Answers from a good guy GI

February 20, 2000

The new GI at Kaiser is my third in the system, and the first forthcoming one.

I walked into his office with a rep for being difficult; after all I had fired 2

docs before him, men he worked with every day. I had refused to be denied

treatment because of my age, [69, and 60 is the cut-off age], and I have been on

Rebetron for 5 months.

I gave him my list [cribbed from this web site, as you'll see], he moved his

chair close to mine, and we talked for an hour.

BTW, he is on the Schering hotline to answer questions. This may be why he was

so down on the cheaper interferon plus Ribavarin treatment available through

Fischers pharmacy services,888-347-3416. However, I carried the meds I bought

from them down to the Kaiser pharmacy to have them checked over [the pen

malfunctionned, and I was using that as a fall back prescription.] and they were

pronounced O.K. They are 2/3 cheaper, and use an insulin needle delivery

system.The doc says that the Pennsylvania pharmacy is going to be closed down by

the feds. I don't think so, Schearing had no right to sequester interferon from

the public...

Answer [1] rhyzome therapy is not looking good. Kaiser will not call me if a

cure for Hep C comes along... " the news media will let you know about that right

away, A CURE FOR HEP C! "

[2] I should have weekly blood tests for a while after my 6 months therapy. This

is where he gave me the old graph display, showing that if I hadn't been

treated, I wouldn't have gotten terminal liver disease until I

was 90. This demo still doesn't move me. I take my health at age 90 very

seriously. Picasso did some of his best work at that time. His graph showed ME

that some treatment now would make my eventual decline come later. YEA!

[3] High dose induction therapy doesn't work.

[4] Doc looked over my supplement list, and registered a kind of baffled

disgust.Then he came apon 2 that he recognized and approved of, calcium an

hormone replacement therapy. Then he said he didn't know anything about

vitamins. He mentionned that some of the supplements would raise my liver

enzymes. Then he did a few minutes on the fact that my lab results weren't very

important, except for the signs of anemia. That is the cause of my weakness. I

told him that i had been takibg 5 a day of the Ribavirin capsules [which cause

the anemia], and he told me to knock it back to 3. O.K.

[My constipation was from taking one too many calcium magnesiums per day. 2 are

fine, and necessary. I got this from other sources.]

[[5] My potassium level is fine. The weakness is from anemia.

[6] The Japanese study on licorice plus bear gall is faulty [especially for the

bears. Forget it!

[7] Peginterferon is not better than Rebetron.

[8] He will give me opiates in a situation of liver pain.

[9] All depends on that viral load test after my 6 months. If that is flat, then

I will get another 6 months, if nor, I am a non-responder, and will get nothing

more.He thinks that a new drug will be approved in about 3 months.

[10] He recommended several top hep doctors in San Francisco for me to consult

with next Fall. They are the same names that my son came up with..small world.

However, he had a bias for a Hep specialist at U.C. He works with him on liver

transplants, and likes him. I'm just glad that Kaiser does liver transplants!

That's it. I was able to go in there with the list beacause of you fine friends

on the hep list, THANKS ALL!

February 20, 2000