TOPIC:

Glad to hear its all going to plan!

Are you planning on telling them you're on treatment?

Yes, on my next appointment or through GP.

I will tell GP and he will definetly send the letter to the hospital.

Alsdad had similar experience and his GP let the hospital know.

Wonderful news Dan!
You have a small start VL therefore NOT DETECTED in week 2!
No side effects apparently is not possible. But you forget all when you get rid of the virus!
Good luck with your doctor!

Dan wrote: The new sx for the past 2 days is numbness in the evening and the muscles in hand up to the elbows and legs up to knees feel so tight

Could it be due to poor blood circulation? Or autoimmune response? I would check it with doctors, Dan

I just remembered, reading this (seems like such a distant memory now). For several months pre-treatment, I was waking several times in the night with total nunbness in my hands. I did some research at the time, and, if I remember correctly, found that it was related to the effect of the virus on the nervous system. I'm pretty sure the Indian research document that was re-posted recently on here went into some detail on it, but I'd have to check. Anyway, the good news: The numbness cleared up on treatment, and there's been no recurrence post-treatment.

In Dan's situation there's no virus left but the numbness is a new thing. That 's why I suggested that it could be an autoimmune problem.
I wonder if his GP could check his autoimmune blood markers?

isaing4 wrote: Wonderful news Dan!
You have a small start VL therefore NOT DETECTED in week 2!
No side effects apparently is not possible. But you forget all when you get rid of the virus!
Good luck with your doctor!

I think its the opposite,the majority of us have no side effects what so ever.

Hi Sirchinenge,
Good to know! Apparently not so lucky as I thought. Because I don't have side effects!
I hope that the treatment is effective to get rid of the virus. Monday I will find out, 2 weeks blood tests.

Be interesting to see if you can ascertain whether treatment sx correlate to other conditions someone has, or if its just a random occurance. I've got a shedload to choose from, which could be hep-related, or not...time will (hopefully) tell.

I will check with the doctor, if he can test autoimmune/autoantibody on Monday and ask for a scan to check the blood circulation.

On a personal level I can of course empathize with anyone thinking they may have side
effects the evidence thus far including myself is most of us have none.

Of course, there are some less fortunate that do in have sides,Dan being one of them.

I don't think its helpful to anyone thinking about treatment too start worrying about events that as yet
have not occurred. Id be mindful of the fact its fairly painless!

Thanks Sirchinenge, I agree with everything you say there.

So for newcomers especially, or others just starting out:

What most of us should keep in mind is that all the trials with Sof plus Led or Dac have shown that the great majority of people experience very few sides and mostly they are minor. And even at FixHepC, of the hundreds (thousands?) of people who have commenced treatment, only a few are posting of feeling and suffering from more than minor sides that are sometimes hard to distinguish from the virus itself, other health problems they have or maybe they could have caught a bug that was going around? Speaking of which, cold & flu tablets have sides too but most find the relief they bring is greater than the disease itself.
I suspect that a lot of this is because we are part of a great new social experiment of treating ourselves and the emotional roller coaster for a lot of us of finally getting a successful treatment where we previously thought there was none, or it was unaffordable. And certainly, they are nothing like Peg/riba.

Perhaps if we were at the stage where we went to the doctor and he said in a bored tone "oh yes, your tests show you have Hep C, take one of these each morning and come back in twelve weeks so we can check that it has gone, you may feel a bit fluey and off colour but it's nothing to worry about." it would be different but we aren't quite there yet. And people tend to worry about anything that is new.

As Sirchinenge says, that is not to take away from the minority like Dan who unfortunately do have bad sides or interactions with other health issues, some of which may of course be hep related.

G

Whereas I agree, some side effect reporting may make some patients a little nervous even if they are nothing like the old meds sides, I also think it is good to share how people are feeling on tx, so others can be prepared. I mean, if no-one ever had any side effects at all because they didn't want to mention them and then a person new to treatment got some, they may be really scared because they think they are the only one to get some, does this make sense? When people just tell me 'oh it's just like a mild flu for a bit' I have to say, I do wonder what a 'mild' flu is like, you know? Having said that, I haven't had flu for so long, I can't remember what it's like! but I have definitely had other very horrible symptoms since I've had this virus. Joint pain so bad I couldn't walk for example. Really don't want those to get worse.

Ah, good points there LondonGirl! My excuse is that I wrote it at 4:30am because of insomnia from these damn drugs!*

On a more serious note I do agree that we should be sharing how we feel on medication but both the sides (of which there are indeed some but, for most of us I suspect, they are livable) but also the improvements of which at least in my case there are many! What I am trying to say is that people shouldn't stress out about this before treatment because I suspect in most cases they will find that it isn't a big issue. It's the far more reasonable hour of 6:00pm now and I have edited my post above a bit to try and reflect these thoughts.

And speaking of the improvements, in another thread recently someone mentioned that some of their joint pain had resolved with medication at which point I suddenly realised I hadn't felt my usual hip/lower pain for......errr.....don't know but it has gone!
Hopefully you will find the same.

G


* the Ribavirin dammit.

Hi,

I'm looking for a link on Twinvir testing, which I can take to my GP, but can't find it.

Can someone point me into the right direction?

Thanks