Saying hello!

[Guest guest]

hello all.

last September 2005 i decided to treat my Hep C. When I started tx I

had a vl of 688,000 and my enzyme levels were 19 and 21. I have a

genotype of 2B. I considered myself " lucky " that i had such a low vl

and because of the genotype. It also appeared that I had no liver

damage, tho no biopsy was done.

The tx was Interferon 1x a week and Ribavirin 2x a day for a period

of 6 months. That 6 months ended on March 10th 2006.

My tx went incredibly well. Within one week the vl went from 688,000

to 16,700. Within 4 weeks of treatment, my vl went to -0-. It

became undetectable and remained that way thru the 6 months of

tx.

After tx was finished I went thru a " depression " that took some time

to get over. I understand now that this is " normal " (ha!) but of

course no one ever mentioned what it would be like to stop tx. I

was angry and depressed. Not a good combination for me. I felt

completely out of control and wasn't sure what to do. The hard part

was being aware of what was going on with myself and not being able

to do anything about it. It also kicked me so far into menopause

that i felt like someone elses' mother!

I started taking Chi Gong classes and I started going to an

acupuncturist who is also an herbalist. Things started looking

brighter almost immediately and I am very glad I took those steps in

helping myself get " better " , at that point. I physically feel

GREAT! I have more endurance and energy then I've had in a very long

time. I'm still dealing with some of the residue of the tx (ugly

hair, weight gain, mouth sores) but they are all starting to

disappear and I look alive and my color is good.

I went and had my bloodwork done on June 2, 2006. It came back with

elevated enzymes levels (still very low but high for me). The second

half of the bloodwork came back with some disturbing results. The

vl had gone from -0- to 3,330,000. (Way higher then i started out

with by several million and within three months since i stopped tx)

Not good. Not good at all. I felt like I had been punched in the

stomach, the rug pulled out from under me, a pail of cold water

thrown at me. oh a dozen or so clichés.

I contacted the doctors office (the doctor is only in town 1x a

month. He is out of Stanford, a great hospital/research center but I

always felt like I was just a statistic). His nurse called me back

and had me go do another blood test. The results were just too

weird. They shouldn't have jumped the way they did, maybe it was an

error at the lab.

The second results came back, they were worse then the first ones.

The vl went from 3,330,000 to 4,260,000 in 2 weeks. The virus

is/was replicating. I don't see the doctor again until October.

Ive decided that I will not be going thru the tx again. I don't want

to put my body through it again. Emotionally and mentally, I don't

want to deal with it again and I can't put my spouse through it

again. (who was there every day watching me, caring for me, giving me

my injections, helping me keep some semblance of sanity).

So..I will continue on with some of the alternative methods being

used to treat Hep C. Methods that have a really high success rate in

keeping the virus under control and keeping my quality of life good.

I've read some great things and have known several people who have

treated naturally and cleared... so let's hope it works for me.

I am suppose to be getting some bloodwork done before end of month.

Keep your fingers croxxed to me.

Reading posts here makes me remember how strong everyone that i dealt

with during my tx was..... so good to see so much strength and

support here. It also makes me realize how quickly I forgot

the " bad " stuff about treating and blanked out alot things within

such a short period of time (6 months since I stopped tx). My

thoughts and hopes go to each one of you!

and thats it about me.... just needed to touch base......

R.

[Guest guest]

I'm really sorry to hear about this. Your attitude sounds pretty good

right now. Keep it up.

Just curious, how long have you had HepC?

Fingers crossed,

Don

[Guest guest]

hi don..... i do sound good, dont i? lol... but i feel great too... better then i felt in a really long time. I have prolly had hepc since the 70's. (but thankfully my dd has tested negative).

thanx for the finger xxing.

R.

Re: Saying hello!

I'm really sorry to hear about this. Your attitude sounds pretty goodright now. Keep it up.Just curious, how long have you had HepC?Fingers crossed,Don