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Posted 6/6/2006 1:01 AM (GMT 0)
 hi,iam, new to this site.just starting peg-interon june 8th.naturally worried about the many side effects i could get.iam wondering if anyone knows of anyone knows of any herbs that help to ease the side effects of the treatment.?i have learnt of many others ways but the more ways the better!! thanks clily
Posted 6/6/2006 7:23 AM (GMT 0)
Hi clily, You probably need expert advice about herbs. I take some for cirrhosis and autoimmune hepatitis but I wouldn't suggest the same for you. See a doctor who specialises in natural therapies.
I'm sure someone on the Forum will have had peg-interon. They can give you some advice about that.
In the meantime. Take care of yourself. Do things in moderation.
Hope the treatment works.
Marg
Posted 6/6/2006 1:12 PM (GMT 0)
 thanks  for your advice marg and good luck to you also
Posted 6/7/2006 10:41 AM (GMT 0)
Hi clily

I'm on pegatron. My 16th shot is coming up. Some side effects mostly at the beginning and then you have your 2 days after the shot aches and pains but motrin is wonderful for that.

any questions please lmk
hugs eileen
Posted 6/8/2006 7:13 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Clily,

about the herbs while on treatment.

I take herbs but NONE while I was on treatment.

I remember when my Mother was getting chemo for leukemia they
were very strong about NO herbs while on treatment.

Make sure your liver doctor OK everything you are taking.

Do you know your genotype.

Were you feeling sick from the hep c?

This is good plce for you to click into while you go through the process.

bucci
Posted 6/8/2006 7:49 PM (GMT 0)
thank you all for your replies.i,am starting treatment tonite this site has been very helpful in getting me ready.i,ve learnt alot. bucci i,am a geno type 1a.yeap lucky me.48 weeks.i actauly found out i had hep in the end of jan.i was in alot of pain between my ribs high .in doing routine blood work everytihng looked fine.but they decided to do an ultra-sound looking for stones ect.and found what they thought was hep.so they ran blood work for hep a,b, and c .i came back postive for hep c.my viral load was only 341,000.my doctors said the lower viral load do better with treatment or something like that.i,am 42.and not working at the present time.i have the insurance and well at least for today have the nerve. so i take my first shot in 5 hours wish me luck thanks clily
Posted 6/9/2006 1:01 AM (GMT 0)
Good luck clily,,my hubby has been taking interferon since the first friday of january,,,we find out next tues if it has put the hep b viral load down or not,,,,you can make it through this,,,,,,its not easy,but it seems you have a low viral load so you should be able to kick this:) take it easy,listen to your dr and listen to your own body and you ll do fine

trish

Posted 6/9/2006 8:59 PM (GMT 0)
trish thanks,i started yesterday.amazing enough i,am feeling ok today.i,am chalking it up as another day to get spirtualy,mentaly and phyiscaly(excuse my spelling) ready for this.i hope you and your husband get good news.clily
Posted 6/9/2006 10:28 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Clily,

They saw on an ultrasound that you had hep c ?

I had no idea they could do that? Was your liver inflamed?

Clily, if you spend some time surfing around into hep c web sites
and chat rooms you will get lot of good tips.

Wheatgrass is very powerful to help keep your blood up.

vitamin C

good luck
keep checkin in

bucci
Posted 6/9/2006 10:35 PM (GMT 0)
clily,

  glad ya first day is going well.  Make sure to eat properly when you can,and drink plenty of gatorade as the treatments make ya get dehydrated faster,,,,Im thinkin hubby wasnt too bad the first couple weeks other then no appetite and had a low grade fever,,,it seems after it started building up in his body is when the other side affects set in. Of course everyone is different,and you may not have many problems with the treatment.  take care and enjoy feeling good :)

trish

Posted 6/10/2006 1:38 PM (GMT 0)
hello,day three and still feeling fine.other than needing a motrin and some water this morning to cure a headache.they didn,t actually find the hep c foresay on the ultra-sound.it came back "hep like appearence"the docter had said at that point not to worry because lots of things could cause that. i had been feeling sick so she said it could be a number of things causing.it may not actually be hep.but we did need to run tests for hep A,B and C . and C came back positive.i was sick for about 10 days i thought i had some aweful bug. and who knows i may have.i. had a very tender spot high up in the middle between ribs.was sooo tired nausea didn,t eat and lost 9 pounds in 10 day..it was weird then i felt better.it could of also been because i was taking to much ultam for my back.its was acting up.i won,t take anything stronger.so i was doubling up which was the wrong thing to do because you aren,t suppose to take more than to of them a day.very bad on the liver.well maybe it was a blessing.i know i haven,t had it long at all a very short time.hopefully i can kick this.and if not  now maybe with other treatment.either way knowing i have this early on i,ll know i need to take proper care of my liver.clily
Posted 6/10/2006 9:22 PM (GMT 0)

Clilly, it does sound like you caught this early.  I suspect the 10 days of flu-like symptoms was the start of hep C.  I don't remember ever having those symptoms myself, but I have read that is how it feels.  Have they done a biopsy?  At the time I was diagnosed ('93) that is the only way they could determine if a person had acute hepatitis or chronic active hepatitis.  If you have contracted hep C but your immune system kicked it out, you would still be hep C positive on a blood test.  However, you would not need treatment.

Hugs,

Connie

Posted 6/10/2006 10:16 PM (GMT 0)
hi connie .i do know acute hep is kicked out of the body within 6 months. they did tell me it wasn,t acute.i,am not sure what tests they use.they did alot .i,am pretty happy with the hospital here in mass.my last test had been in the end of 2003 it was.negative. i have read the virus sometimes takes alittle longer to show up,if thats the case i may of been positive.but hard to tell now.who knows.i lived a safe and sober life since hand except for ONE DAY in may of  2005.i honestly believe i came in contact with the virus that day.clily 
Posted 6/11/2006 2:46 AM (GMT 0)
i think there is some blood test for chronic hep,though i get confused about hep blood results,,,,i had to be checked at 3 and then at 6 mths,and luckily my own body kicked out the hep b,but at 3 mths,it hadnt. i remember my dr saying something about...if it was hep c,they wouldve started treatments at 3 mths..because a better chance of kicking it.but with hep b,they felt it was better to wait for the 6 mth test, so im sure ya drs are doing the right thing for ya clily. also,my hubby tested positive on his first test for hep c,then had a more expensive,and more detailed test run which showed NO hep c..hed had a false positive on the first test.
trish
Posted 6/11/2006 12:31 PM (GMT 0)
yes connie,they took a test to check from anti-boties.then something esle and once that came out postive they took a seiries of other tests.i remeber asking them how they knew back in feb and they told me but i don,t rember now.i,ll ask again.thats great news about your husbands false-postive clily
Posted 6/11/2006 7:16 PM (GMT 0)
Clily, do you know how you contracted the virus?

bucci
Posted 6/11/2006 10:19 PM (GMT 0)
bucci i think so. ,i,am i addict in recovery i.v user.i had a two day relaspe in the month of may of 2005.i shared a needle.i,ll never know for sure but i believe thats how i got it.it,s a huge price to pay.but i stay postive in my recovery and learn from my experences ,i tell others about it in hopes it will have an impact on their decision about going back out there.














.
Posted 6/11/2006 11:10 PM (GMT 0)
geeze connie you got me wondering..i looked up online acute and cronic hep. its seem if you don,t kick it in 6 months it becomes cronic.i,am thinking there is no test!but as i said to bucci i was careless in may 2005.also i know it is a much less chance of catching it this way but i did live with 15 women  in sober living for 18 months prior to that .many of them did have hepc. from from june 2005 til now and when i found out i lived with mom and no risk behavoir  or envirment.but we just never know do we. clily
Posted 6/11/2006 11:22 PM (GMT 0)
Clily,

were you IV using prior to 2005?

bucci
Posted 6/12/2006 12:10 AM (GMT 0)
yes bucci, from 2001 to 2003 i struggled with it.in oct of 2003 i did have a test .i had gone to the doctors just two weeks after i had gotten clean for a regular check up and they had asked me if i had wanted them to test me then.i had come back negitive.now the thing is.it had only been acouple weeks.it normally does only take acouple weeks for a positive result to show up if you,ve been in contact with the visus right? but sometimes it could take little longer.but where my load is low (341,000)they feel may 2005 sounds more like it this test was taken in feb 2006 it had been 9 months.they said at that point that if the virus was going to clear its self that it would of all ready. they told me to stop racking my brian trying to come up with a answer because the how just doesn,t matter.i guess their right.
Posted 6/12/2006 6:40 AM (GMT 0)
Clily, it does sound like you are chronic. However, only a biopsy would be conclusive about whether it is active (meaning that it's attacking your liver.) I also was positive for hep B, but apparently my immune system kicked that out. I was told that I have the antibody for it, which means I will test positive, but I can never get it again or give it to anyone. With your shared needle experience in May '05, I think it's probable that you contracted the hep then.

But it really doesn't matter how we contracted hepatitis or cirrhosis or other liver disease--the bottom line is that we have it and have to treat it.

ETA:  It was Trish's husband who had the false positive.  I've had 2 husbands and don't care for another at this time.    yeah


Hugs,
Connie

Post Edited (hep93) : 6/12/2006 12:47:24 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 6/12/2006 4:04 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Clily
My reason for asking how, why and when was because I didn't know

I had the virus until 20yrs after I had shared needles. I didn't think people got
symptoms until that long after contact.

But since your post I am seeing in retrospect that I felt like I had the flu for

almost 10 yrs before I was diagnnosed 10 yrs ago. At that point I was flattened
out.

for information purposes I think all aspects of each persons scenario matters for
research and to help people put their own puzzles together.

thankyou for sharing, Clily. The fact that you did catch this early I think gives you
excellent chance of being able to tollerate medication.

One thing I know from experience and have heard others also is WHEATGRASS
really helps to keep blood strong.

keep checking in . we're all rooting for you and any new people are going to need
another trail to follow.

love
bucci
Posted 6/12/2006 8:02 PM (GMT 0)
ETA: It was Trish's husband who had the false positive. I've had 2 husbands and don't care for another at this time.

too funny connie lol not sure i shouldve cared for another hubby myself,but here i am! take care
trish
Posted 6/12/2006 10:29 PM (GMT 0)
Bucci and Clily, I had the same scenario. In my case, I didn't have symptoms (severe fatigue and elevated liver enzymes) until 25 years later!! I had been feeling really fatigued for 2 or 3 years before I was tested and biopsied. Of course, there was no specific blood test for hep C until around '92. It used to be known as non-A, non-B hepatitis.

Trish, the really amusing part is that I've had a monogomous relationship with my b.f. for 12 years now--longer that both marriages combined! You know what they say: If it ain't broke, don't fix it! :0

Hugs,
Connie
Posted 6/12/2006 11:32 PM (GMT 0)
Hello everyone....Just got back from the va hep clinic in atlanta and i was told i will be starting my pegasus treatments on july 14.. came home and started surfing for sites that people with hep c log into and found this site.. i had a lot of questions in mind before logging in, and once i did, and started reading all the responses most of my questions have been answered.. so, what i guess i really need or want from anyone interested is a support group like you guys. your input and experiences are very helpful and informative..i'm glad i found you...........hope to hear from some or all of you soon.........martin l
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