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[Guest guest]

Hi everyone - hope you're all taking good care of yourselves and

doing well. Aside from being disappointed in my doctor (I didn't

get blood test results because the wrong test was done at lab and

doctor didn't care enough to re-order or let me know about it) I'm

ok. I think. The way things have been going I take four huge

ribabvirin caps a day and inject the interferon on Friday after

work. If I take Extra Strength Excedrin (2 caps every 4-6 hours as

needed - starting just before the injection I can deal with the

muscle aches and soreness at injection site. Then I live on Imodium

chewables. It was that I only needed the Imodium for a few days but

this week I've been eating them on a regular basis. I haven't

missed a day of work yet because of sides and had only one horrible

diarhea incident that I lived through and no one found out about it

because it was after hours and in my own office. I will NEVER eat

cheddar cheese popcorn again even though I love it. However, I

understand from my husband that I'm getting more and more difficult

to be around due to what a lot of us fondly refer to as " riba rage " .

On the other hand, I'm not finding him too easy to be around these

days either. Sooo..... I have noticed a few strands of hair going

down the drain but that's only when I brush it and I always did

notice that because I have a " thing " about hair all over the place -

ever since I got rid of the long spiral perm in the 90's its just a

thing I have. It's because my hair is long and blonde and blonde's

always seem to have more breakage from blow drying, etc. I'm just

hair obssessed. My friend calls me " Ms. Hair " and once took me to

her hair dresser so she could get hair like mine. I know that was

long about the hair (pun intended!!!) sorry but I really do obsses

about it. The doctor prescribed ambien because I was having trouble

sleeping. I requested Halcion but he's an ass so he gave me ambien

which gives me freaky dreams and lets me sleep for 1/2 a night. So,

now I'm back to a muscle relaxer (Flexeril) and a tranquilizer

(Clonepin sp?) with a soy supplement at night and I'm OK its just

hard to get out of bed in the a.m. but who wouldn't have trouble

with a low WBC and muscle relaxors and tranquilizers? Not to mention

weekly Interferon and daily Ribavirin poisoning! There was one

really wierd thing that happened that scared me though. My legs

ache and my feet go numb. The other night I thought I couldn't even

feel my left leg or foot. I have a rash on my feet. I told the

doctor and he said " " . (That was a blank stare

with a 'so what' expression on the doctor's face.) Did I mention

he's an asshole? Oh - my fingernails are growing like they haven't

in many years! They're really nice. Has anyone else had that

experience? Is it coincidence? Also stared getting weepy again

like I did for several years prior to dx. I don't know though -

sometimes its hard to separate symtoms of Hep C, symptoms of

hormone imbalance and just regular symptoms of stress. So I'm not

rushing to the phone to ask for an anti depressant. I never liked

them because of all the side effects. Kinda wierd that I am known

for experiencing the most bizzarre side effects of everything on the

market but seem to have mild sides from Hep C tx. Believe me - I'm

knocking on wood for that one. So - thanks guys for being here -

reading this and keep on keeping on! Peace & Love - Abby