe we are the best support group out there!I know its a shock when you first get diagnosed.. but just remember that this disease moves in decades so there is plenty of time to gather all the info you need BEFORE you start any treatment. First off,, have you had a biopsy? You MUST have a biopsy to see IF and how much damage you have to your liver. There is no reliable blood test to see if you have cirrhosis or heavy fibrosis with this disease except a biopsy. It is the gold standard. If you were to find out that you have no damage and that your virus is not moving along at all, you may want to delay treatment until they find something easier and more assurred and not do the peg and riba.. Do you know what genotype you are? You really DO need to gather all the info before deciding whether or not

to do treatment. Treatment is doable for most but it is not easy. I could NOT work past week 12 of treatment because I became so anemic which is quite common on treatment. Plus you need to make sure that your doc will treat your side effects and not just lower your med doses.. Many docs just lower your meds thereby allowing the virus to mutate and then you never get rid of it.. The decision to treat should not be an easy one because there are NO guarantee's with it.. Some reach a sustained viral response or SVR, some go undetectible for virus while on tx and immediately relapse after they stop treatment, for some the meds cause the virus to go into overdrive and they get worse from the treatment, I've even known at least two people who have died from the treatment.. I myself cleared the virus, remain virus free but am very very damaged from the treatment and am totally disabled from the treatment. I was at a stage 3-4 and grade 3 when I was

diagnosed so I had to do treatment to keep my stage from becoming fully a stage 4 which is cirrhosis.. When you reach stage 4, your chances of successfully treating are reduced. There are many pieces of the puzzle you need to gather before you go on treatment.I have known ONE person who was able to work all the way through treatment because she had a desk job and her boss would allow her to take time off of work as she needed it. I was a 911 paramedic and while most of the time was a lot of sit and wait time,, but when it was busy, I couldnt just jump up and run to the ambulance and I had a very hard time making life and death decisions.. so of course I had to stop working and I was never able to return.. The treatment causes lots of autoimmune problems that are now permanent side effects that I will have to deal with for the rest of my life. So as I said, you really do need to have that biopsy to see how much damage you have.There

are some things you can do to lessen the side effects while on treatment,, such as making sure you get enough protein and eating some fat ( peanut butter or cream cheese etc) when you take your Riba pills and drinking nearly a gallon of filtered water EVERY day.. and making sure your doc will give you procrit and neupogen for anemia should you need it... Giving yourself this shot is easy honey,, NO insurance company will pay for an office call every week so you can go in and have the doc give you the shot.. its really a piece of cake. The first one is the hardest but after you do that, its easy.. and you dont want others giving you the shots because it puts THEM at risk of infecting themselves if they should accidently prick themselves with your needle after giving you the shot. Most of us give our shots in our belly or thigh's and when you pinch the skin up, the needle does not hurt, you dont feel it as its very very short and tiny,,

like a diabetic's needle.. and if you push the medication in slowly, it doesnt even burn.. we'll help you honey.. Please feel free to ask any questions and we'll help you.. One thing we always suggest is to get copies OF EVERYTHING from your doc,, all your labs, your biopsy, everything and keep it in a file folder at home so when you come up with a question, you will have access to the info you will need to help us help you. Are you taking any Milk Thistle? It is a supplement you can buy from any health food store and its a good anti-inflammatory for the liver. As always, since we're not doctors, you should run it by your doc and make sure there is no reason for you not to take it, but most docs say ok,, unless they are ignorant about milk thistle.. I will be glad to send you some info on milk thistle if you wish that you can download and print to take to your doc. It wont do anything for your virus, but it will help your liver to be as

healthy as possible so it can deal with the virus and treatment. Whatever you do, do not consume ANY alcohol, as that is like pouring lighter fluid on a fire in the way it causes your virus to replicate twice as fast.. Its not the virus that causes the damage, its the inflammation that the virus causes that causes the damage. Well, that is just a few things for you to think about but please feel free to ask any more questions and we will help you as much as we can.. one other thing,, are you on an antidepressant? If you do treatment , the Interferon depletes your brain of its Interferon and causes serious depression and insomnia... BUT.. one antidepressant, , called CYMBALTA is NOT<,, repeat NOT for us heppers,, its VERY damaging to the liver.. but another ssri would be good,, so celexa, lexapro, paxil, prozac etc are ssri's and they dont have the same damage or black box warning that cymbalta has.. some docs are

still RX'ing it because many of us have body aches but its not for us,, so you might want to remember that when talking with your doc about it.. anyway, once again, welcome to the group! jaxmassgal08 <massgal08yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:

Hello everyone,My mother told me to join a support group since I will not go to apublic one so here I am. I am 27 and was diagnosed with Hep C last May. It has been a rockytrip since then and I have been though a lot of shock from it. I amgoing to start combination therapy this June.I am most concerned about the side effects of the ribavrin (sp?)andthe pegaysys (sp?) and my ability to do my job. Can you give me someinformation about this. I am a teacher and am afraid that I will betoo tired to do my job.My dr said that this next year of treatment is mostly going to make metired and I will be able to go to work and that is it. He said that Ishould do my shots on Friday's after work. How am I going to feel? How do you all feel on the medicine? Can you work out at the gym or goto the mall and lead a normal life or are you very sick and tired fora year straight?I am also

afraid to give myself the shots. When I see my GI doctornext month I am going to see if I can have a nurse give me the shots.One more thing. About how much does the treatment cost a month withinsurance. My dr said that he would call and let me know but didn't. Iam too nervous to call myself. I have a fear of my insurance knowing.But they already know because I was tested for Hep C. The wholediagnosis has just been stressful.Thank you in advance for your help.Jackie __________________________________________________