Had to check where you were at because I thought you were waiting for meds to arrive but I’ve confused you with someone else, dointime.

Uh! What is going on in the UK? I’ve posted a bit on a UK forum. I thought it was bad here but the UK seems to be in the dark ages on this stuff. They still seem to be prescribing interferon combos at a furious rate. What’s up with that? Yesterday’s drug AFAIC.

I’m in Tassie and happy to extend the same offer as emilio. You can come stay here if you want. Plenty of room. TBH I have a bit of a kind of “survivor guilt” over all this. Doesn’t feel right that I can get on with the rest of my life while others hang in limbo or worse.

The initial resistance to people going with generics has pretty much disappeared here. I’m being monitored through the local public hospital (I think they’re actually finding it quite helpful to be getting lots of experience with people on the new drugs before they finally get funded). Apparently even BMS who supplied my Dac under compassionate access know people are getting the Sof from India and China and no longer care. Although I think that’s largely because they’re being cut out of the action by Gilead’s pricing.

Hi all,

I’m on day 20 of treatment with Greg’s Indian Sof/RIBA and Dac (compassionate access from RHH and thanks BMS!) I think the doc added the RIBA as a bit of insurance. I’m F3/4 (probably closer to F 3 because good platelets and albumin) and GT1b.

Can’t say I have any side effects so far. In the first few days, I had a few very, very vague things that might have been due to the drugs but were so mild and barely perceptible that I decided I couldn’t classify them as side effects. Started off keeping a treatment diary but abandoned it because I simply haven’t had anything to write in it. Of course, I realise this doesn’t mean things will continue this way.

The healing effects have been dramatic though, especially in the last week. Energy that I haven’t felt in years and less muscle and joint stiffness in particular. My mood is actually up, possibly because of the change in my energy levels.

I was talking to the hep nurse at RHH yesterday and this response is typical. Interestingly, if I understood her correctly, she said they’re starting to think a lot of the Ribavirin side effects might be mostly associated with taking it with interferon. Apparently those who have experienced side effects report mostly sleeplessness, headache and nausea and they now think this could actually be due to the Sof and not Riba.

Had LFTs and FBC done last Thursday. Everything within normal limits.

Hope you have as little to report as I do about bad side effects, emilio.