| My Journey with Hepatitis C |
| My Treatment I will start Interferon and Riboviron therapy on Friday 10-06-2000. I will start by taking 3 capsules of the Riboviron Friday morning then 3 more in the evening, followed by a shot of the Interferon just before bed. By saterday morning I will know how mild or severe the initial side effects will be. One thing that I will be thinking, is that the drugs may make me feel sick but it is killing the Hepititis C virus. I will update this page as my therapy progresses. 10-14-00 Well its one week into combo treatment and although it has not been fun the sides are not to bad. Now I just hope that it is working! 11-04-00 I got my 1 month blood results back. Things are looking good at this point. My ALT has drop to the Normal range. My specific # was 54. This shows us that I am responding to therapy. My Blood will be drawn every month and checked for a variety of things. Hopefully I will continue to respond even better. The Next big Step will be a viral test done in January to see if the Virus is still Active in my system or that the treatment has eliminated it.I sure am hoping That the treatment has or will eliminated it. 11-29-00 I got my liver ensyme test back today and my ALT has drop to 49, so I am still responding. I am doing all I can, I would like to get my ALT down to about 30. The side effects seem to get worse then better for a few days and the back again. The worst part is the phycological Effects, brain fog, forgetfulness and an overall down and out feeling 01-02-01 I recieved the results from my bloodwork and all is Normal, My ALT was 36, I hope that it stays in this area. The side effects are a little better. But still the same Complants. 02-01-01 I had a Dr. Appointment today to get the results from my latest Blood work. The Virual Test Came Back Negative!!!! I am Responding. My ALT was 33. I have 8 more weeks of rebetron therapy left. We will recheck for the virus 6 months after therapy.To see if I am still responding. 03-01-01 I got back my monthly Blood work last week and other then my white Cell count getting very low. Everything is looking good. My ALT was down to 28. This is on a scale of normal being from 10-58, so I am now in the lower area of the ALT range. I am starting to feel better ,It Seems like I have Improved over all, Physically and Mentally! 03-16-01 Treatment over THANK GOD!!! 03-27-01 I recieved my march blood test results. My white blood cell count is low. My ALT is down to 22. I am still tring to shake the effects of the treatment. I am slowly feeling better but it is a slow process. 05-28-01 I got my results back for May and the VIRUS is back My RNA-PCR For HVC came back possitive for the Virus, also my ALT and AST were up above normal. Now I will wait till the FDA approves Peg-Interferion and Ribaviron Combo theripy. MY NEXT JOURNEY 12-31-01 My pre treatment blood work came back all looks good except, AST 56-ALT 88. 01-08-02 I started peg-Intron theripy 01-04-02, so far the Side effects have not been to bad. Friday night and saterday were a real pain, but I have been feeling better each day. I pray it will stay easer then the last treatment! 01-11-02 Got the results of my Blood test back. My white Cell count Went through the floor, I had to reduce my Peg-Intron to 1/2 dose on my last injection and started taking Neupogen injections. Neupogen is a drug that stimulates the bone marrow to produce white cell. Next blood test is 01-16-02. 02-21-02 My white blood cell count has droped even lower. The Neupogen brings up my white cell count, but the Doctors don't want to continue using the Neupogen for long periods of time. Without using the Neupogen my white cell count is going back to an unsafe level.The side effect have also gotten more then I can handle so they have discontinued treatment for now. What now? Prayer and a good Diet, healthy living and Alternitive medicine. We may try the peg-Intron or Pegasys (When the FDA aproves it) therapy again in a year or two.. The Journey is not over. 06-25-02 I am going back to my Naturopathic Physician to get revaluated. Also I am going to start acupuncture, I hope this helps boost my immune system and help with some of the effects of the Disease. I am still recovering from the first round of Interferon, man this is taking time. We are gearing up to retry Interferon in about 1 year. 11-14-03 I am having another Biopsy today. I will post the results and what we will do next as soon as I get them. Waiting for the result is harder the the actual biopsy. 11-30-03 I recieved the results of my biopsy, the news is good and bad. First the good news the treatment did alow my liver to do some healing while I was on therapy. The biopsy shows that the damage to my liver is about the same as it was in 2000. The bad news is that I will have to take another round of treatment. I have an appointment will a hepatologist in January, I will post what course the DR wants to take. 01-26-2004 I had my appointment with the Hep-DR and he wants me to try another round of treatment with one of the Peg-Interferions. I am getting all the necessary test and counseling done. CONTINUED Next Page |
| I am Tony. This is part of my story in dealing with Hepatitis C. I was diagnosed With Chronic Active Hepatitis C in 1989. At that time they did not have a test for diagnosing Hepatitis-C. Most people were diagnosed through a liver biopsy. The discovery of my Hepaititis C started with a yearly checkup. The DR had ordered routine blood tests, the results of the liver panal came back abnormal. He then referred me to a liver specilist who performed a liver biopsy. With the results of the biopsy he was able to make a diagnosis. ( I was Diagnosed with Chronic Active Hepatitic C. Now, fully scared to death!!!!!!!!!!) At that time there was no visable damage to my liver and the virus was just smoldering, as my doctor would say, so with no treatments avalible it was a waiting game. During that time period my liver tests were normal or just slightly raised and my biopsy showed a healthy liver. This continued till 1993, at this time my liver enzyme tests starting rising. My ALT was around 200 AST-93 and Gamma GT 205. Also I was getting fatigued more often and was having alot of joint pain. In 1997 We did my second liver biopsy. This biopsy showed stage 2 fibrosis and stage 1 Inflamation. I started alternitive medicine and changed my eating habits. I also quit a 33 year smoking habit. But still put of treatment. After about six months of this my Liver enzyme Tests went back down towards almost normal and I was feeling a little better. I thought this was great and I thought that my liver was starting to heal!!! Not so, In June of 2000 we repeated the liver biopsy and this one showed even more of an increase in liver damage. The fibrosis and inflamation.I had gone from stage 2 to stage 3 fibrosis and to stage 2 inflamation. So I decided to start Treatment. |
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