TOPIC: The Horror of Interferon: WARNING: Very Disturbing Content!

MODERATOR ADVISORY NOTE: Those who have previously treated with Interferon/Ribavirin may find watching this video a confronting experience which could trigger unwanted memories. Please exercise caution as to whether viewing is appropriate for your circumstances.


Not a fun song at all but if you're on tx you can likely appreciate that you don't have to go through the old tx of Interferon and Riba.

I will never know what it was like to undergo the hell of interferon-based treatment.
In keeping with FHC's "no censorship" policy, this topic is being moved out of the party thread to an educational venue for those who, for whatever reason, wish to know more about the "Bad Old Days".
Personally, I wish to forget them-but I didn't "live" them- so my opinion really doesn't matter.
The facts are not always pleasant.
m

I have somewhat fond memories of using Interferon first time round. I was practice teaching at that time (change in career thing that never really went ahead long term). All very odd for me injecting this stuff into my self around my belly.

Main side effect was feeling like I had a hangover. Not a bad thing as I had well practiced this in my earlier youthful days anyway. The main problem was my appearance as being that of a man sweating like a pig in front of primary aged school kids. Continued this for a number of weeks until the medicos discovered it did not make any difference to the virus at all, so I quit.

The combination stuff was quite different to say the least. Side effects that much I very soon wondered if I could keep holding down a job! I DO NOT have fond memories of that stuff at all. Found I could not cope, and quit - for better or worse.

Mike, you being a teacher of things past, you may try to think this is combo stuff as (hopefully now was) probably the modern day chemical equivalent of medical practices during the American Civil War.

Yours

Jeff

P.S. They also tried me out on these Chinese herbal pills. They had a rather nice coating and were the size of a marble. The trick was to suck on them only just long enough to still have some coating to insulate your taste buds from the inner bits that both looked and tasted like dried dog shit. Taking them also turned my own shit into little pebbles as well. Eventually they found this made no difference and the medicos swiped what was left so I had to buy Mentos as a sugar hit replacement. I will be forever grateful to Hep C for giving me the opportunity to experience all this.

Hi Fretboard,

I replied to Mike's post first while my black sense of humour was still beating.

Don't know where you fished this clip out from, but THANKS, THANKS THANKS!

Made me feel that I was not alone.

As an accomplished 'non coper' I never wanted sympathy, just understanding.

Yours

Jeff

mgalbrai wrote:
Cool! Much appreciated!! Yeah I only lasted 5 weeks on that nasty ass tx, I felt like a wuss for having to stop but I was glad I did, Riba on top of the Interferon was driving me bonkers!!!

Let's not forget the medicos who underwent so much training in their profession on the way though, almost like some 'rites of passage' thing as Residents in hospitals, catching every disease known to man from patients coughing and wheezing along the way, seeing things we would not want to see, just to reach a 'pinnacle' of their chose speciality within their profession; And then having to prescribe that stuff - and watching it not work a lot of the time.

Hope the new DAA's make it a distant memory for everyone that can be assigned to the dustbin ASAP.

Jeff

I am so grateful that I did not have to do interferon - it scares me so much, kudos goes to all the warriors here that had no choice but to tread this path of nightmares and pain. Im so happy that these new drugs are around to treat us. Shame on Gilead and their pricing that people are STILL having to be treated with interferon.

It WAS a nightmare treatment, pure hell, I persisted though because I was so determined to get rid of the virus.
Over many years I did four treatments on the evil stuff.

The after affects aren't good either.
But at least I'm finally hep free, but at a cost.

I had some friends whose livers came out worse from the tx, it was that toxic.
Horrible memories from those desperate times.

it was so hard putting that needle into your tummy knowing how it was going to make you feel.


That's why I was so against my young son J having it, I knew how bad it was.

My son's liver guy seemed frustrated with me because I kept saying "no" to the Ifn & Ribas.

....Then along came Dr Freeman....Our night in shiny armour

SO WORTH the wait.
Thank God for Dr James.
My J is now hep free & about to have his post tx 12 wk bloods.

x

Agreed the Peg/Ifn was scary stuff but for me it was the ribavirin that wore me down. Being a slow responder I proceeded to up my riba dose from 1000mg to 1500mg daily at 12 weeks. By that point Id lost 10kg and was all of 68kg so overdosing riba big time. The IFN wasnt too bad until 72 hours after shot, then it was flu like. By the end of my 63 week tx I had a neut count of 0.2 and haemoglobin of 8. I was mentally and physically twisted and relapsed soon after. Really took 12 months to recover, i lost my short sight and any remaining youthful glow lol. Mate there were folk over at medhelp doing 72 weeks up to 108 weeks and multiple times. Fuck it would never have done that shit again. Em

But hey sof/dac was like a vacation to me and could live on that shit if needed. Probably end up growing a tail or titties or something lol. Em

Can relate to both posts Emilio, I won't watch the film, it is fresh enough in my mind, bits of me broke but it didn't kill me and made me strong! No regrets. For me in ways it was easier to manage life on the old style every second day interferon, although the sides were more intense, because I could time the onset of the symptoms pretty well exactly from taking it- shiver and shake through the night when kids were in bed etc. But the peg/intf, I was never quite sure when it would hit. I never got used to either sort, every dose was like the first.
But like you, sof dac is no problem, I could live on it happily, I hope I feel this good when I finish next week!

Hi Hazel

Definitely no regrets. It was a 50/50 chance and i wanted to roll the dice. Em

Yes. I relapsed after 48 week of peg-rib at 2006 with compensated F4 and 1b. Fortunately, there were no very serious side effects during therapy. There was an opportunity to undergo peg-telaprevir-riba therapy several years ago and many people recommended me to do this due to F4... My doc said like that - "if you want, you may try peg-telaprevir-rib, but your case is hard to treat". Liver function was stable and i decided did not undergo this therapy... Some clinical trials show substantional mortality at therapy with telaprevir and F4 and there was not clear for me - whether possible benefits of treatment with telaprevir outweigh its risks of harm or not. Unfortunately, one guy died on russian-spoken forum during telaprevir-based therapy, probably without cirrhosis. Dr.Koretz wrote in 2013, before the wide acceptance of interferon-free regimens:(www.news-medical.net/health/Hepatitis-C-...d-possible-harm.aspx)

Now planning to try treatment with indian generics.

Sof+Led cure rates are very good for 1b, but with cirrhosis and past failure longer than 12 week treatment might be wise.

Yes, i am planning 24 weeks. Some negative predictors may slightly lower SVR rate for me - for example, SVR rate for sof-led with IL28b TT is near 90%, instead of near 100% for IL28b CC, according to one report from EASL-2016.