Hep C - started treatment December 7th 2015 at 9am

Welcome to the hep forum, RoseAnn. I am very glad you found us!

You have read our stories and likely know many of our members here have successfully treated with Solvaldi/riba. Most have few, or no side effects. Especially those on the 12 week treatment plan.

A couple of tips for you. With ribavirin, try to eat something a little fatty with your pills. It doesn't need to be much. A couple of saltines with some nut butter or avocado. And drink 1/2 your body weight in oz. of water, per day. (100 lbs = 50 oz water, per day). This seems to help keep the sides away ;)

You are on your way to being cured! Keep in touch and again, welcome. Big Hugs

Thank you for the welcome. I started walking at least 2-3 miles every 2 or 3 days - just to keep body from getting tight. Also the water thing - yes I do drink a lot of water anyway. I have upped my intake. This is day 3. Feeling quite OK.

RoseAnn welcome to the forum!!! I hope you do well and beat this sneaky devil.. I took the treatment and had no sides.. hope this is how it goes for you also.. i don't know if i'm clear yet but odds are in my favor.. Any questions and i'm sure you will get response quickly here,, welcome again and smile!! things are getting better..

Glad to hear you are moving toward being cured. You will be done before you know it! Big Hugs

taking meds is kinda like throwing dice sometimes you win ..sometimes it bites, it all depends on your body;s acceptances of the med . I have survived two hits of cancer, a liver transplant and taken multiple meds. I have to take a immune depressant every day till..? and so far the worst thing has been i forget the darn pills LOL So relax.. you maybe??? LUCKY , if not i would ask for a new deck of cards!! like who wants a lousy deal? the truth is we all respond different..cross your fingers and toes.. remeber a funny thought helps.. !! think of your boss in a pink tutu.. laughter is the best medicine

RoseAnn Hi!! youyr feelings of a "haze" should pass, I had a few headaches at first and there were days I felt like I was so weak..but this only happened once in a blue moon and only lasted for about 2 hours. I sat down and rested during this time and i took tylenol(2 of them,extra strength) that seemed to help. I have to admit for the first week i took tylenol every morning and it helped. i asked the Doc if this was a bad idea and he said not to worry it is fine.. Have a good day and hopefully all your sides leave!!

RoseAnn I had issues with my darn nose also but they went away thank god!! lol hopefully you end up the same!1 Its a little annoyance though and we can handle it ,anything that kills hep-c i can take lol !!I have , psoriasis ,Celiac disease and had broken hip ,liver transplant,cancer twice yet beat everything so far so a few annoyances are nothing!! I have faith that your going to win ,have a great day and Smile

Much of my brain haze declined when I cut out foods high in ammonia. There is no at-home test for ammonia but the test for aquarium ammonia will give a pretty good indication of the quantity of ammonia in you urine. The norms are 2 ppm (parts per million) to 8 ppm (in blood) and the water test measure from 1 to 6 ppm. During my worse brain fog period my ammonia (urine) was so far off the chart I know I was probably 4 times higher than normal. If your liver still has normal function it may convert the ammonia from food and caused by bacteria normally in the digestive system to urea and brain functions won't be so affected.

The lab (blood) test for ammonia aren't that expensive even if you have to pay out of pocket.... so if you experience a lot of brain fog, confusion and agitation you may want to get tested.

If you want to know more about the effects of ammonia on the brain, osha has done a lot of research to determine safe levels of ammonia for workers to be exposed to. This research is online and it's worth reading. Ammonia is highly soluble in water... this causes nose to run and eventually it will start causing a lot of flim in your bronchial tubes and throat.

In one particular research OSHA (or whoever was running the test for them) took stray cats and exposed them to elevated levels of ammonia. The cats that simply inhaled it had fluid buildup in their bronchial tubes but recovered. The cats that were exposed to the same levels of ammonia through tubes leading directly into their lungs suffered permanent lung damage.


Here is a snip from the government osha web site:

Ammonia forms a strong alkaline solution in water, and the high solubility and strong alkalinity make it especially irritating to the upper respiratory system. Exposure to ammonia can occur not only from the vapor but also from the liquid and from concentrated aqueous solutions. Depending upon the exposure, symptoms can range from mild upper respiratory irritation to inflammatory processes of the entire respiratory tract with complications of pulmonary edema and bronchopneumonia.

Here's more from a medical website database

An important job of the liver is to make toxic substances in the body harmless. These can include substances made by the body as well things that you take in (such as medicines). However, when the liver is damaged, these "poisons" can build up in the bloodstream. Ammonia, which is produced by the body when proteins are digested, is one of the substances normally made harmless by the liver. Other toxins may also build up. These things can cause damage to the nervous system.

When liver damage occurs, hepatic encephalopathy may occur suddenly, even in people who have not had liver problems in the past. More often, the problem develops in people with chronic liver disease.

Hepatic encephalopathy may be triggered by:
•Dehydration
•Eating too much protein
•Electrolyte abnormalities (especially a decrease in potassium) from vomiting, or from treatments such as paracentesis or taking diuretics ("water pills")
•Bleeding from the intestines, stomach, or esophagus
•Infections
•Kidney problems
•Low oxygen levels in the body
(My note... remember the warning about hep c medicines... they destroy red blood cells.... the ones that carry oxygen)
•Shunt placement or complications
•Surgery
•Medicines that suppress the central nervous system (such as barbiturates or benzodiazepine tranquilizers)


...and there is a lot more info that I found helpful to deal with my brain fog. ....as always, your mileage may vary.

I don't think she posted here load count?

ooopps!!!
that was your count Tblount. sorry about that.

Good Luck...

Hugs,

Mama Lama

Feeling pretty good - my starting number was a little over 6 million
the blood work that was done was just a general blood test. Another blood text in 4 weeks that tells me if the number is going down.

I am just a little tired most of the time. Eyes dried out.

I am feeling "fat" this week - I overate during the holiday
I am getting ready to walk on the tread mill - going to walk about 2.5 miles

I hope anyone who reads this - will have a wonderful day or night.

Rose