TOPIC:

12 pills to go out of 84.

Every one of my labs results are normal for the first time
I have lots more energy
I look forward to getting of bed
I sleep more soundly
No infections (I would have had a couple during a 3 month period "abnormally"-mainly sinus and adenoids)
Good appetite-gained 10 pounds (I needed to. Five more and I will weigh two Zhuks) My wife says I need to gain more and she is never wrong (when present) weighing in at 198 lbs. at 6'2" currently
All parts functioning as well as 62 year old parts should. I think some might need a little beer grease....

A little of that "blue sky feeling" is coming back. The feeling that makes you want to go out on the front porch and yell "WOW!!!-WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAMN DAY!" so loud all the neighbors come out and stare kind of feeling. I used to have them all the time. Now, I feel a little of it trying to surface.
We will see....
We will all see.
Together

Mike

Hi Mike - Great to read, thanks .
Also hopeful for the weight gain, I need it too - Good to hear.

Life's full if changes. Sometimes you can change things. Sometimes they change you. Most of the time, its a little if both.
Things are definitely changing...
M

Hehe I'm 2 London Girls here It's good when I can wake up before my wife again and roam around the house for a bit. Looked at the sky and figured I have enough time to mow the lawn and piss off my neighbours before it rains.

I'm over 11 weeks in and today started my 6 weeks extra today I took a few extra before as I kept changing my meds taking time due to work and allways shortened the period between doses.

Like you Coach I have been totally infection free as well always had something to whinge about before but now nothing , not even a bloody cold

Here are my mid-treatment improvements since starting Sof+Dac (VL < 15 at Wk4:; now at Wk8 and feeling great):

gained > 2Kg in weight

mild but persistent excema - gone
muscle stiffness and pain in legs - gone
sleep apnoea - gone
afternoon siestas - gone
general fatigue - gone
periodic nosebleeds - gone
bruising hands and legs - gone
bursting veins in fingers - gone
sensitivity to alcohol - gone

brain fog - almost gone (hard to quantify this one)
general appearance - look 5 years younger (highly subjective self-opinion)
sex-life - thank you very much! (highly subjective partner)

The only down-side is I that have started smoking three or four cigarettes per day...

Q. Why start with the cigarettes, you might well ask?

A. I suspect that pyschologically I kind of miss feeling half-hammered like before.

(Don't worry Doc, I think I can deal with the smoking in due course!)

Incredible improvements. Nice!
Them cigarettes are a bitch. I quit heroin, methadone and paroxetine just with willpower, but with ciggies I have cut down vastly but just can't make that final jump to none. Yet.

Thanks, sonix. Great song! Maybe I'll self-prescribe one dose after each meal for the next month...

[ I cold-turkeyed the cigs about 12 years ago - the first 24 hours were the hardest, but a long-haul flight made it do-able]

Thought I'd share my experience here too.

Pre-tx
Fatigue (thought it was normal)
Anxiety (may or may not be related)
Discomfort in liver region

During Tx (as at day 24)
Gradually feeling more energetic
Feeling clearer in the mind
Discomfort in the liver area (this has been relieved in the last week by having time off work and not sitting at a computer all day)

Over the past few years I've really noticed not being able to retain information as well, feeling muddled and finding it really hard to make decisions due to feeling cloudy. I started a diploma in accounting few years back and failed to complete it because i just could not focus and always felt so tired. I am hoping so much that it is related and will improve.

I'm another one who needs to quit smoking. All this thinking about my health has made me seriously think that I need to give them away. I live a reasonably healthy lifestyle otherwise. I've also been able to give up other addictions with willpower so hopefully I can find some for smoking too. I did quit when I fell pregnant with both my kids so I know I can do it just need to make the decision and follow through.

Great checklists, everyone!

Waiting until I get a bit more of a definitive tx under my belt before adding anything here, but so wrapped for all you guys

The major issue that treatment resolved for me was emotional. Knowing I was sick and getting sicker. Knowing there was an effective, relatively side-free tx (I was diagnosed 2 years ago), but I would have to refinance our home, on the verge of retirement, to afford it. It would have been different, for me, if there was no decent treatment choices or if the medicine was $2000 a pill-that would have been simply impossible to pay. So, the anxiety was added to the other mental and physical symptoms. I knew I could buy my health, but have to work until I was nearly 80 to do so. It drove me crazy. I finally opted for Lexapro at my PCP's urging. It was hell for a month, but then things got a lot better. After SVR 12, I will try to quit taking it, but for now I am still riding the "I don't give a shit" bus.
Mike

2 years and 3 days off the bungers here and don't regret kicking them, the money saved has paid for 2 overseas holidays so far.

Makes a difference, doesn't it Paul!

I probably wouldn't have given up myself but for a case f flu so bad it was almost pleurisy... Couldn't smoke after that even when I tried. Then a couple of years later I took up my passion which is sports shooting - and I'd rather spend $ on ammo than smokes any day

Since starting treatment some of the improvements I've noticed are less fatigue/tiredness, a great reduction in joint/muscle aches and pains, improved appetite and digestion and some improvement in balance and coordination. Many of these things have been issues for me for 10-15 years and I had mostly put down to aging though with recognition lately that the hep was making them worse. I now know many were mostly the hep though as someone approaching 60 in a few months I have no expectations of winning an ironman event. I do find the fog is lifting and my cognitive skills and concentration are far better than they were. Still forget stuff from moment to moment but I now realise that much of my declining ability to recall stuff and learn new information and skills during the last 10 years wasn't due to the long, slow journey into early dementia that I feared so much.

However, it is on an emotional level that the really big changes have occurred. Normally I was very much a glass half full person and I have tried to stay positive since being diagnosed but while I saw glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel I had mostly given up trying to reach them. I now realise that I was depressed and had isolated myself from many of my friends and loved ones. I only ever told a couple of people of my illness and swore them to secrecy so when the others saw me struggling and tried to help I couldn't tell them what the problem was.....and I was always so fatigued both physically and emotionally that it was easier to find excuses not to be social. But since starting treatment and experiencing the physical and mental improvements that the medications have brought about, I am once again feeling positive and hopeful for the future. I am also socialising again and telling more people of my situation with most being very supportive and caring (only one has shown any ambivalence). And then of course there are all the wonderful people here who are so, so supportive and share their own experiences so we know we are not alone in what we have been going through.

And those moments of clarity and colour, or as Mike put it so well, that "blue sky feeling". I had one of those the other day while sitting down by the creek, everything just felt so real and it was great to be alive! Reminded me of when I was a child and the world was new.

So above are some of the improvements and of course I'm only at wk 7 of 24. The downsides have been a few minor sides such as early liver twinges and a thick head occasionally and of course the bloody Riba which makes it difficult to sleep, often weary and very emotional at times. Right! Off to buy a new box of tissues now.

Thanks Enkel for starting this thread, good idea to have it all in one place.

It's day 83 of 84 sof/dac. Finish meds TOMORROW. YAY!
HIghs: more ENERGY, better quality sleep and less of it needed, better digestion, no more dry-eye drops needed, less (or no) peeing during night, less anxiety and depression, less muscle & joint pain, more brain clarity (lumosity scores as proof!), skin is less dry, whites of eyes less yellow, eyesight seems better (reaching for specs less), night blindness when driving less hazardous, libido reignited.

Lows: a bloated stomach that is uncomfortable when sitting. Occasional grabbing feeling in liver. Gained 2kg - and now need to lose 7! Pain in calves (maybe cos I've been off magnesium during Tx).

I agree with GAJ and others about the immeasurable emotional benefits. Becoming Hep C free is giving me not only the energy to socialise, but the confidence. I am more honest as the stigma and shame ebb away, and that makes for a more authentic me. There are definitely more 'blue sky feelings', more JOY. And sometimes a little deep breathing about this new concept of future.

Sincere thanks to all you wonderful fellow travellers-on-this-path for your humour, courage, sharing and support. And of course Dr James and Greg for making it all possible. And that unsung journalist, Michael Atkin, who put together the ABC 7:30 Report that led so many of us here.
May we all continue to SVR24 and never look back. And may the world become Hep C free, 'no man, woman or child left behind'.

I have 4 weeks of treatment!
I always felt good at physical level. Diagnosed accidentally in 2015 with mild elevated ALT/AST. After 40s, I had basic blood tests every year and all was in normal range till December 2010. I couldn't believe what is happening to me. And yes GAJ, as you, I didn't tell almost anybody my problem. Antisocial behavior, fear of misunderstanding. Don't know from where I got hep C. Maybe cesarean in 1989. That's the way my daughter came to us. Maybe from the dentist.

I know that I had hep C for at least 26 years. Even with good basic blood tests. I know that my emotional problems were Hep C related. I am blessed with a wonderful family and especialy with a patient and loving husband. After I was diagnosed, the only good news was that my beloved family is hep C free. And it is till now!

I refused IFN in 2012. Because I had hope for new options to come in the near future. And I was right. The generics are here and are affordable for many many people, even if their rulers decided that they are too healthy to be treated.

It is amazing how I get used with this burden of hep C!
Only after 3 days on tx I felt a relief in the liver. After 7 days on tx I felt myself more light, as I put down a backpack with at least 5 kg in it! I felt the relief only when the burden was gone! At the emotional level the improvements are more amazing. I am calm and confident. I feel as I am back in time, feeling more alive as in childhood! Yes again, as you are feeling GAJ.
Don't miss to mention that my mind is much more clear! I am back to easy memorising! The last years I thought it was aging the cause of losing easy memorising and sometimes needing some seconds to remember words.

I didn't have side effects. Maybe because I want it, the miracle treatment, so much!
I feel the world much more brighter now! Like I opened a closed window.

Sorry for this long essay! I felt that maybe, other people will be helped reading this. As I definitely was by yours!
Happy that I found this supporting community!

Good luck and be all of you healthy again!