I’d like to thank you all for your kind words.
I don’t really think all that much about Hep C anymore. How quickly a life threatening situation transmutes into just something else that happened to me. I suppose it also has to do with how insidious this disease is. You can have it for 30 years without it really bothering you. Even when the chronic fatigue sets in, you tell yourself that you’ll probably last another 30 years, just because the first 30 were easy.
This isn’t really the case! I’ve lost 2 friends who had Hep C who didn’t make it. Both of them thought time was on their side. I tried very hard to impart some sense of urgency about receiving treatment, yet for some inexplicable reason, they just couldn’t or didn’t want to, take the step. So they died.
The trouble is, once you start getting sick, you end up in a negative spiral. Soon you don’t have energy enough to remain active, then you find your diet suffering and then the effects start to compound. The Hep C may be gone, but that doesn’t mean that everything reverts back to normal (whatever that is) once you have cleared the disease, but compared to one year ago, the quality of my life has improved enormously. The improvement wasn’t instantaneous though. whilst in my weakened state, I had contracted Ross River virus and then Rickettsia, both of which knocked me around a bit. I suspect that I would not have contracted these diseases so easily if my overall condition had been better, the point being that it’s not only the Hep C that can cause you distress. I suppose I’m lucky that it wasn’t some form of cancer, which often attacks Hep C sufferers.
People have thanked me for helping pave the way so that others could follow. While I am quite proud of my role in all of this, I have to point out that I did it for myself. It was what you might term, an act of self love. I’ve had plenty of time to ponder this and it strikes me that paradoxically, I’ve had far more success helping others when I put myself first, than I’ve had trying to help others through selfless acts. I’ve often lamented that, when trying to help others ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. Maybe some of you know what I’m talking about.
The message I’m trying to impart, is that if you have Hep C, do something about it now! Whatever excuse you have for not putting yourself first is delusional. My hope is that some of the procrastinators will heed my message. Good luck!