What do I do~ I am so tired all the time...

[amiee03]

I just wanted to post this cause I need some opinions on it and I know this is the best place to get it. I just found this site a little while back. I posted here when I got my positive test results back. I turned 24 years old 2 months ago. Well what I want to ask is what can I do about being so tired? The last 2 weeks I have been so tired that all I want to do is sleep all the time. And the last week I have not felt well at all, I have had headaches and felt just yucky. Am I going to feel this way all the time? Does it come and go? Or is there something I can do to improve the way I have been feeling? I appreciate any help at all. Thanks & Have a good evening! Amie

[Dude]

Hi Amie, I remember you... where've you been?

You're right, feeling tired is a trademark of the medications, and you'll be dealing with it all the way through, but you'll find ways to adjust. The medications cause your white blood cell count to drop pretty much, and that will leave you feeling anemic and just drained of energy. The sad thing is we aren't supposed to take any iron supplements to counteract it. Normally, if you're anemic you'd be taking iron and eating raisins and things to build up more iron in your blood, but we can't do that.

My hardest thing to deal with is insomnia, but I'm getting better at going to bed earlier. Ha! I say that, and just last night I was up until 4a.m., physically drained, but mentally wide awake. I have found, though, that if I can plug my ears I will get to sleep faster. It seems my hearing is intensified and every sound keeps me awake.

If you drink a lot of water you should notice the headaches fading. While we take the med's we have to drink a heck of a lot of good, clean water. So, if you aren't doing that, or just not drinking enough water you'll suffer more sides. How much water are you drinking each day? You should figure on drinking a quart for every 50 pounds of body weight. So if you weigh 150 pounds, drink 3 quarts of water daily. You'll pee a lot more than usual but that's good, too, because the more you pee the more you're expelling toxins and other trash from your system. Peeing is healthy, holding it in is not. So pee as often as nature calls.

Try to taper off on the water intake about 4 hours before you would like to go to bed at night. Drinking too much water just before bedtime can also keep you from getting a good nights rest, because you'll be up and down all night to go pee. If you feel the need to rest during the day, try to do something mildly motivating to keep yourself moving, but then go ahead and rest after a while. Might as well take advantage of the time to just take a load off and relax.

In life, how often have we been able to do that? I know that my life always kept me moving, never a chance to just relax. I'm taking full advantage of this now, and I nap for an hour or two, sometimes three or four, every day. Sure, it gets frustrating now and then, knowing that we could be up and getting things accomplished, but just let go of that aggravation, accept the tiredness and rest. One day soon a cure will come, and after we've swept this beastly thing under the rug we can begin to feel that good energy flowing again and pick up our lives and move forward.

Be strong in faith.

God bless.

[amiee03]

Joris~
    Thanks for your reply. I wanted to let you know that I am not taking any medicines right now. In a month I will be going to have some blood test so I will know my genotype and everything. I live in a small town so I have to travel to get the test done. I got  my HCV test took at the local health dept. and when I got my + results back the nurse told me I would have to go to another place to have all the other test done. But I also found out something that really bothers me. I ask the nurse about having some of my family members coming in to get tested for HCV. And she told me that they no longer test for HCV that some of their funding was took away so they won't be testing anymore. I think that is just awful. But that is just my opinion.
  There was one more thing that I wanted to ask about.  Someone had told me that I needed to take vitamins and eat a healthy diet and drink lots of water now that I knew I was HCV+. I have read alot so I know about eating healthy and drinking lots of water. But what about taking vitamins? If I am not mistaken I thought I had read somewhere that it is not good to take certain kinds of vitamins/herbals or soemthing like that. I was going to go get some vitamins but I wanted to see if there is a certain thing I should be taking or some things I should not be taken. I appreciate you responding to my post. I am so glad that I can come here when I am worried, concerned, and have questions or I just need someone to talk to. Thanks. Have A Good Night! Amie

[Dude]

Vitamins not to take (from what I've read) are vitamin C & vitamin A, and minerals not to take are Iron. Can anyone here add to these?

Take Milk Thistle now, daily, while you are not taking med's. When you begin taking med's you're guess is as good as mine, and as I mentioned above, there's some question as to the pro's and con's of taking it while on med's, so do your homework, and when you find out more let us know.

DO take vitamin E (I take one 1000 IU gelcap a day). Also take Selenium, vitamin B complex, Zinc, and Potassium. I also take this stuff called "Digest", made by ENZYMEDICA (get it from my health food store). It's 100% vegetarian plant based enzymes... it enhances digestion, and absorption of nutrients. You're supposed to take one capsule with every meal, but I just take it with the big meal of the day. That's all I can say for now. Hopefully someone here can add to this list of do's and don'ts.

If they don't do the Hep C blood tests at your usual doctors office, go to another one. Your family members should not be refused testing, no matter what the deal may be with funding or anything else. If you have to, have them go to the County Health Department and insist on getting tested. If any doctor office or government office refuses us attention we should protest loudly, and continuously until we get results. You can also write a complaint to your state Insurance Commisioner and demand that something be done.

We're citizens, we're voters, we pay taxes, we've earned the right to get help.

Be strong in God.

[catsRus]

Why vitamin C Joris? It is water soluable and is not stored in the liver? It is harmless even in HUGE doses?

Vitamin A and Iron are both stored in the liver and are not water soluable and can build up over time causing problems even in non HCV positive people.

Where did you get the info on vitamin C?

[Dude]

Got it from my first Gastroenterologist... it surprised me, too, since I'd been taking vitamin C for years. I really don't recall his reasoning, just that he definitely said to not take it.

Sorry I can't offer more on that. I'll see if I can come up with more info.

[Geo]

Joris,
    Did your Dioctor tell you not to eat raisins and red meat while on tx, or did you read that these things are just hard on a liver?
     I would think we could eat these things rather than become so anemic we are about to be hospitalized.
                                        Geo

[Dude]

Hi Geo, and welcome in.

My first gastro doctor actually told me it was okay to eat red meat, as long as I didn't overdo it. My second gastro doctor told me no red meat at all.

Both of them said not to eat raisins, spinnach, etc. because we aren't supposed to be eating anything with iron, or taking iron supplements while on treatment, regardless of how we feel with the low white blood cell count.

I believe in using as much common sense as possible where health and diet is involved. I was a vegetarian for a few years in my 20's and have never felt as healthy as I did during those years. My thoughts on eating red meat are like this... it tastes great if it is cooked a certain way, but taste is usually not equated with good health. Sugary things taste yummy, too, but we all know that sugar is terrible for us.

I've based my opinions on the state of health of the American youth today, and the incidence of overweight and obesity in our children, my son included. His mother and her parents always took him to fast food restaraunts, even though I objected for years. I tried to keep him on a healthy diet, but since they had him half of the time and had no regard for his health, he has gained a lot of weight over the years. I'm not trying to "badmouth" them, but only tell it as I see it.

They all loved him, but spoiled him to excess. Being a little boy, he always wanted to eat at McDonalds because they bribed kids with a toy in their "Happy" meal. Happy then equals obesity now. Not too happy anymore. I think this country should have seen this coming and put a stop to the fast food industry if they didn't comply with strict health guidelines. Now my son, and millions of other youth, suffer needlessly because of this.

Fried foods, red meat, sugary drinks, candy, hot dogs, and the list goes on. It's ALL unhealthy in one way or another. When I say "don't eat red meat", I mean in MY OPINION red meat is less healthy for the human body than say fish or fowl. Fish is known to be a much healthier choice meat for a healthy diet. It's all about choices here, and we all express our opinions freely. Thats what I've done, based on my knowledge of health and diet, and what I've either read or been told by a health professional.

Each of you can decide for yourself if you want to optimize your efforts in healing, or if that t-bone is more important for you than giving your digestive system a break. Maybe the after dinner smoke is more enjoyable for you than keeping your respiratory and circulatory systems in top condition. You decide... I just lay it out there as a plan for optimal health while attempting to fight the virus that kills you slowly. And I usually follow it with something like "use common sense". If you continue to smoke or eat red meat, my thoughts are that your health is secondary to your pleasures.

My health is just under my faith. Faith first, health follows, then everything else just falls in place.

God bless.