I think this is an important topic to explore. I’ve noticed on the Facebook page, a lot of post treatment people who didn’t have fibrosis getting quite unpleasant symptoms a month or so after finishing…its very perplexing. In spite of the fact these meds have few sides, maybe they still have significant effects on the body. Maybe there are things we can do to mitigate them.
As for the intelligent overview, DIY has been the only way to get that over the years for me. Not that it was super intelligent, but seemingly better than any of my assorted medical practitioners could manage. We live in a toxic, stressful world and self protection is mandatory. Being aware of the virus in my system for twenty five years has made me keen to investigate all options for self care. Honestly I think what has saved my liver and my sanity, above all things is an hour of Qi Gong by a creek every morning for almost twenty years now. Qi Gong is a kind of meditative Chinese yoga, and I noticed almost straight away that my excessive levels of anger (no doubt liver inflammation) disappeared soon after I started it.

While not wanting to detract from an important discussion, I think we need to be careful how we define some of these issues. Many (most?) people who treat and achieve SVR will just want to forget about their past illness and move on with their new life, never to post again. That is their right and entitlement but it does mean that those few who do have problems post treatment will appear to represent a larger proportion than they actually do. Also, a month post treatment is probably not really representative of final outcomes for SVR as with most illnesses and injuries we expect a post recovery period when while no longer actually ill we are still not back to our former selves. Given that most of us have had HCV for several decades, my own thought is that it likely to take months or even years for some to fully recuperate. And as Mike points out, we have aged since we aquired this virus so can no longer expect to feel like in our teens.

Having said that I also believe we all need to be mindful of our health going forward and have follow ups as necessary taking into account our HCV medical history particularly if we had high fibrosis/cirrhosis. And if we have health issues that don’t correlate with our peers in the general population then we should investigate those as and when they occur.

edit: Ariel’s post above reminds me that those who had unpleasant experiences with interferon need to be particularly mindful of follow ups in the future.

See, that is how crazy this liver crap is! Six months before my diagnosis, I suddenly came down with exactly what Ariel is describing: horrible, bloating, hiccups with dry heaves with only this white, tasteless foam as a result from the toilet hugging. Lost 50 lbs. in 12 months. I mean, I had a “cast iron” stomach-until that night. In fact, that sudden onset and chronic inability to properly ingest and digest even the blandest foods led to my HCV diagnosis.
All of that ended two weeks into tx. So it wasn’t stress from knowing I had HCV that caused it. Since it disappeared about the time the virus did, I can only conclude the two are related somehow.
Weird.
M

Agree with everyone here, good thread DT

I haven’t wanted to put too much stock into my HCV-free self. I’m trying to be realistic with a shade or 2 of optimism! The last couple of years have been ‘frightening’ for me regarding a rapid progression of certain conditions and a show of new symptoms. All the endless tests, scans and medicos I’ve seen but no real answer – things either lumped together as ‘polyarthritis’ and its varying effects or dismissed as ‘age-related.’
OMG! Even the scary fluoro orange explosive diarrhoea – my toilet bowl wearing a safety vest – that would last 5 days p/m – still told ‘nothing to do with your HepC!’ (BTW this hasn’t occurred since Tx)

Actually it’s been interesting that NO-ONE I saw thought anything was related to HCV (including the Gastro Specialists), it was only when I came on here and did some research, spoke to Dr James etc and discovered many off these symptoms/conditions I have are related to HCV.

As DT says, I look forward to months down the track when I’ve completed Tx and have hopefully sustained SVR and see what has changed and what I’m left with. Afterall, isn’t it possible to have some permanent damage to our bodies from decades of constant viral attack, constant inflammatory response? Maybe, my joints are too damaged and my nervous system is too because given our age now (those of us who’ve had it for decades) our bodies just don’t bounce back and repair themselves as well as they did even 10 yrs ago. Hell, for me it’s even 3 yrs ago!

So far, on Tx, I’m ending week 7, the only improvement (other than the orange thing) has been the absence of my usual persistent daily low-grade anxiety and agitation. I won’t know of this is actually a lucky side effect until after EOT. The energy I had in the 1st month has gone, so I’m back to dragging myself around every day to get things done. Acute anxiety attacks still happen and everything else is there with days of exacerbation.

It really is still a ‘WAITING GAME’