Update

[Guest guest]

[[[On a scale of 0 to 4, my biopsy results were a 1. So I guess I am still doing

fairly well at this point. I wonder if I would be better able to handle treatment

while I am still fairly healthy?

Or should I wait. I am basically a single mom, and I don't know if I would be

able to maintain everything...my boys' father is still very much a part of our

daily life, we work together, and I imagine he would help us out, but he really

has not wanted to face this at all! so, I'm not sure I could really trust him there.

I also have thyroid problems now as a result of all of this, and I have already

lost considerable hair...I understand that hair loss is a side effect of treatment,

and with my geno I suppose I would be on it for quite awhile.]]]

I had a sonogram that showed I did not have liver damage. I decided on treatment before the HCV had a chance to damage my liver. I understand from others also that it is better to treat it as soon as possible.

My husband did not want to think anything was wrong for a while either and tried to ignore that I needed help and support. He finally came around when some guys he works with discussed having HCV with him and how they felt. Then he started talking to me about it. I guess it takes some people longer to work through the issues. I got to a point where I had to rest and take care of myself and my family had to deal with it. The house wasn't perfectly clean, I didn't get to all my grandchildrens games this summer, in fact I didn't go anywhere. Better to get rid of it now then need a liver transplant later is how I looked at it. My hair thinned throughout treatment. The thing is that it grows back after treatment.

I had a very hard time on the treatment, but I also apparently have Lyme Disease and have had it for a while, maybe even as long as I have had Hepatitis C. The symptoms are very much the same. I even thought I was misdiagnosed, but found that they can't mix the two up. It would be nearly impossible. Many people from this group have had some side effects from treatment. Some have stated that they were able to function as if nothing in their lives had changed. Everyone is different. Also a point in my treatment to consider is that my doctor did not know as much as he needed to, and when I ran into problems with my blood counts, headaches, nausea, etc he didn't know there were other drugs out there that could have made me comfortable. I didn't find this group until a couple of weeks to the end of treatment and learned more from these wonderful people in that short time then I had learned the entire time going to my specialist. If you have any doubts about the doctor you are

seeing may I suggest keep looking. I felt stuck with mine once I started treatment, but I felt uncomfortable with him and really should have gone somewhere else.

As far as an update... How is everyone?

The specialist for HCV had tested me for Lyme disease and told me over the phone last Friday that I tested positive. I made an appointment with my Primary Care Phys. to get a referral to Hershey Medical to a Lyme specialist and had picked up the results of the Lyme test from the HCV specialist to take in to the PCP. It didn't make sense to me and neither did it make sense to my PCP. The test results were negative for all parts of the test except one, which was not the part of the test the specifically states I have Lyme. Secondly, I understand from research that Doxycycline is what treats Lyme initially, and written on the test results was Doxy, but what they called in to the pharmacy was something different. My PCP has changed the script to Doxy just in case and ordered another Western Blot test for the Lyme. I'm not getting another specialist right now. I've dropped the HCV specialist. I will go to specialists at Hershey Medical for what ever I need if possible. They have

an awesome computer system that all doctors can look up what other doctors are doing with you. She also found an irregular heart beat and I am going for an EKG this afternoon. I'm hoping it's all just side effects from the Pegasus treatment, and will all be over with soon! That, or someone needs to make up their mind (and know what the he[double hockey sticks] are talking about)! We all need to get paid or at the lease major discounts for all the research we have to do to make sure the doctors we have are treating us they way they should! I suppose everyone can't know everything, but then why do they tell me they can handle it?

Then pneumonia is almost gone. I can breathe a bit better, but the PCP is concerned that it is not going away fast enough.

Has anyone else had similar after effects?

Take care all,

SharonC

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