I took my last generic SOF + DCV tablets today. I’ll start my journey along the road to SVR tomorrow. I’m hoping for a trouble free trip, with plans to purr along at cruising speed, and take plenty of rest stops along the way. If the next 3 months go by as quick as the last 3 months, I’ll be as happy as a teenager in a souped-up VW Beetle with a Porsche badge glued to its boot & bonnet (trunk & hood).

The last 2 weeks of my treatment have been a bit of a bumpy ride. I didn’t do any exercise during the second last week, and started to feel worse after 3 days. After a week of no exercise, I was lethargic, started getting headaches, and was feeling flat as a tack in general. I thought resting would reinvigorate me, but it had the opposite effect. Thankfully, the funny feeling (tightness) in my chest/heart went away during this time, which was a relief, but my fasting blood glucose increased back up to the high 6s.

I started exercising again during the last week, at random times whenever I had the energy, and started to feel better again after a couple of days. The headaches stopped. I put this down to drinking more water while exercising. It’s an easy way to make sure you drink plenty of water during winter. Now I’m feeling a lot better. The moral of the story is to do regular moderate exercise, but don’t overdo it.

Over the 12 weeks of treatment I have lost just over 7kg, mainly around my mid drift. I’m very happy about not having a “beer gut” anymore. The upside is the “’We aim to please, you aim too please” sign in the toilet is no longer needed, now that I’ve got line of sight. The downside is, after dinner while lying back in my recliner watching the nightly news, I no longer have a convenient spot to rest my coffee mug.

Over the next 4 weeks, I will slowly increase my exercise routine and closely monitor my fasting blood glucose. If it has not significantly improved during this time, I will get the necessary test done to obtain a prescription for metformin. I may simply be predisposed to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and HCV may have brought my T2D progression forward by a decade or two. Time will tell.

The wealth of information on this forum has answered all my questions that I ever have had about HCV and its treatment, questions that I would never have had time to ask, or even had thought about asking, while having a face to face consultation with a medical professional. The daily input by Dr Freeman, the FixHepC team, the moderators, and other forum members sharing their experiences, helped to keep my treatment on track, kept me updated on HCV treatment developments, and gave me solace that I’m not the only one going through this. Thanks to you all.

I recommend to any HCV sufferer, who has had trouble accessing HCV treatment or has failed past treatment, to join this forum and start their generic HCV treatment. It’ll probably turn out to be the best decision about your health that you have ever made. Do yourself a favour, and hop to it.

As the sun slowly goes down on my last day of treatment, I’ll leave you with the below sunset at Cable Beach, Western Australia. I have a near identical photo like this of my silhouette while I was fishing at Cable Beach as the sun kissed the Indian Ocean. I’ll dig it up and post it for my SVR12, if I get there, as it reminds me of good times in the past and gives me hope of good times in the future.

Wishing everyone HCV RNA Undies from Down Under

GT2