Week 22 of Treatment

[Butterfly45]

OK, guys, I am going into week 22 of treatment.  What do I have to look forward to from here?  Hair is thinning, but managable, hgb is down to 9.7, I am still working every day, going to the gym every day working out 2 hours, feel like crap, spend the weekend on the couch, side effects are there, but I am too stubborn to let them win.  Was wondering if this gets worse?  What do I have a head of me?  Not going to stop until I finish no matter what, just want to know if I can keep fighting or if eventually it will wear me down to zero.

[nygirl7]

Please make sure you test that hemo often.  While it can be said that you are trying to be 'tough' it can be extremely dangerous not just uncomfortable.  You might want to consider going on Procrit if you are not intending to slow down. There is nothing wrong with taking care to rest on treatment - in fact it's pretty necessary.  For me the longer it went the harder it got and by week 72 I was pretty well shot.

I did work every day myself - even through the anemia. When it got very bad though and I started just to drop into a dead faint in inappropriate places........I knew I had to do something as I wasn't just a danger to myself but now to others.  Be careful driving and on stairs and in the shower and stuff - those got to be my bad places (till the procrit got be back up over 10 then I was OK).

[Kristina538]

For what it's worth, the psych I saw said the hardest parts of tx were around week 7 and week 21.  Of course, that would be dependent on your bloods, and I really don't know what he based it on (the week 7 was the peaking riba, but I'm not sure about the week 21 (I only did the 24 weeks), but it was nice to have the warning to expect a bit of a dip.

High dose Bcomplex helped to stabilise my hbg and someone else here wrote that it can assist a small percentage of us.   I did what exercise I could, but spent as much time as I needed doing precious little too.  Congrats on coming so far - well done!!

[Trinity4]

"By the way, SVR is not guaranteed to any of us."  Very true.

I had the same attitude you did butterfly and it served me well.  Long story short, we do what we have to.  It differs with everyone so what I, jusjames, FLGuy, jd experienced at 22 wks and throughout their tx may be entirely different than what you experience.  
The one common denominator for all of us is fatigue and eventually it's not that you don't want to lay down, it's that you have no other choice and toughness hasn't got a thing to do with it.   You'll get where you want to go at your own pace so don't worry about what to expect so much as how you're going to get through without burning yourself completely out.  You will hit a wall at some point.  Happens to the best of us.

Good Luck
Trin  

[jdwithhcv]

Sounds like you don't want to admit that tx can slow you down, but with your hemoglobin that low you may want to consider acknowledging that you are human and backing off a bit on the two hour workouts.

If your hgb goes much lower you will be unable to sustain this level of activity and no amount of mental toughness will deliver oxygen to your brain if you don't have the requisite blood chemistry to get the job done.  Hypoxia is DANGEROUS.

By the way, this site is for discussion, which necessarily includes points of view with which you do not agree.

Good luck on the rest of your tx.  You're almost half way there (genotype 1, right) so you should congratulate yourself for passing that milestone.  The rest of tx is more of the same.

jd

[FlGuy]

Based on the wording you used, I'm with you.  It's a battle against treatment, not a battle against HCV.  The meds are in the battle against the virus.  Although it's really semantics, my challenge was against the meds and not the disease.  After all, I felt pretty good before starting treatment.

I treated twice and I tried to have the same attitude each time.  There was a point, after about three months, in which I termed it as the dog days of treatment.  For me after those 3 months, there were not many peaks and valleys,  just a consisent cruddy feeling.

The best thing to do is just keeping on track.  Do the best you can when it comes to eating well, resting adequately and staying as active you can. Don't let them win is a very helpful attitude to have.

You migth consider having a conversation with your doc about using Procrit (or similar) to provide an increase in hgb and likely an increasee in your energy level.  There is no need to suffer exceedingly if there is a not so off the wall solution. Good luck.

[jusjames]

;-)

RE .SVR
i know what you meant, i was just being positive for you!

taking it a bit easier is not giving up, its realistic,
good luck

[Butterfly45]

No, not me.  Its not being hard on myself, its refusing to lay down and die.  I had a life before I started treatments, I want to continue to have a life.  Not moving for a year is not an option for me, I'm not that kinda girl.  By what do I have to look forward to I am asking people who are in treatment beyond 22 weeks how they feel, what side effects they are experiencing, what their hgb levels are and so on.  By the way, SVR is not guaranteed to any of us.  

[jusjames]

maybe you should be less hard on your self, slow down a little.

what can you look forward to?

SVR