What is treatment like?

[Gracie_Lue]

I've read up on treatment for Hep C so I kind of got the just of it but hearing alot of you talk about it it seams to be pretty uncomfortable to put it lightly. Also with the hair loss and everyting. Is this kind of like chemo? It sounds kind of like it.

[bundlerun]

Getting ready to start the treatment, i can say i'm very nervous but reading this thread has helped with certain fears, i believe if i remain positive i may be able to play down some symptoms, i'm don't handle sick well (most of the reason i got hep c) still i think there is a physcological factor at work here also, i don't mean to devalue anyones suffering i'm only speaking for myself , fortunettly i got ssd for this treatment so work will not suffer.thanx for the positive & honest postings , all the best & i hope this works...be well folks......C

[FlGuy]

Treatment is like F. Gump's box of chocolates. As an older member once said; Jumanji.

[Gracie_Lue]

I've thaught about that alot and my sister offerd to help out with the baby's as soon as I told her what was going on. She lives about tweny five mins away so I'm really hoping she can stick with it threw it all. I also have my mom and husband. They both work but I know they will help with what ever they can. I'm just praying that it all works out and trying to stay possitive.

[Junebug812]

Me again. I just saw that you have two little ones at home. Will you have support at home? To be honest, if I had small children at home and was about to go on tx, I'd make sure I had lots of support lined up. You may not need it, but it would be smart to be prepared just in case the sides are rough. Just my two cents.

Best of luck to you,
June

[Junebug812]

Yes, like everyone else has said, it's pretty much a different experience for us all. I think everyone has the anxiety beforehand though. Not knowing how you'll react and how your life will or will not change is hard and I think most people on this forum probably experienced those feelings before tx.

I just had my 16th shot and my sides vary each week. Some weeks have been really bad and I had to take lots of time off from work. That was mainly due to the anemia. I've had fever, chills, body aches, rash on my torso, chest/breathing issues, chronic cough, extreme fatigue, headaches, heart palpitations, and have lost about 15 lbs. Food sometimes tastes funny and my tongue is very sensitive and hurts (feels raw). Keep in mind, I do not have all of these symptoms every week, like most people on tx. They come and go though I've had the cough and chest issues daily since December.

This forum has been very helpful to me. The people here will help you get through. BTW, only minimal hair loss for me so far.

June

[hcvJames]

It's been very mild for me. After 55 weeks or more I can't say there has been one day under treatment where I felt worse than before treating. Although I have difficulty with hot and humid days it's better than the 2 or 3 years prior to beginning treatment. You're going to have good and bad days but it must be done cuz it simply doesn't get better by itself. All the best.

[IMstacie]

It amazed me how everyone reacted differently to the same treatment.  I'm speaking of the riba/interferon tx.  I actually saw it first hand.  I was very sick, struggled to stay with it, lost all but ~1/3 of my hair, had a thick rash that covered my entire body with the exception of my hands, feet, & face, missed a lot of work and could hardly walk.  I looked like death.  Lost 20 lbs.  My blood levels were all over the map, finally dropping so low my doctor stopped me at 45-46 wks but I made it.  Best of all I'm clear with no post tx side effects.

My husband wasn't running any marathons but never missed a day of work.  No noticable hair loss, no rash.  His blood levels dropped slightly but nothing to speak of.  My brother continued to work out, lift weights all during treatment.  They both cleared.

So, everyone is different, indeed!

[Gracie_Lue]

Thanks for sharring how it is going with your treatment. How did you get into a study? Is that something that helps with the cost as well? I have medical but I've heard this all adds up really fast.

[Mary4now]

I've been taking the treatment for 8 weeks now and it gets uncomfortable, nausea, just overall not oneself, weakness, tired, for me up to this point a generalized dont feel great, but I havent had anything debilitating.  I work and have taken a couple days off. and I have doubled my anti depressants.
If you can rest and take care of your symptoms it helps.
I guess I'll tell more as time goes on.
I'm in  a study where I might be getting a protease inhib. and a polymerase inhib as well as Riba, and interferon.

[Gracie_Lue]

Thank you guys. It's nice to hear from people that have already been threw it.

[blondie717]

It is not bad @ all 4 me.  But thats just 1 person. Good luck to you.

[James10500]

It was not fun.  But for some not to bad.

[Diane12855]

Try to keep in mind that the people who aren't having much trouble don't feel the need to write about their side effects so you are only seeing part of the picture.

I've just finished my treatment and I asked people who had finished what kind of withdrawals they had, and I got many different responses that were vastly different. Everybody responds differently... maybe it is because of their genes... who knows.

I only lost maybe 1/3 of my hair, I never got the rash that lots of people mention. Did get the brain fog, anemia, body aches... which were different than the ones I had before treatment... maybe 3 or 4 days a week I had waves of nausea, ringing in the ears. There are things we can take to help with the side effects, which is why you really need a doctor that knows what they are doing.

Right now you need to know your genotype because there are new treatments that work much better for some genotypes than for others. You also need to find out how much liver damage you have... that's what the biopsy is for. If it turns out that you don't have much damage yet, you may want to wait till newer and better drugs come out than what they have now.

My opinion of the chemo thing... it is like diluted chemo that you take for a lot longer. There will probably be a few people who will disagree with me on this point... there has been lots of discussion on this point in the past, but based on my experiences, that is how I feel about it.

Diane