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Narcotic Pain Relief For People on Peg and Riboviron

Hello All, I am new to this community and have a couple very important questions some of you experienced peeps may have insight on. I was diagnosed w/ Hep Gen1a about three plus years ago and am going to be treated on Peg/RIBA combo soon. I am already on a narcotic pain medicine for degenerative dis disorder and chronic back pain. It is a patch that I have used with great pain relied for about a little under a year. My question is one, does anyone have experience with Pain Meds(Narcotic) to help through the treatment process and what where they? How did you go about taking them( Night time/right after injections/ As needed)? I know the toxicity levels for many of the opioid pain meds and that Tylenol actually has a higher hepatatoc toxicity level than say morphine or some other Opioid. My second question is now that society has come a long way and I live in Arizona, I qualify for a medicinal Marijuana Card for Hep C and if anyone has experience with how the Cannabis helped and was it worth investing the time and money to help get relief from my upcoming treatment to be able to have Cannabis as needed throughout my treatment? Also if anyone has some experience using Cannabis or a Prescription Pain Med what were the details on how to best utilize either to the best of their potential uses ??? Thanks in advance for your comments, I look forward to your comments.
Thanks Much,
Advoc8
3 Responses
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766573 tn?1365166466
Hi I am on my iPad and cannot access messages therefore I hope you do not mind I respond to the one you sent me on the public forum. I could only see the first sentence which was

"I appricieate your advice and I meant the Incevic,.."

and I about cringed on your behalf and definitely appreciate the reason you are asking about pain relief.

LOTS of people on here treated with the drugs you mentioned. It is called "Triple Therapy" with the three meds:
1. Incivek
2. Pegylated interferon (Peg for short)
and
3. Ribavirin (Riba for short)



There is a tremendous wealth of experience on here with that treatment combination and I encourage you do read all you can about it since there is way more to be concerned about than the pain and discomfort.

Not knowing absolutely anything about what stage of fibrosis you are or what your day to day life is like there is not really much more I can say that Ceanothus did not address.

I guess if it were me I would ask if I were eligible for one of the newer Hepatitis C Treatment Regimens since the side effects are WAY less harsh. The way I see it there are some side effects with Triple Therapy that Medical Marijuana and other opiates are not going to be much help with. Don't get me wrong it is doable and I cleared on Triple but I would not wish that treatment on anyone if there were on alternative.

All I am saying is be sure to ask about ALL your treatment options.
Helpful - 0
766573 tn?1365166466
You are Geno 1a and are "going to be treated on Peg/RIBA combo soon" (??)

I encourage you to read some of the other posts on here since the treatment combo you mentioned is no longer used. Lots has changed in the treatment of HCV Genotype 1a & 1b and you may not even experience the discomfort you imagine when you actually treat. You might have better or different treatment options with less harsh sides.

Helpful - 0
1840891 tn?1431547793
Welcome to the forum! iPhone reply, so excuse the typos. I've also had severe chronic pain for many years (about 30 now) and have been on narcotic pain killers for a very long time. I've worked hard at keeping my dose as low as I can and just accepting that all I'm going to get is partial relief from pain. I went through three different treatments for HCV between 1991 and 2012. There was no noticeable interaction between the narcotics and interferon or ribavirin, but during my final treatment (2011-2012 with incivek, interferon and ribavirin) I found a big interaction. I was using Opana ER, 10mg 3x daily at the beginning and even though is been using that for several years, once I added incivek the Opana was suddenly knocking me on my butt. I had to cut back on the narcotics, and used a smaller dose of the IR version during triple tx. The triple tx was still pretty new then and nobody knew this would happen so it kind of freaked me out a little. I did okay with the smaller doses and then when tx ended (success at last, I'm SVR) I worked hard at keeping my Opana dose a little lower than it was before tx. I've taken Opana ER 10mg just 2x daily since I finished tx.

To put this together into advice I would say you should be very aware and be prepared to lower your dose as appropriate. That can be difficult to achieve with patches so you might want to talk to your doctor about alternatives that allow more flexibility in dosing.

I didn't try marijuana during tx so I can't answer that part of your question. I'm sure someone else will handle that part. Good luck !
Helpful - 0
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