Well the one plus is that they said I can come in early in the morning, as early as 7am. The nurse said I could come in at 7 and she will draw my blood and give me the pills and it would take about a half hour. The first day I have to go for 13 hours. And day 7 is a 8 hour day. So I might be able to pull it off to be at work by 9. I need to tell my boss something in case something goes wrong. I just need to get thru those 14 days!
The lady I know from the other forum who did the same trial that I am on (and I think you are contemplating) took a two week vacation. She drove three hours to get to her site in another state and stayed there for the two weeks. You may want to ask if there is a participation stipend so that you could afford something like this. It was her personal "break". After that, many of the sites are very accommodating. Mine was. They can have you come in very, very early, as long as there is a nurse to draw your blood.
You only need to be concerned about taking your meds with breakfast at a particular time everyday and go to the appts and get your blood drawn when you are supposed to. It is nobody's business why you want a two week break. You can tell them it is "family business" (which it is). I translate that as a nice way of saying "don't ask me anymore questions". If they do, you could always say "I'd rather not say". Even if you don't want to take the two weeks as vacation, you could swing it by asking to come in early for the blood draw on those days when it is only an hour.
Is this particular job the only one around? My hairdresser has changed jobs several times and now is in business for herself. We have followed her around and now I drive an hour to see her because she is that good.
OH has a point. You may very well have to take time off anyway. If you take the triple, it could come over you without any predicting it. Wouldn't it be better to have a carefully planned two weeks than something random.
As a former manager I would have to say that I was always very frustrated when someone would get sick on and off and always unpredictable. I certainly wouldn't be bothered by someone taking off in a planned fashion because then I could plan how to fill behind them.
I wonder if there is something else that makes you hesitate? The drugs perhaps?
How many people work for your company? More than 50? Is there an HR department? Do you have a disability policy?
The all oral trial sound like it may be easier on your body, long term health, and your job even though it is 14 days in a row and once a week post. If at all possible, I would be going that route.
If fmla applies, maybe you don't need to advertise.
If you are on the same trial as me, and you fail, you do get rescued with ifn and riba (I haven't heard of anyone failing so far, just sayin). You can also quit and do the triple if you want. But you can't just quit the triple and get into a BMS/PSI study very easily. If you don't like the triple you may have to wait quite a while for another chance with another drug combo.
I work in a small, family owned hair salon. There are 7 hair dressers and the owners (husband and wife). The wife runs the front desk. There is no HR, no paid leave, no sick pay, no fmla. Everyone knows everyones business and its extremely hard to keep anything private. If I tell my boss I have a medical problem, everyone will ask questions. It will be very awkward. I don't work in a typical employment type setting. I need to come up with something to tell them.
You might suggest your doctor do a little research as experts have said since there were never any head to head studies one cannot comapre the two drugs. As far as the svr rate, well again trials don't seem to agree with him. As you can see svr rates were pretty much the same for both drugs.
Boceprevir-treated patients who achieved undetectable HCV RNA at treatment Week 8 had a high probability of achieving SVR; indeed, these SVR rates were 89% to 91% for nonblack patients and 78% to 82% for black patients.
Telaprevir
The results from ILLUMINATE support the strategy of RGT. Among patients who achieved an eRVR, SVR rates in those treated for a total duration of 24 weeks were comparable to those in patients treated for 48 weeks (92% vs 88%, respectively), meeting criteria for noninferiority. Among those who did not achieve eRVR but continued treatment for 48 weeks, the SVR rate was 64%. The overall population had a 72% SVR rate. These data confirm that shorter therapy for those achieving an eRVR is an adequate course of treatment.
http://www.clinicaloptions.com/Hepatitis/Annual%20Updates/2011%20Annual%20Update/Modules/DAA%20Naive/Pages/Page%206.aspx
Wishing you the best doing treatment