Dear Lloyd

Hello Hope all is going well with you. I just wanted to take a few minutes to thank you for your kindness and all your wisdom on hepatitis C. I sure hope you realize how much you’re appreciated for all your time and effort you give to help others like their families and myself with this disease.

You have definitely touched my life, I had pretty much done just what the doctors did, I was giving up, I was tired of fighting, and failing everything I tried.

To make matters worse I have "Polycithemia". It's a blood problem where your "hemadicrit", your red blood cells replicate at an extremely fast rate and you have to have phlebotomies all the time, it's when they remove your blood, like when you use to donate blood. They have to make sure I don't clout somewhere; it can get kind of dangerous if it goes up to high. Every time I get a headache I have to go to Nevada Cancer Center to be drained. When you go every other week it can be time-consuming and depressing spending all your time there.

So doctors say it came from Hep-C, some say it came from interferon I took 2 1/2 months six years ago that literally almost killed me off since my doctors never checked my blood when they put me on it for ten weeks.

He was a real winner, needless to say he is no longer working in Nevada, I wasn't the only patient he forgot about, but I was one of the lucky ones, I'm still here.

Now I have five specialists and none of them agree about anything. Now they say I have something called Porferia. They say it can go hand-in-hand with C. it affects the spleen.

They don't treat me very nice at all, they raise their voice about how I'm going to die in front of other people and totally humiliate me because I refuse a four-year treatment of interferon which I previously failed six years ago.

This last April 2001 I went for my second biopsy. The doctors stuck me in my rib the first time. The second time he got the needle stuck in my diaphragm, my whole right side of my body was paralyzed for five hours. That's what can happen when they mess up. I was in so much pain, and so scared I haven't been back to any doctor but my internal medicine doctors and that’s just for the test results. You actually become your own doctor, that's pretty sad. The good news is I've been on your protocol for 2 1/2 months and I haven't had one phlebotomy. My hemadicrit went down for the first time ever. My viral load went down and my AST is normal. And no more headaches. I can't express how thankful I am for your book. I feel pretty damn good these days for a 39-year-old female with fourth stage liver disease.

I am trying to stay positive and look towards my future. One month before I read your book I was done, I was in bed and really fed up after the liver biopsy disaster.

After reading your book I wasn't so alone with my situation anymore. After everything you went through, I knew it wasn't time to give up. You made it through and so will I!

So thank you Lloyd from the bottom of my heart.

Sincerely

K. F. N.

PS every three or four months I'll fax you test results good or bad, but I know they'll be better and better every time.

Give my best to Aunika!

Blood Tests on file.