Week One - March 13-20, 1998





SHOT #1~Mar. 13~For starters I must admit to being terrified of needles. This made the first injection all that much more traumatic. I am taking Intron A, 3mu on Mon., Wed. & Fri. The pharmacy provides the syringes and the alcohol swabs. The Dr. provides the box to throw away the used syringes. My husband went with me. Try as I did, I could not do it. Thankfully my husband came to the rescue and gave me the injection. I'm sure it will become that easy for me as well with time. I had the injection at 3:30 pm, some 4 hours ago. I know all the side effects-so far have had no problems. Feeling a little queazy and a bit dizzy. So far so good I think. By 8:30, some 5 hours after the shot, I began to feel more dizzy and my head started to hurt. Off to bed. Didn't sleep well. Had terrible cold chills and a temp of 101.3. My head felt 'fuzzy' and hurt something awful. Cold chills stayed with me all night. I woke up several times trying to get comfortable.

Mar. 14~Woke up early. I didn't sleep well at all. There was only the headache this morning which eased to a dull pounding during the day. No chills, no fever, and the queaziness and dizzyness have gone as well. Not bad for the first shot. I do feel kind of wiped out today and kind of achey all over. That may be due to the lack of a good nights sleep. I'll take my melatonin on Monday night and see if that helps.

SHOT #2~Mar. 16~It went well. It's turned into a family affair. Daughter watched and hubby shot! I took a melatonin tablet and went off to sleep. No problems sleeping this time! I made it through the night rather peacefully this time.
My sinuses have been acting up, but I have a history of sinusitis. This may be from the HepC, but I don't know. There are times when I cannot breathe through my nose at all. It has always gone up and down so I will keep an eye on them as I do the treatments to see if they go up on shot days or not.

Mar. 17~Woke up in a sweat. The fever must have kicked in sometime during the night. I didn't wake from it though. My head hurts and I feel drained. I must have had a more active night than I thought! Called in to the Dr. to find out about getting something for the headache. I'm just feeling a tad queazy this morning. Thankfully no real nausea. The headache is a pounder, but comes and goes so its not constant. So far...so good.

SHOT #3~Mar. 18~He missed tonight. He had to stab me twice to get the needle in. I think he is afraid to hurt me. The Dr says no melatonin..he wants me to take benedryl instead. That will help the itching too. Felt more queazy about an hour after the shot. This was much sooner than the last 2 shots. Also, blurry vision and hard to focus my eyes. I'm not sure if that is a HepC thing or a side effect from the Intron. Will go to bed before any more sides kick in. I did get a prescription for Darvocet for the headaches. Will see how it does.

Mar. 19~The darvocet worked great! I have a pain in my right lower back though. I'm hoping it isn't my kidneys. I drink over a gallon of water a day, so that should be helping. I also believe that because of the amount of water I drink, my side effects are minimal.

SHOT #4~Mar. 20~He did a much better job of stabbing in the needle tonight! My legs are turning all shades of purple already. I also notice a rash around the previous shot sites. The rash comes then the area surrounding the site bruises. The pain in my right side is still here. Not nearly as bad as the other day, but here nonetheless. Will call the Dr. and find out what he thinks.

Week2 Week3 Week4 Week5 Week6 Week7
Week8 Week9 Week10 Week11 Week12 Month4

Home Page

1