6 more weeks to go

[granitekonig]

Hello everyone, I haven't posted in a while. I hope everyone is doing great. I just wanted to update everyone: I haven't lost any weight, sides are more annoying than debilitating, and I have six more weeks to go out of 24. UND at 4 weeks.

I have been doing a bit of drinking in the evening - not to get drunk, just a little buzz to relax. Sometimes a little of my roommates weed helps me out, too. I can't wait till this is all over. It's more mentally draining than anything. At the same time, I'm so glad I jumped in and am taking care of this. And I'm almost done!

[GSDgirl]

Nice dog!!!!!  I can pick the GSD's out from afar, LOL

Denise

[granitekonig]

Well I'm very grateful that you are not bitter.

[FlGuy]

No, I'm not bitter. Actually, quite relieved.

Related to treatment, I have come to the conclusion that there are limited things that a patient can do.  Take the meds, show up for appointments, slog through the days as well as possible and in general just suck it up.  More passively; eat well, stay as active as possible, be well rested for the rigors and be as kind to the poor abused liver as possible.  Personally, I don't care if people drink or smoke refer while on treatment.  I imagine the liver as a garbage disposal and prefer to put the chicken bones in the trash and use the disposal for more maleable things, with a baking soda chaser every once in a while.

[GreatBird]

Glad to hear you're going to stop for now. Until the last wave of interferon has receded, and the last pill has dissipated, we need to do everything we can to win this war with the virus.

Just from a nutritional standpoint, alcohol is also all sugar which isn't all that good, especially if anyone is flirting with IR (don't remember where you are on all that).

I recently jacked up the protein in my diet, realizing that protein is where we get the stuff to repair and rebuild cells. Seems to me with all the meds tearing down I want to do as much as possible to rebuild, and--perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not--I've been feeling much better by having protein at every meal and sometimes for snacks.  

[jmjm530]

About 25 comments so far and the words 'gasoline and fire' haven't been mentioned yet.  About 25 comments so far and the words 'gasoline and fire' haven't been mentioned yet.  
----------------
Well, keep in mind that NYGirl hasn't entered the discussion yet, but I am concerned that MerryBe is slipping up. LOL. Yes, the good old days when alcohol threads were so bad that for a second you actually forgot your side effects :)

-- Jim

[granitekonig]

Thanks Trish. Funny you suggested not drinking for the remainder of the time. I decided to do just that two days ago. I'm not drinking anymore. I do take a hit or two of pot about three times a week and will continue to do so on nights where I'm uncomfortable.
I did my first 1/3 of treatment without any alcohol. I drank for a few weeks there but never binge drank - maybe three drinks at the most on any one day. But you are right, I'm hampering my dosage by drinking at all. I'm going to see the rest of it through properly.

Thanks again.

[granitekonig]

Bitter much?

[FlGuy]

I'm a little disappointed in this thread.  About 25 comments so far and the words 'gasoline and fire' haven't been mentioned yet.  We are collectively slippiing, people!!!  You need to keep in mind that it was Granite who said that he appreciated having hcv or going through treatment or some such thing. Bottoms up!  I remeber the good old days when I had only 6 weeks left.  I kind of felt empowered because tx did not bring completely to my knees.  That was before I relapsed and needed to do another humbling 48.

[Trish77]

I rushed that last comment off and it stayed in my head while getting ready for work, that you're drinking on treatment - six weeks to go out of 24 weeks and just had to add this -

If you can stop the drinking entirely, please do so.  You're only 75% of the way through (I'm thinking you're 24 weeks of treatment, yes?) and I don't know when you started drinking.  Since you started drinking, you're effectively dose reducing.  You take your interferon shot and it stays in your system for 7 days.  For each day you drink, you effectively reduce the effectiveness of the interferon in your system and effectively give yourself a dosage reduction.

It's important to get THROUGH treatment, yes.  Just please try not to drink for the remainder.  Get through 6 more weeks, get your SVR and never have to do this again.  That's worth 6 weeks of toughing this out.   Dig deeper into your mental resources and pull it out.  You CAN do it.

Best of luck.

Trish

[Trish77]

Try not to drink, Granite.  Drinking on treatment is like two steps forward one step back and worse.  Why risk your SVR?  If drinking is the ONLY way you're going to get through this .. well ... I dunno, man.  I'm kind of speechless there. Would hate to see you have to do treatment again while doing a Masters degree or whatever comes after that.  Watch how much weed you're smoking - as Jim mentioned, daily or frequent pot use contributes to progression of liver damage.  

Good luck on that Masters degree and hoping for your SVR.

Trish

[jmjm530]

MB: But back to your post....what other conclusion would one draw from the way you wrote it but that it was fine for all post treaters to drink??
----------
But actually it is fine for most post treaters to drink in moderation. You are entitled to your opinion of course, but we are also entitled to post the opinion of several leading hepatologists who disagree on this matter.

-- Jim

[merryBe]

just reread your whole statement. No where in it is your stage mentioned.

first you quote the doctor saying it's not good during tx.

then you quote him as informing you you can go ahead and drink now that tx. is over.

then you emphasis that the doc is not anti-alcohol

well certainly if he volunteered you could drink again when you weren't even asking....most would conclude so.

all that said I'm glad you clarifies your stage/grade before tx.
The key is whether you suffered permanent liver damage.
The other key for ANY age group is to remember fibrosis can occur from simple medications you may have to take...from autoimmune diseases many of which effect the liver as wells as joints nerves or whatever.
The final key is to remember that as you age all these things can interact with each other causing damage, or actually create the disease due to their own effects.

I think the thing that most convinced me of the effects of alcohol on vital organs was not the higher rates of most diseases...it was seeing the brain scans after 30 years of alcohol consumption...and seeing brains half of their original size...shrunken heads still walking around!!  And then my mother in law's MRI brain scan, at only a couple glasses of wine a day and no meds was shrunk non the less by 1/3..

So for me, even if I had a totally healthy liver again and no meds making it contraindicated.... I'd go back to a birthday and holiday toast at most, but nothing more....and the reason is...alcohol is a drug...and one of the most damaging.

But back to your post....what other conclusion would one draw from the way you wrote it but that it was fine for all post treaters to drink??

mb

[geterdone]

It sure does not take alcohol to spark this crowd on a Friday night wouldn’t you say but some would presume so but I think the riba effect is more the culprit than anything else.

jasper

[jmjm530]

LOL. And the definition of a "drink" is actually quite specific (13 grams alcohol) meaning ONE small beer or ONE small glass of wine and does not mean a double/triple something or another.

[Trinity4]

Exactly Jim.  By some of the posts here on Friday night it makes me wonder what social drinking entails for some too.  LOL

[jmjm530]

That would be "SonicBandaid" and he presumably was a hepatologist at one time in Australia. And yes, he did not seem to be concerned with the occasional drink during treatment. My guess is that a drink here or there on tx probably won't affect SVR but personally I just can't see it but then again I can pretty much take or leave alcohol. As to Dr. S and Dr. D (and at least one other big initial doc) they are OK with light/moderate social drinking off treatment. That's usually defined as 1 drink per day for women and two for men although I recently just read that over 60 or something the two-drink for men limit has been reduced to 1 drink but can't remember if this is liver related or not. Of course any drinking should be discussed with your doctor especially if you have significant liver damage. The other thing is that most doctors know that people -- especially those with prior drinking problems -- tend to grossly underestimate the amount of alcohol they consume. So if you drink 4-5 drinks a day and consider that "social drinking" then you're not only fooling yourself but harming your liver.

[geterdone]

The only thing I can add is Whoa in the Masters! Can’t say much about the drinks because it is an individual choice, no right, or wrong there. There was a poster here some time ago that went by the name of Sonic something or other that went into great detail about drinking while TX’ing as he dealt with what I presumed were alcoholics with Hepc bottom line is No you should not drink but it will not kill you in the short term and even less if it is NOT a nightly thing and no more than 2 drinks. Me, after 22 weeks of TX’ing I had a White Russian on Friday nights which helped me break the no sleep pattern during the prior week because I refused to take Ad’s during treatment. Again, it was an individual thing but one I chose despite the negative posts here on the board. I am 56 weeks post TX and a SVR’er I spite of the relaxers of Friday nights. Good Luck on both the Masters and finishing up treatment.

jasper

[Marcia2202]

I'm glad to hear that you are hanging in there the best you can and that you are getting to the end. I wish you good luck with your masters and hope you will fly through the rest of tx. Just wanted to add that I like your honesty.

God bless,

Marcia

[powerbuilt]

Granit,I thought you died ,havent heard from you in a while, glad to see your still around All the best to you, six weeks should fly by, buy the way your right about the fih oil,good stuff    Good luck

[fretboard]

Ageed.  However, some ppl have put alot of hard time behind the walls of AA and I think that is the case here.  If I'm wrong for doing that then, I'm wrong..  I am not saying that it's alright for anyone to drink while on tx, what I am saying is that I won't be the one to say anything negative to someone who just lost years of sobriety time.  
good luck to you and your ongoing tx



fret

[apache1]

merryBe... maybe I was not clear.
The Dr's article said it is
NOT ok to DRink on TX...

Maybe I was not clear, what I tried to say was, he told ME, not anyone else, or any type of blanket statement, but for me, my individual case, without advanced liver damage (stage1-2), after I reach SVR a glass or 2 of wine on occasion is ok.

NO WHERE did anyone say its ok to drink with advanced liver damage.

apache

[merryBe]

the thing the good doctor shiff is not quantifying....and I can only assume it's because his own bias was and is that he personally did not want to give up alcohol...or see other have to...

but the thing he is ignoring is that if someone manages to SVR at stage 3 or God forbid stage 4, that does not mean that all of their cirrohsis is just going to magically have reversed itself.
In fact the research shows that the truely advanced scarring, much like other severe scar tissue elsewhere on the body (bad burns come to mind) does not respolve or become dissolved away.

Ergo folks with advanced disease may always be operating on a third, or a half of a liver...or whatever portion was still able to function after the SVR is reached.
This not only makes them good candidates to have issues with overdose based on clearance issues, should medications and alcohol both be in use, but it also makes them far more subject to medication induced fibrosis, which can occur all on it's own, minus any alcohol or HCV.

I think unless one catches and cures this disease very early on in it's Stage progression it would be folly to return to any drinking for the above reasons, it all depends at that point on whether someone wants to live another 5 or another 20 years.

Remember alcolol is a substance that can make other medicationsas much as 5x as potent and cause them to remain in the blood stream 80% longer....causing many normally non-toxic meds to become extremely toxic.

mb

[Trinity4]

Do you really think it's a matter of addressing a sobriety date at another time?  We all have responsibilites, pressure, goals and expections in our life. The whole point is not to drink during tx to give yourself every opportunity to SVR.  Much documented evidence that alcohol and interferon do not mix.  24 wks of tx is not a long time to go without drinking especially with what is at stake.  

Trinity

[fretboard]

Keep your eyes on the prize!  The sobriety date and all of that can be taken care of another time, you're doing well enough as it is.  good luck and keep moving forward