Hi mate I know exactly where your coming from I’m in a very similar situation to you. I’m only going to take 6 weeks of Riba to help it along it’s summer here and the rash is starting to really give me the shits + my fuse is getting shorter but I will manage. I chucked the Riba in the bin a few days ago only to rescue it the next day before the garbos got it

My feeling is this, I don’t want to have to do this again and am extending tx length and adding the Riba for insurance. I don’t care if it’s a bit of overtreatment. If it’s some consolation mate after 8 weeks I feel pretty good especially in the mornings the worst sides on the DAA’s were in first 2 weeks. Good Luck

Hi MuirMackean,

I agree that you need guidance from a doctor but a couple of thoughts from my experience for what it’s worth:

– You had Peg/riba previously. How did you handle that and how does this compare? May give you a baseline of where you are at now?
– I started on the Sof/Dac which I found very speedy/adrenaline feeling for first week or so. I added Riba at two weeks (not planned just availability/logistics) so missed the combined initial effect which could be what you are experiencing.
– after 12 days on riba I have had some insomnia the last couple of nights. Skin is itching now so am using sorbolene as moisturiser. I find I am very emotional, no rage but not a lot of stress ATM, however I will be avoiding movies about small furry kittens for the immediate future…….and I’m a dog person, most definitely NOT a cat lover! hmy:

As Paul says, I want to make sure I clear this time so any advantage I can take I will. But I also have cirrhosis so that factors in.

Best wishes for clearance and let us know how you go.

G

We are quite fortunate now in that if it doesn’t work we can have another crack with the generics but for longer. The main issue is we don’t really know when ALL the virus is eradicated. It may be at week 7 for some or 1 week after treatment ends. We may fall 1 dose short of killing the last bastard but lets hope not. Achieving UND whilst on treatment is the first hurdle cleared but the big one is a SVR @ 12 post tx.

For those of us who have a crack before, second time around is a bit more daunting psychologicaly. It’s fantastic to have all the professional guidelines, trial study data and informed opinions but ultimately we have to feel comfortable that we are on the right track for us as individuals.

I only rifled through my rubbish to snatch the Riba back as I was worried that if I relapsed I would blame myself for not adhering to the plan.

The Riba isn’t a big deal and the rash is tolerable for now.

cheers

Hi Sharky00,

I agree, doing 24 months of soft/dac too; started 27th October and otherwise okay side effect wise.

For me it is a bit like how mental health doctors struggle with what types of medications to use – all have side effects but some are infinitely worse them others. Do you use a better antipsychotic with a lot of bad side effects with the risk of non compliance, or use a lessor one that someone will stick with??

Seem to remember that Riba stuff back in 2000 (along with interferon) and I did not take much convincing to have 24 months of/dac!!!

yours

J

Paul,
To be clear I am talking about my experience. I do not for a moment believe I know what it must have been like to go through that hell on wheels they called a “treatment” only to find out you had not cleared. I watched long term business’s & marriages Hit the rocks, 2 people with strokes & 1 heart attack. So I sure that must colour peoples decision making this time round, to not take any chances. Saying that Dr Freeman rang my this morning about something else & I used it as an opportunity to raise this ?. His comment is that the use of riba is really a bit of a hangover from the old days. To support this he pointed to an yet released report the largest to date of purely f3, f4’s all geno3 that showed not additional effect & if anything the people on riba did slightly worse, but that could be just the error margin.He did say he would be post this report on the site. So I am beginning to wonder.

Regards Angus

http://fixhepc.com/forum/gt3/369-gt3-high-svr-rates-with-daclatasvir.html

If you look at this post and the pdf you can see that for n=468 F3/F4 patients on Sof/Dac +/- Riba that for everyone who did 24 weeks the – Riba groups out performed the + Riba groups.

Based on this being the biggest trial and best evidence to date I would be going…..

Drugs (ribavirin), just say no.

Thats it finished with the Riba, no rescuing it this time.

G3a here as well
I was F3 from a pre tx biopsy in 2004
Due to my lifestyle since, I committed to 24 weeks sof/ dac and even contemplated Riba
However all blood tests indicate that I am not cirrhotic – FBC was normal, even good pre tx
For this reason, and other info on this site I decided not to go with the Riba

I did need to make the decision on ordering the next 12 weeks before my Fibroscan in January
As i showed virus undetected at week 4, I am going to wait and see my fibro results before deciding on how long to continue tx
At this stage i am considering 16 weeks rather than 24

It’s funny/ odd that I feel I have few, if any symptoms from the hep
But feel no better, actually feel worse, since being virus undetected
I feel quite down and, during exercise get out of breath in a different way than previous
Anyway, I’m keen to do tx for as few weeks as I can get away with
So I may have some weeks of sof/dac hanging around for anyone who wants to ‘top up’