12 wks Under the Belt.

[RedRodeo]

I had an apt w/ my GI today. Last thursday the nurse told me to d/c the Riba until my apt. He said our plan now was to stay off of the riba until my hgb rose to 10 and to continue the intron. I asked him how this was going to affect the outcome and he said over time its not ideal but since Ive already cleared he was still hopeful. Easy for him to say!!!I asked him about a transfusion he wasn't to excited about that. I still feel like shit. Today they check viral loads but that takes awhile to get the results. I am 3 months into this.
So thats my update. Scattered.....

Red

[Betty W.]

Red, its good to hear from you. I was anxious to see what the doctor had to say. Please dont get discouraged,try to keep on keeping on. I don/t have any idea how you are feeling, and I can't pretend to know. I just hope that you will stay the course until you have exhausted all alternatives. Life is so short,we have so much to live for, maybe thats why we try these horrible txs.Did he have anything to say about a psyc.? Love and Prayer.....Betty

[subverzn]

Red!! 

Congratulations on the 12 week milestone..

Your doin it...
and your undetectable... (keeping thinking of that!) 

It's a battle but you are kickin virus butt*

I'm soon off for shot 22... can't believe i've been doing it since october. 

the time does go by...

been a long day here but i wanted to congratulate you on making it this far*

pammie

[negative1]

Hey Chris.
12 weeks is halfway for you!

Youu can do it now.

Earl

[beingbecky]

Half way there Red. That's a huge milestone, keep on trucking, or trudging along.

Heres a picture that depicts the way I felt on treatment.



Hang in there Red!

Becky

[Michelle2007]

Congrats Chris!

I DO know how you feel. I wish I was half way done....hell, I wish I was done...but you CAN do this. My big issue right now is 1) my skin hurts all the time 2) Not one drop of energy. I can't stand longer than 10 minutes it seems. Makes it hard to grocery shop or even eat something. But you are still in my prayers. And God is with you every step of the way. He won't ever give you more than you can handle. It may suck but I know and He knows you can do it.

be good to yourself.

[RedRodeo]

My MD originally got me thinking about doing this again but he was talking about 24wks, Now He is using the time 48 wks!!!!!!Six months was alot to swallow but I thought I could do that. And as it turned out just doing 3 months has killed me. So I don't know about 48 wks. God Bless All of You

Red

[kentucky]

i did 43 weeks for type 3A.
had the same problems like you.
was on procrit and neupogen the whole time.
and only took 1 full dose of the interferon. the first week. and my bilirubin shot way up.
i had labs everyweek and they stopped my tx completely several times.
and would stop riba for weeks at a time.
anyway i did live thru it and am still undectable. over a year.

good luck. and try not to look in the future too much but stay in today as much as possible.
i am still trying to do that...
which i am glad i went thru it so my liver can regenerate since it is cirrhotic with excessive scarring.
my tumor marker test was elevated a while back and i was worried but it is back to normal.
so i am just thankful that my dr. guided me thru tx even though it was unbearable at times. i thought

[Hank's mom]

red -

Yeah you have already done what you thought was impossible. I trust that yo will find the strength to continue - after all, you want to make these initial weeks worth while - I hope.

Best,
Susie

[cristofero]

Red 12 weeks well done. Keep going.
Chris

[DougV]

Red,

Reducing RIBA and now cutting it for a bit will undoubtedly impact chances, however the success rate of interferon alone is pretty decent with genotype 2 and 3 folks.  If it would make you feel better get a PCR right before you go back on RIBA and make sure you still show undetectable.

Keep in mind you are halfway done, your odds with your genotype are still excellent, and heck you only have 12 weeks to go. 

Consider this.....

Some theory has the universe around 10 billion years old.  That would be 520,000,000,000 weeks based on current weeks.  So taken in that perspective 12 weeks is pretty short.

Doug