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Interferon treatments for Hep-C

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Posted 7/4/2013 2:35 PM (GMT 0)
My boyfriend started interferon treatments 6 mos ago. He would get very sick right after he gave himself a shot on Mondays and would rally on Thursdays. that was for the first month or so. After that he would be sick most of the time. Between vomiting and diarrhea he had to be near a restroom all of the time. He had blood work every 2 weeks and the Hep-C was undetectable after 6 weeks. He was put on the transplant list about six weeks ago. The Dr kept giving him different meds for the vomitting and diarrhea. Some helped at first but not for long. This past Thursday he went to have an MRI and had an appt. with the liver transplant doctor. He was told that everything looked good concerning his blood work, no sign of the hep-C and they're moving forward with the transplant. The next day he became very ill, muscle aches, cold chills and unable to keep anything down. I tried to get him to go to the ER on Saturday but he refused and insisted that the doctor told him this was normal. Sunday morning I found him dead in his bed. I have so many questions but haven't heard back from his doctors. Has anyone else experienced this?
Posted 7/4/2013 2:54 PM (GMT 0)
Christianne,

  Oh my god.  I am so so sorry for your loss.  What a horrible shock for you.  My heart goes out to you.  Can't imagine what it feels like to lose him in such a way.  Oh, Christianne, am thinking about you today and send my condolences.  I sure can understand having many many questions.  There are lots of supportive, informed and experienced people on this forum regarding hep c and liver disease.

  There is also a thread called "surviving the losses one day at a time" where those of us who lost our loved ones to liver disease post.  Feel free to post there too.

  More folks will respond to your question, "has anyone heard of this?" I just wanted to express my sympathy.  Keep posting here, it really helps figure out what happened and helps with the grieving.

Angie1953

 (Lost my husband of 16 years to Hep C/liver disease 4 1/2 months ago.)

Posted 7/4/2013 5:58 PM (GMT 0)
Christianne, I am so very sorry for your loss. I am glad you found us. What a shock. There is a thread here entitled Surving the Losses...one day at a time. You will find a lot of support there.

I imagine you do have many questions. What was listed as the cause of death? It is suspicious to me that he was sick all the time after a certain point in treatment. He may have had something that they missed. Interferon lowers the immune system, so it would've been easy for him to pick up a bacteria. Or it could've been a heart attack, due to the stress of treatment, both physical and emotional. I do hope you find out the cause of death, to help ease all those questions you have.

Again, my condolences on your loss.

Hugs,
Connie
Posted 7/4/2013 7:34 PM (GMT 0)
Christianne,

I am so sorry, what a shock.

How could this happen?

I got to thinking though. The Interferon plus other drugs or drugs is a really rough kind of "chemo" type treatment. It messes the patients up really badly.

HOWEVER, if a patient is Hep C free at transplant, their chance of a long happy life is MUCH BETTER than someone who needs a transplant before the virus is cleared.

Mike was too sick for treatment ,had failed a treatment in 2003, not clearing the virus, so he had his transplant in 2011 and has Hep C back again. His viral load is over 6 million, so it has been working on his nice new liver. He needs a treatment to gain extra time. BUT, he knows that the Intereferon is really rough and he hasn't been 100% since transplant (problems with heart and kidneys) and so they wait.

It is a balancing game.

Evidently they wanted to give your boyfriend a real chance with a new liver and no Hepatitis.

I am sooooo sorry this has turned into a disaster.

I hope others have some ideas to add.

Hugs,
Mama Lama
Posted 7/4/2013 10:28 PM (GMT 0)
Three months after finishing my interferon/ribavirin therapy, I had a cerebral hemorrhage that almost killed me. There's no way to know if it was caused by the treatment, a small blood vessel that was defective, or a combination of both. Sorry for your loss.
Posted 7/5/2013 1:26 PM (GMT 0)
Very sorry for sudden loss .

Hope you find peace when all is said and done.

Hugs
Posted 7/5/2013 4:27 PM (GMT 0)
I am so sorry to hear about your sudden loss.
Posted 7/6/2013 1:57 AM (GMT 0)
I am so very sorry and saddened to hear this. My heart goes out to you.
Big hugs and deepest sympathy. Themiz
Posted 7/11/2013 1:28 AM (GMT 0)
so sorry for your loss.. when you had so much hope going..

Sandia
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