TOPIC:

Hey everyone... first post. Just wanted to introduce myself: 33 yo male living on a tiny island in the Atlantic. G1b. Relapsed at SVR 24 from peg interferon + ribavirin previously.

For the past two nights, I've been having the deepest sleeps I think I have ever had What changed for me on Monday was that i started eating salads.. oh, and started a 24 week course of Hepcvir L! For anyone who happens to read this, have you noticed a deeper sleep side effect from a salad?! It can't be the medication, can it?!

Doubt it was from a salad. Actual the opposite seems to happen to many. They get insomnia. As for me I'm on Twinvir for about 23 days now and sleep well pretty well. No side effects at all.

Nice to meet you tommy. The sleeping has been so deep my kids don't even waken me - best thing I've experienced lately!! My wife thinks I'm just ignoring them...

Other than that, I feel pretty much normal - granted I'm three days in. It's definitely nothing like the peg inter/riba combo.

I'm thinking it's the medication. Hope everything goes well. Since your just started eating salads try to make other changes in diet with more vegetables and fruits etc. Soon it will be away of life and a plus for you liver among just general health and well-being.

Hi Edge and welcome,

Great to hear that you've started treatment and that you are sleeping better, much easier than the old treatments isn't it?

As Tommy says, plenty of fruit and veggies (and water) will help your liver but you may have a point about the salads particularly if you were previously eating a heavy meal late in the day. I've been doing a bit of reading lately about how circadian rhythm effects our liver. It seems what and when we eat determines how well our liver works and it seems to make sense that a happy liver at night is more likely to result in good sleep. I am now trying to eat well earlier in the day and avoid the temptation of snacks late in the evening and seem to be sleeping a bit better myself.

Clock dysfunction accelerates the development of liver diseases such as fatty liver diseases, cirrhosis, hepatitis and liver cancer, and these disorders also disrupt clock function. Food is an important regulator of circadian clocks in peripheral tissues. Thus, controlling the timing of food consumption and food composition, a concept known as chrononutrition, is one area of active research to aid recovery from many physiological dysfunctions.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26907879

The good sleep means you know you have the latest and greatest meds you can get and your subcontious is telling you......you got this, relax.
Keep it up my friend and keep on relaxing.
In good health my friend

Thanks Gaj - definitely need to keep eating better. Reverted to my old diet last night and surprise surprise I had no energy in the evening and had a terrible sleep... Go figure.

Sven, thanks for the welcome. Just hoping that this all won't be for nothing. I'm sure it won't.

At what stage is it safe to rely on an SVR. I've read about people being UND at SVR12, others SVR24. Is there a point where you can say right, UND at SVRXX so that's it, I know it isn't coming back...??

776/778 people with SVR12 go on to SVR24 so it is 99.7% certain to be gone at SVR12

Greetings Edge and welcome to a new life!
I started my Tx at midday on a Saturday in March. By the Monday my sleep quality had gone from pedestrian at best to freaking amazing.
You have gen1b and I believe that has the best recovery stats. The meds are working.
You are in the right place. Wishing you every success

Hi Edge; You're on your way to a cure!

Hi Edge.
glad to see you have arrived here as so many of us have Its a great place to be, beautiful fellow travellers, plenty of amazing info and most importantly as much support as you need from very special people!!!!!

It has been said 'you are what you eat' , diet is definitely a useful key to healthy mind and body, not that I always practice this myself but trying hard so your salad eating can only do you good

Sven has a good point about feeling relaxed enough to sleep cos you are on meds that will hopefully lead you to an HCV free life!
Wishing you a good journey to health and happiness
Nadia xxxx

I thought I might try and document (very loosely) my journey to SVR. I am probably (and hopefully) repeating a journey many others have been on.

1 week down, 23 to go. After feeling buoyed by two of the best nights sleep I've possibly ever had on days 1 and 2, reality set in on day 3 and for the rest of the first week I had a pretty rubbish sleep each night. I take my pill with breakfast each day and a slight headache sets in by 9am. As the week has progressed, I'm finding serious tiredness setting in by 8pm (I get up at 6am each day without fail). Usually by 8:30pm I'm either asleep on the couch, or wearily making my way to bed. I feel i'm in a vicious circle of not sleeping well at night which is making me tired during the day and therefore exhausted by evening. Repeat. Related to lack of sleep, I have noticed how irritable I have become. This was a major side-effect of the peg-interferon/ribavirin treatment in the past, and I recognise it coming back again, albeit to a much lesser extent. I'll reiterate that it is likely more sleep related than medication related.

I should point out I am not a hypochondriac, or a compulsive moaner. I'm just documenting the things I have noticed - don't judge me! I have a positive outlook on the treatment and look forward to experiencing the massive lift most people describe after a few weeks.

I had hoped to share a base level viral load with you, however... My blood had been drawn at the local hospital several days prior to starting treatment. The requisition had stated "Hep C viral load". I picked up my results yesterday (7 days into the treatment). Scanning through the two pages of digits, I was frantically looking for a number around the 500,000 mark. Suddenly, I realised that the hospital had decided to do a qualitative test! Idiots. Thanks for confirming that Hep C was detected!! It has been a couple of weeks since the blood was drawn and they are trying to locate my serum and re-test. I'll let you know what they come back with!

Edge - being edgy is a Side effect, not that bad but be aware of a short trigger. The sleep will be a toss up, but the tx outweighs the tiredness. The water helps incredibly on head aches.
You'll soon be virus free, documenting the ride is a good thing.
In good health.

Don't feel bad about having a moan, we've all been there. This is a good place to vent about stuff you are feeling that those around you don't understand.
Sleep is important although you may find you adjust to a bit less than normal during treatment. Here's some information that Dr Freeman provided about insomnia during treatment that may be of use.

fixhepc.com/forum/experts-corner/598-how...y-insomnia.html#8330

A little late on my week 2 update as I am now almost at the end of week 3. Side effects are beginning to settle down - daily headaches have become more like once every few days, though I have noticed they are a bit more painful when I do get them. Still manageable. Sleeping has been good again, but energy levels are still low from about 8pm each night. Short fuse has subsided considerably (or maybe I have learnt how to walk away better!). About 10 days to go and I'll get my 4 week blood test done, another 7 days after that and the results will be back... fingers crossed for a UND just in time for Christmas!