Lloyd,
I just received your book today and have been reading through
it with much interest. Back in 1999, during my husband's
routine check up, our family doctor ordered lab work which
showed high liver enzymes. I know you can figure out where
I am going with this.
Since then, life as we knew it has stopped.
He has been through 3 courses
of not only "traditional" Hepatitis C
treatments, but was part of a study as well (First course,
Intron A and Rebetol, 2nd course, high dose of PegIntron
and Rebetol, 3rd course, Infergen and Rebetol). After 3
lost years, the virus again returned. My husband has been
able to clear the virus within 3 months of treatment but
it always returns. His doctor, a specialist
out of the Center for Liver Disease, wanted him to take
a 4 course...this time, with the high daily dose of interferon.
He truthfully only gave him a 10% chance of this working.
I felt as if he were telling my husband to go jump off a
cliff and with a little luck, he might be able to land on
a cotton ball at the bottom.
Treatment has been hard, not only for my husband, but for
my children as well. My youngest was only in kindergarten
when this battle started. She doesn't remember the "daddy"
who used to love going outside and playing with the kids,
be it a game of tag or swimming in the pool. She only remembers
this daddy, one who is either physically tired from treatment
or on an emotional roller coaster.
There has been times when it took every ounce of strength
in me to stop him from "ending all this suffering"
as he would say. I was afraid that not only did he WANT
to end it all, with the medicines he had in the house, it
wouldn't be too difficult.
Reading over your book has given me hope. We have told the
doctor that we would not be going on the roller coaster
again. We want to get back to LIVING, not only existing.
I am making notes of what you did to beat this monster and
hopefully, we will be through with this once and for all.
Thank you for sending me down a path where there is hope!
C. A.
Hi C. A.
HCV mutates with each replication.
It rapidly develops an immunity to interferon.
If interferon does not work the first time, it
is not going to work.
The doctors know this. What they are
doing is, when they find someone who can tolerate it and
they are willing to keep taking it, they get all excited
and study the effects on humans.
If your husband had never used interferon he would be better
off today and he may never recover from the side effects
that have not shown up yet. He needs to recover
from treatment (interferon). This can take years depending
on how bad it has hurt him, his organs etc.
I have many people who are doing fine as they recover from
interferon. Usually the pancreas gets baked, or some other
freighting thing happens like very low platelets, fried
thyroid, burnt joints, a whole list of things. Does he have
any of these common side effects?
I am here for any questions and anything I can do to help.
Lloyd
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