Re: STRESS and HCV

[Guest guest]

This is going to sound really dumb but I'm gonna say it anyway.  I'm not afraid of sounding dumb.

I had to LEARN how to relax.  I had to figure out how to turn it off.  I had to give myself permission to not make the bed or to let the dishes stay in the sink.  My husband had to teach me how to do this and it wasn't an easy lesson for me to learn.  I have, however, figured it out.  I still have to be reminded every once in awhile to chill or to let something go.  We tend to cause a lot of our own stress.  I've learned that if it's not going to affect the world in 20 years it really doesn't matter that much.  

This whole thing about stress causing Hep C to resurface was pretty ugly.  This girl has been SVR for 4 years now and her doctor told her as recently as a few weeks ago that any major stress can make it active again.   I am really hoping that she mis-understood her doctor and he was talking about Fibromyalgia and not HCV.  I can understand what he said if he was talking about Fibro.  If  he did say that about HCV it scares me.  It scares me to think that there are doctors out there propagating these myths.  Stress can not bring HCV out of remission.  And it's only remission for the first 6 months.  Then it is truly gone.  Forever.  It's nice to know that after fighting the kind of fight we have with treatment and attaining SVR that we can now be called cured.  This will do a lot to get that damn dragon out of our head.  I know my dragon got kicked to the curb this past Friday.  November 12, 2010 the death date for Teri's dragon in her head.  

Hugs,

Teri On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 11:43 PM, Gloria <gadamscan@...> wrote:

 

DonThe work that I do is classified as stressful by most people.  However, prior to the HepC dx and when I had unexplained fatigue periods, others would suggest it was stress that was causing me trouble.  But, I've done this work for over 21 yrs on this stretch alone.  The stress was just as normal as drinking a cup of coffee for me.

Also, I believe that for some folks, anything that they do after waking up in the morning can be stressful.  For instance, I loath housework and always have.  Therefore, seeing the untidiness of my home would stress me, just not enough to do much of a job on it.  It's why I preferred to work an extra few hours and hire a housekeeper.  LOL

Treatment

is definitely stressful!!  I certainly had to learn, sometimes harshly, just how much any stress could bring on something that would aggravate getting through treatment.  That's why you will see me really " stressing " the point of dropping the worry over things like housework or making dinner.  If your body is screaming " sleep " then allow yourself to do just that.

Also, I believe that what we really have when we are CURED, is the immunity to the particular strain of HepC we fought to conquer.  Remember, this damn little virus can mutate in order to hide from the treatment.  However, that doesn't mean that we need worry about a mutation, because that only happens when the virus is trying to hide.  Also, it's not very likely for most of us on this site will ever be reinfected.

Where I can get a little upset, is in seeing our health agency up here, working so hard for the drug addicts that have no desire to stay

clean!!  Yes, far too much weight has been behind that, especially in Vancouver.  Now, we know that those folks are highly likely to be reinfected if their addiction problem is not addressed prior, during and after treatment.

Gloria